SPORTING CLAYS  TOURNAMENT  AND MUCH MORE   

For the better part of a decade, the Annual Andrew H. Campbell Memorial Sporting Clays Tournament has been a winning fundraiser for the Trinitas Health Foundation, and it gets better year after year. You can a part of the eighth year of this multi-faceted event that takes place on Thursday, June 16 at Hudson Farm Club in  Andover, a woodland gem set in the rolling hills of Sussex County in beautiful northwest New Jersey. For outdoorsy types, clay shooting and nature photography have natural appeal. If being indoors is more to your liking, you can be pampered and rejuvenated in a relaxing spa experience at Salon International in nearby Sparta. The day includes a delicious Pig Roast Luncheon. Whatever your interest, this event fits the bill while raising money for the Trinitas Palliative Care Department. If any of these activities sound like your kind of day, contact the Trinitas Health Foundation at (908) 994-8249 or Laura Ciraco at lciraco@trinitas.org or register online at https://events.hud-sonfarmnj.com/trinitas/. The gift of tickets purchased for this event might earn you high points with your Dad or Grad!

ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE? 

If you have visited the main campus of Trinitas Regional Medical Center lately, you’ve probably noticed the construction happening in and around our Emergency Department. We are currently in the middle of an $18.7 million expansion and renovation of our ED, almost doubling its size and capacity and improving patient comfort, privacy and satisfaction.

In April we completed Phase I of the project, which included constructing brand new waiting areas and a dedicated advanced imaging suite. We are now well into Phase II, which includes brand new geriatric, behavioral health, fast track and pediatric areas. In December Phase III will commence, providing a beautiful cosmetic renovation to the rest of the department. With the project progressing on time and on budget, we are very happy to say we are on track to unveil a brand new ED in 2017.

We recently received some very exciting news about the campaign: The JC Kellogg Foundation has awarded us a $4 million challenge grant, meaning that all gifts over the next three years will be matched dollar-for-dollar until we finish the campaign! This is a wonderful time to support this very important project and double the value of your gift.

Please accept the challenge and make a gift today! Your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the JC Kellogg Foundation, and will help us create a bigger, better and state-of-the-art ED for all of our patients!

To make a gift to the Emergency Department Capital Campaign, please contact Nadine Brechner at nbrechner@trinitas.org or Rob Eccles at reccles@trinitas.org or call the Foundation office at (908) 994-8249

Researching your ancestors?  Be careful…you just might find what you’re looking for.

By Mark Stewart

My college-age daughter’s curiosity got the better of her one day. She spit into a plastic tube and sent it off to Ancestry.com for genetic analysis. The results were almost exactly what we expected. No exotic forebears. No mystery genes. No colors of Benetton. For better or worse, she is pretty much what you would have called “American” more than a century ago.  

Perhaps hoping to find something more scandalous, my daughter invited my wife and I to take the spit test, too. Back in junior high, I daydreamed through Biology, but I paid enough attention in Math class to know that our genetic results would not be any more revealing than hers.

But we did the spit test, anyway. While waiting for the results, I took a closer look at the Ancestry.com web site. I was impressed by the number of family-research documents available, as well as the program’s ease of use, and the constantly churning algorithms that relentlessly pump out little green leaves, which hold potential clues to the next generation and the next and the next and the next. We decided to take the plunge and attempt to separate family fact from family fiction.

Upper Case Editorial

In both of our cases, a certain amount of family lore has been passed down to us through a combination of old-school genealogical record-keeping and oral tradition. For instance, we knew that a branch of my wife’s family came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1600s. One unlucky member of that clan failed to convince a jury that he was not a witch. (His genetic line ended on another kind of branch, at the end of a rope.) As a boy, I was informed that one of my 17th century Massachusetts relatives was accused of being a witch, too. He must have had the same lawyer, because he was squashed under a large rock. Did one of my un-squashed ancestors know one of my wife’s un-hung ones? They seemed to be moving in the same circles, and almost certainly interacted at some point, perhaps even at one of these executions. As they used to say in Old Salem, nothing beats a good tree-hangin’ like a good rock-squashin’.

