From the mainland, the psychedelic Ferris Wheel on the Wildwood boardwalk is clearly visible at night across a dark stretch of bay and marsh, flashing through a series of twirling patterns. From the top of that Ferris Wheel, gently swinging in a cage, you look down on Mariner's Landing, a pier insanely jammed with amusement rides and a water park. Yet, it will be strangely quiet in your perch, and you might believe that you are in the most perfect of worlds at that moment, because Mariner's Landing is at the junction of Boardwalk and Schellenger Avenue, one of this world's magical intersections on any August night.
The cloistered nuns are furious,
a man has bought the land
next to their convent
for his new office building
with third story windows.
Their convent garden wall
is only two stories high.
George Steinbrenner, a towering and intimidating figure who dominated the New York sports scene for 35 years, winning 11 American League pennants and seven world championships as owner of the Yankees, died Tuesday morning in Tampa after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 80.
"The Boss" - as he was so aptly named by his longtime antagonist, Daily News columnist Mike Lupica - died at around 6:30 a.m., barely a week after his Fourth of July birthday.
At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon -- nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation's passage -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray."
It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads -- but without his vote, Democrats wouldn't have the 60 they needed.
Dana Milbank, Washington Post
ANDERSON, S.C. — Friends of a 39-year-old South Carolina man are trying to figure out why he never reached out for help before dying broke and alone in a zipped-up tent on the banks of a lake.
Bright but reclusive Civil War buff David Condon lost his job at a local museum and fell behind on his rent.
Sometime in early July he disappeared. On Labor Day weekend, a group of college kids vacationing at a condo complex a few hundred yards from his tent peeked inside and found his body. The local coroner says he died of pneumonia, made worse by malnutrition. He was dehydrated and had lost 50 pounds in a few months.
His best friend, Craig Drennon, saw no sign Condon was having money problems or spiraling into despair when the two got together nearly every week to drink beers and play backgammon.
Located near the ocean in Manasquan NJ, the cool, shady, tropical interior of The Osprey has long tempted vacationing parents to tell their kids, "You go on ahead to the beach, we'll be along in a few minutes." After a rainy June & surprising mild July (the Northwest got our scorchers), steamy summer has arrived in New Jersey.
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This weekend is the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, a mix of music, mud, magic, marijuana & madness that has taken on mythic qualities in the memories of those who were there, stuck in traffic jams trying to get there, or wish they had been there. We can see now it was the end of am era, a farewell to the Sixties. But every generation since then has had its Woodstock kids; tie dyes & peace signs never go completely out of fashion. My local 7/11 has cheap peace sign jewelry by the cash register, & it's selling. Do you wish you had been at Woodstock? Ever been to a big rock festival?
Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University; Grand Central Publishing; 2009.
"What would happen if a student at one of America’s most secular colleges spent a semester at Reverend Jerry Falwell’s "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals?
"The Unlikely Disciple answers that question, following Brown University sophomore Kevin Roose during his semester as a new transfer student at Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical Christian college."
Publisher's blurb
Boardwalk food, or carnival or county fair food, seeking out noses & growling stomachs. What do we have here? Sausage & peppers, cheesesteaks, burgers, mozzarella sticks, meatball subs, spicy wings, hot dogs, sweet potato fries, fried Oreos, funnel cake, fried shrimp, & I see a pretzel display. "Any coffee?" "Yeah," says the guy in the greasy apron, "Made it myself 8 hours ago."
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Mark Twain
Father's Day wasn't much of a deal in my house as a kid. It probably went almost entirely unnoticed. But if we'd thought about it, the best gift simply would've been not to bug our dad for an entire Sunday. Or even better, hung out at our friends' houses for once.