My parents gave me two interesting lines to follow. My mother was Jewish and my father was Unitarian. Unitarians are like honorary Jews in that they are constantly debating the fine points of their religion and are (at least in my experience) prone to unfathomable interior decorating choices. The Jewish half of my family came to America from Russia and Germany in the 1870s and 1880s. They got into finance, journalism and shirt-making. For the better part of a century, each branch aggressively pitched their profession to the young up-and-comers in the family—sort of like a reverse Shark Tank—hoping you would choose a fulfilling career at the bank, at the newspaper or in the sweatshop. I actually picked the bank first. The fact that I edit this magazine tells you what kind of a banker they thought I would make. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I guess I was foreclosed on. I was able to trace my mother’s people four generations to eastern Russia, where any further evidence of their lineage abruptly ended.

One of my father’s ancestors, however, left us a genealogical treasure trove. Starting sometime back in the 1800s, a maiden aunt began her own primitive version of Ancestry.com, writing to various family members and church parishes to compile information on her particular branch of the family. When she passed away in the 1930s, she dumped a trunk full of these documents on a bachelor uncle, who proceeded to write a family history, which he printed up and distributed to his siblings, cousins and nephews. Uncle Alex’s work focused on his own specific branch of the family, which was fortunate because, as we would discover, this was by far the coolest group. He also constructed a tree that traced several family lines back to England and Scotland, by way of Massachusetts. 

CONVERGENCE

Given that England-to-Massachusetts also was the historical migration route of my wife’s family, we embarked on our genealogical journey suspecting—no, hoping really—that our family lines would cross in some long-ago time and place. The farther back in time the better, of course. I mean, we’re not hillbillies, right? Anyway, as we each worked backwards into the 1500s and 1400s and 1300s, it felt a lot like one of those old SAT word problems where two cars are driving towards each other and you have to figure where they meet. 

One of the first to-do items on my wife’s bucket list was to nail down the particulars on four famous relatives: Morgan the Pirate, George Washington and Ralph Waldo Emerson. My daughter’s middle name is Morgan, in honor of Henry Morgan, a ruthless 16th century English privateer whose image now graces millions of bottles of mid-price spiced rum. Do we pull down any royalties from this family association? No. Which is probably why we are Scotch drinkers. The GW connection is through the Martha Custis family. George was Martha’s second husband, so the line theoretically branches off at that point. Our first president was sterile, having survived small pox as a young man, so he and the first First Lady never produced any offspring. Interestingly, my in-laws actually own a letter penned by Washington along with a lock of his hair. Receiving a lock of hair was like getting a signed, game-used baseball uniform back in the old days, so it’s pretty special.  I recently met an antique collector who owns a beautifully preserved lock of Martha Washington’s hair. This sent me straight to the Internet to see where we are on this whole cloning thing. Apparently we’re not there yet, but check in with me 20 years down the road if you want a kid who’s handy with an axe, mostly tells the truth, and who can use a dollar bill as ID at the airport.

Upper Case Editorial

Unfortunately, our initial foray into the Ancestry.com process didn’t shed light either way on these two connections. As for the Waldos, however, my wife hit the jackpot. The poet Emerson (right), it turns out, was indeed a cousin. His line branched off several generations ago, but the Waldo men who preceded him—Jonathan, Zacheriah, Daniel, Cornelius, Thomas, and Pieter—stretched all the way back to the 1500s. Jonathan had the good sense to marry a woman named Abigail Whittemore in 1757. Her mother, also Abigail, had a great-great-great grandmother named Jane Payne, who was born in Kent, England more than 200 years earlier. In terms of record-keeping, the Payne family was what every genealogist hopes to find. The underlying truth of genealogy is that, if one goes back far enough, one is almost guaranteed to find a prominent ancestor— someone clever, rich and fertile enough to dodge the kind of awful Upper Case Editorial fate that extinguishes a family line. The very fact that you exist and are reading this article means that none of your ancestors died a childless, anonymous death. You are almost certainly descended from a person of means and influence…a duke, a lord, a princess, a baroness, or even a king and queen; the trick is finding the paper trail to prove it. In our case, it was the Paynes. The royal Paynes. 

We picked through the birth and death information of the Payne family until we arrived at Sir Thomas IV. He lived and died between 1245 and 1288 in Bosworth, an important medieval market town in Leicestershire, a county in the Midlands region of England. Thomas’s wife was Mary Avis, three years his junior. They were my wife’s 21st great-grandfather and –grandmother. By 13th century standards, they were unquestionably people of considerable wealth and power, as were their progeny across many centuries. As we were marveling at the persistence of the Payne line, I recalled stumbling across a Phoebe Payne in my own family tree. Phoebe, my ninth great-grandmother, was born in Suffolk England in 1594, married a man named John Page when she was 27, and set sail to America a few years later. She lived to the age of 83, spending her final days in Watertown, Massachusetts. Could this be the same Payne family?

Upper Case Editorial

Lo and behold, I worked it out that Phoebe’s third great-grandfather, Thomas Paine, was a knight who lived in Market Bosworth in the 1400s. Going back a bit further, the family was apparently using the y form of Payne and Bingo! I landed on the aforementioned Thomas and Mary Payne. It took more than 20 generations, but the family that Tom and Mary launched into the world unwittingly curved back on itself when my wife and I tied the knot in 1987. Note to self: see if anyone owns the url www.lncestry.com.

Now joined in our ancestor search, my wife and I pushed back in time to see where the Payne family line led us. The root of the very English-sounding Paine and Payne, we learned, was actually French: Payns, the name of a small town about 100 miles southeast of Paris, which was called Payen in the Middle Ages. To an old European History major, that town rang a bell. Sure enough, our superstar common ancestor was Hughes de Payen (left), the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. 

GAME OF THRONES

Well, you can’t do much better than Hughes de Payen, but we tried. Another branch of my family led to the Frankish king Hugh Capet, who was descended from Charlemagne. That sounds impressive until you do the math and realize that there are probably millions of people walking the planet who are descended from Charlemagne. Including every French person I have ever met. Yet another led to Berengar II, King of Italy from 950 to 961. His reign got off to a decent start but quickly went downhill after he got the bright idea to attack the Papal States. This did not sit well with Otto of Germany, the Holy Roman Emperor, who scooped up Berengar and his wife and threw them in jail, where they died four years later. I dropped the “Italian King” thing on the owner of our local pizza joint. I figured it might be good for a free topping or soda refill. No such luck

Upper Case Editorial

My family’s French connection had a better payoff. They apparently did quite well during what we call the Dark Ages, occupying important regional positions and holding enough land and money to finance small personal armies (a key to survival during those violent times). How this happened became clear when I began encountering titles like Senator and Prefect in front of their names. They were descended from politicians who held power in the province of Gaul during the death throes of the Roman Empire. Tracing the family back further, I discovered three actual emperors in my line- Activus, Gordian III and Gordian I—none of whom was particularly memorable. “GIII” as we now call Gordian III (above), was notable for his age. He was just 13 when he assumed full legal control of the empire in 239 AD. Since most 13-year-olds think they’re smarter than everyone else, I’m sure he did a fine job. GIII was married at 16 and at age 18 led his army to victory over the Persians in Mesopotamia at the Battle of Resaena. Alas, like most teenagers, he became convinced of his own invincibility and was defeated a year later when he pushed his luck by trying to grab more territory. The Romans lost the Battle of Misiche and young Gordian was either killed in the fight or murdered by his own officers

My wife had some interesting characters populating the non-French branches of her tree. Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and (briefly) Norway, was supposedly the first Scandinavian ruler to convert to Christianity. An earlier Norse ancestor, the famed Ragnar Lodbrok, is the inspiration for the popular cable series Vikings. We actually stumbled upon this genetic link shortly after watching the latest episode of the series, which stars Travis Fimmel, the Australian fashion model turned actor. According to legend, Ragnar was the warrior who led the Vikings into England and Europe, and possibly into the Mediterranean. Spoiler alert for series fans: The real Ragnar died in a pit of serpents. Yikes!

UHTRED VS. MALCOLM

In all of our genealogical research, the moment that generated by far the most excitement was the discovery that our families had first intersected 1,010 years ago. One of my more intriguing ancestors—and certainly the one with the best name—was Malcolm the Destroyer, King of Scotland. After assuming the throne in 1006, he launched a crech rig (translation: royal prey) on his Northumbrian neighbors. It was Scottish tradition at the time for newly crowned monarchs to attack their nearest weak neighbor. Malcolm picked on the newly founded city of Durham, which appeared to be defenseless. King Ethelred’s English army was occupied to the south fending off Danish raids. In his absence, my wife’s ancestor, a Northumbrian teenager named Uhtred, raised a ragtag force of fighting men from his neighbors in Bernicia and York and stunned the Scots on the battlefield—driving Malcolm back home with heavy losses. From that day forward, he was known as Uhtred the Bold. Uhtred’s reward for service to the king was the hand in marriage of his daughter, the radiant Princess Aelgifu. 

The echoes of Uhtred’s achievement still resonate in the Stewart home. And by “echoes” I mean that my wife and daughters now remind me of this battlefield humiliation at the slightest of transgressions. Did you feed the cats, Malcolm? Did you pay the cable bill, Malcolm? Are those your socks on the floor, Malcolm? Who left the seat up, Malcolm? 

After a thousand-plus years, you’d think maybe they could let it go. But if I’ve learned anything during this journey it is that, deep down, each of us is a product of our ancestors—good, bad and otherwise. 

Somewhere up there, Uhtred the Bold is smiling. And Aelgifu is asking who left the seat up. 

Upper Case Editorial

KNIGHT MOVES

Thanks primarily to the History Channel, the Knights Templar have become a hot topic in recent years. They were a sophisticated and wealthy religious military order that flourished during the Crusades. They built forts across Europe and the Holy Land, earning a reputation as a formidable fighting force and also establishing one of Europe’s earliest banking systems. After Jerusalem was lost, the Templars fell out of favor with the Catholic Church. Philip IV King of France, deeply in debt to the Templars, used this as an excuse to erase his debt by hunting the knights down and executing them as heretics. Through torture, he hoped to discover where their fortune was housed, but none of the Templars talked. Treasure hunters are still trying to find it today. Some believe it includes the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper, i.e. the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend. By the way, Philip launched his attack on the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307—which some believe is the reason Friday the 13th is considered “unlucky.”

Editor’s Note: One of our more entertaining Ancestry.com finds was that my wife is descended from Penelope Stout, who was famously tomahawked by natives and left for dead after her ship ran aground at Sandy Hook in 1643. She survived the ordeal, had 10 children, and one of her descendants, Betsy Stout, married the author of the golf story on page 59. Betsy’s mother sold us our house. Small world. 

The talent pool in New Jersey runs deep.

By Gerry Strauss

Bruce. Shaq. Meryl. Brooke. Frank. Can any other state match New Jersey’s output of celebrities for whom “one name” says it all? More than anything, it’s a reflection of the talent pool this state produces year in and year out. There’s a little alchemy in play here—what propels young New Jerseyans toward the stratosphere is a curious combination of attitude, style and competitive spirit…and probably proximity to New York. The brass ring, as they say, is right there for the grabbing.

Who might be the Garden State’s next claim to fame? That, of course, is anyone’s guess. I checked in with five up-and-comers with New Jersey roots to understand a little better where they’ve come from…and how far they’re likely to go.

Photo by Justin Higuchi

Christina Grimmie

Singer

Five years before you blew people away on national television, you were a bona fide YouTube sensation. How did that go down?

It was never a planned thing. It wasn’t even something that I thought could ever blow up, because at the time I had no idea that YouTube had that kind of power. I was trying to make people happy by doing their requests. Someone would be like, “Oh, sing ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyoncé” and I’d just go ahead and do it.

What did your high finish on The Voice in 2014 do for your career?

I feel like people didn’t take me as seriously when I was just the “YouTube girl.” The Voice took me to a different level. As an artist and a performer, I learned so much. You get thrown on stage singing for a bunch of stars on national television, and you have to adapt and force yourself to learn how to perform under those conditions.

Where do you see your career headed from here?

I want to inspire people with a unique sound. I want to inspire people with my voice. I want to keep getting out music for people that want music from me. My life’s plan is really just to keep making music, no matter what.

Did You Know?

Christina, a native of Marlton, finished third on Season 6 of The Voice. In the live finale, she performed a duet with Adam Levine and sang the Elvis Presley hit “Can’t Help Falling In Love.”

Alyssa Campanella

Fashion Blogger 

Where did you first develop your sense of style?

I think it began from playing in my mom’s closet and reading her fashion magazines after she was done with them. I would borrow her clothes a lot…and sometimes never return them.

What were you like as a kid growing up in Manalapan?

I was a big, dorky homebody as a child. My backyard was a forest. Directly across the street was a big farm. If I wasn’t at school or with the drama club, I was at home with my nose in a book.

It was quite a leap from there to winning the Miss USA pageant in 2011.

Shortly after the crown was placed on my head and I started to walk the runway, my first thought was, “Everything is about to change.”

What was the most dramatic change?

I got to travel the world—to Brazil, the Bahamas, Canada, Monaco, France, and Germany. But I also changed a little after every charity appearance. For instance, I learned a lot about my own body while working for a few breast cancer awareness organizations.

Your fashion blog, the-A-List-blog.com has become a hit. What does it take to make that happen every day?

On the days that I am home, I wake up early and have breakfast before sitting at my desk to respond to emails. I then get dressed and begin to work on my next blog post, making sure all the links connect to the right web sites and all the images are clear and aligned properly. Sometimes, I’ll know right away what I want to talk about in my blog post. There are also days where I really have to think about what I want to say. Lunchtime is usually meeting time, since I always feel everyone is happier if there’s food. In the evenings, I tend to browse online for new trends and new products.

Did You Know?

Alyssa was the first runner-up in the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant. The third runner-up, Caite Upton, earned everlasting fame for her rambling explanation of why one in five Americans couldn’t find their own country on a world map.

Stearns Matthews

Cabaret Singer

Your work has a timeless quality to it. Do you consider yourself an old soul?

I don’t know if I’d call myself an old soul, necessarily, but I do sometimes find myself feeling like I was born a couple decades too late. I love music that existed before I did.

Where did you develop a love for cabaret performing?

I grew up in Morris County and was very close with a woman named Patty Montano. Patty taught cabaret classes for high school kids—which I took—and also for younger kids, whom I accompanied on piano. We had showcases at Don’t Tell Mama in New York, and that was my first experience singing in a club. I learned a ton from Patty, who passed in 2005. I still think of her whenever I step onto a cabaret stage.

You were a Music Theater major at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. What’s the most important thing you learned there?

A respect for the music on the page. An actor respects the punctuation a playwright puts into the text because the playwright obviously made decisions about where to put it for a reason. Music is the same way. Every detail is a little gift from the songwriter to the performer, and should be honored.

Do you feel this area offered the opportunities you needed to grow as a performer?

Definitely! My family moved from central Connecticut when I was 12. I often think how different my life and career would have been if we’d stayed there. The resources I had access to as a teenager and young adult living within an hour of New York City were invaluable. I’m definitely one of the lucky ones for living here.

Did You Know?

Stearns won Best Male Vocalist at the 2015 Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (aka MAC) Awards. If you buy his critically acclaimed CD Spark from stearnsmatthews.com, mention EDGE and he’ll sign it for you.

Daria Berenato

The Jersey Devil

How did you get involved in Mixed Martial Arts?

I was a lifelong athlete, playing everything from lacrosse, basketball, track and soccer until my sophomore year at Seneca High School in Tabernacle. I decided to be more social and take some time off. Boy, was that a mistake! I missed being competitive and knew I had to find something to fill that void. I walked into a gym called Liberty Boxing and said, “I want to be an MMA fighter.” From that day on I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

What do people in your sport say when they find out you’re from Jersey?

They hear New Jersey and they think “city.” Well, I grew up in the beautiful Pine Barrens of South Jersey. My weekends consisted of riding my quad, going mudding in the woods, or just hanging out by a bonfire with my friends and family enjoying the outdoors. It was simple living, really.

You’ve fought inside the MMA cage, hosted TV shows, and are now pursuing a career with World Wrestling Entertainment. Is it challenging to juggle so many career paths?

I do wear a couple of hats. But in a strange way, they are very similar. They revolve around my love for entertaining people and competing. The day of my high school graduation I packed my car up and drove to Florida to continue my MMA training. Then I moved back to the northeast, produced a couple movies, and finally set my eyes on L.A.—which is where I began hosting my UFC Afterbuzz show. Acting and TV production were always interests of mine. I was always the class clown, always the one trying to make people laugh or do something crazy. So hosting came pretty naturally to me and it’s definitely something I love doing.

What is your ultimate goal?

Just to live it with no boundaries, no restrictions. I’m one of those people who truly believes anything is possible. Whether I’m fighting MMA, performing in the WWE, or hosting a TV show, I don’t believe there is a way you can ever “do it all.”

Did You Know?

Daria is the first openly gay female wrestler. She came out during the 2015 WWE Tough Enough reality competition.

Margaret Gurevich

Chloe By Design Author

What appeals to you most about the Chloe character you created?

I’m not much of a fashionista, so I really welcomed the opportunity to learn about something new. What’s unique about the Chloe series is that the reader not only gets a story about a girl competing in a Project Runway-type contest, but they also see exactly what Chloe is sketching, thanks to the illustrations by Brooke Hagel.

Did growing up in Bergen County influence your writing?

Bergen County is known for its malls. As a kid, I loved walking through Garden State Plaza and people-watching. In the first and third Chloe books, I have Chloe in the mall, scoping out styles with her best friend. In my young adult novels, the characters always go to the mall, too. That’s my little tribute to New Jersey.

What ideas do you try convey to your middle-grades readers through Chloe?

What I love about her is that she has some confidence issues, but manages to persevere and follow her dreams. I hope this book empowers young girls to overcome obstacles and go after what they want.

Did You Know?

Margaret was born in Belarus and moved to New Jersey from Brooklyn at age 8. The third book in the Chloe series will be published in September.

Editor’s Note: Gerry Strauss actually planned to check in with six homegrown New Jersey up-and-comers. Unfortunately (for Gerry, that is) one of them—Charlie Puth—“blew up” in 2015 while he was working on this story.

A city of dreams is rising again.

By Yolanda Navarra Fleming

If it’s been more than a year or two since you last jumped in the car and motored down to Asbury Park for a day (or summer weekend), you’re in for a pleasant surprise. After decades as a Jersey Shore ghost town, it has become a hip and happening summer destination in every conceivable sense of the word. The beach, the boardwalk and the city blocks radiating north and south from Cookman Avenue have been transformed.  And the crowds are coming, from North Jersey by car and New York City by train, while sleek condos are going up as fast as buyers can sign on the dotted line. As a result, there is far more now to eat, buy, see and do in Asbury Park than anyone could conceivably handle in a day—dozens of places, both old and new. Which means a smart plan of attack is crucial. Build your day around a couple of these eateries and you won’t go wrong…

Pascale & Sabine, 601 Bangs Ave.

• A European brasserie beloved by finicky diners, complete with romantic ambiance and impeccable service.
• Favorites: Beef Tartare, Escargots, Coq au Vin, Salmon (with saffron soubise, baby mustard greens, kumquats and hazelnuts), Moules Frites, and Beignets.

Taka, 660 Cookman Ave.

• Contemporary Japanese cuisine. The owner, Takahiro Hirai, is descended from a Samurai family.
• Favorites: Rolls galore, New York Strip in Miso Butter, Short Ribs, Tuna (sesame seed coated with red bean sauce), Green Tea Cheesecake and Mochi.

Moonstruck, 517 Lake Ave.

Classic American-Mediterranean Grill with three floors of dining and music (often live), situated near Wesley Lake and Cookman Avenue.

Favorites: Filet Mignon, Rosemary Chicken, Walnut Crusted Rack of Lamb with Pomegranate Demi-glace and Lemon Risotto, Grilled Shrimp with Pesto Linguine.

Dino’s on Main, 300 Main St.

• Preservative-free, fresh and delicious prepared and made-to-order food served in a BYOB bistro with casual indoor and outdoor dining. Hot-spot for after-hours snacking and meals on weekends.
• Favorites: Linguine Oli Olio, Chicken Milanese, Mamma Pat’s Homemade Lasagna, Dino’s Famous Caesar Salad, Homemade Ravioli, Fresh Mozzarella and Bread baked daily on premises.

Belmonte’s Italian Restaurant, 632 Cookman Ave. 

• Cozy, traditional BYOB eatery ideal for families.
• Favorites: Fried Calamari, Linguine and Clams, Pappardelle Roma (with shrimp, asparagus, mushrooms and basil in a pink sauce), Chicken Giovanni, Stuffed Pork Chop.

Langosta Lounge, 1000 Ocean Ave. at Second Ave.

• Bohemian boardwalk restaurant and bar serving up vacation fare from all over the globe. Custom cocktails, live music and casual vibe.
• Favorites: Bombay Chicken Salad Sandwich, Cuban Fried Olives, Lobster Sliders, Ono Salad, Vegetable and Goat Cheese Pizza with charred Brussels sprouts, basil cream and roasted grapes.

Jimmy’s, 1405 Asbury Ave.

• The Sardi’s of the Jersey Shore. Old-world Italian restaurant where Robert DeNiro and other Goodfellas dine when they’re in town.
• Favorites: Clams Casino, Linguine with Clam Sauce, Chicken Scarpariello (Fontina Cheese, roasted peppers in Francaise sauce), Sea Scallops with White Wine, addictive House Dressing.

Cuban Café, 1007 Memorial Drive

• Authentic Cuban comfort food served at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with indoor and outdoor seating. Daily specials and a children’s menu.
• Favorites: Cubanitos, Cuban Style Ground Beef, Oxtail Stew, Fricassee de Pollo, Levante Muerto Seafood Gumbo.

Talula’s Pizza, 550 Cookman Ave.

• An artistic foodie hang for lunch, dinner, cocktails, and brunch. Brooklyn-inspired baked goods, wood-fired oven pizzas and plentiful vegan options.
• Favorites: Esquite Polenta Bowl, Talula’s Reuben with House-Made Pastrami, Temple III Pizza with Vegan Mozzarella, Cashew Ricotta and Vegan Pepperoni, Smoked Trout Toast, Milk and Honey Panna Cotta, Apple Cider Doughnuts.

Asbury Park Roastery, 1300 Ocean Ave.

• Small coffee roasting company opened on the boardwalk in 2007, specializing in fresh roasts, fair trade and organic beans, organic loose leaf teas, accessories and confections. Retail store at 803 Second Ave.
• Favorites: Red Eye Fresh-Roasted Coffee, Chai Tea Latte, Medium Brazil Poco Fundo Coffee, French Organic Indonesian Blend Coffee, Melon Flavored White Tea, Moroccan Mint Scented Green Tea.

TOTALLY JUICED!

Juice Basin, 805 4th Ave.

• Divine cold press juice concoctions, all USDA organic. Owners Regina & Enrique (right), with Chef David Burke (center), are a fun married couple you may know from their Montclair store.
• Favorites: Cold-pressed juices, Cacao Love Smoothie (cacao, spinach, banana), Caribbean Nites Smoothie (mango, pineapple, banana, kale), Alkaline Green (kale cucumber, mint, parsley, ginger root, lime).

“Juice Basin has a quality of product that only comes from a perfectionist. The balance in these combinations of ingredients made me feel like I was in the hands of a master at work. I can’t wait to go back to Asbury Park to try more.”

—David Burke

SHOP ’TIL YOU DROP

Nita Ideas, 601 Cookman Ave.

Celebrated designer Nita Novy began as a Broadway actress, then designed hats and moved into couture and ready-to-wear designs. The New York Times says her collection “seems to breathe intangible femininity. It is almost as if the rest of the fashion universe is catching up with her.”  

The Market at Fifth Avenue, 1300 Ocean Ave.

Multiple vendors under one roof, with artists and designers of everything from clothing and housewares to jewelry and gifts—including Sea & Green, Dusty Rose Vintage, Tessa Perlow, Alchemy Hour and Acdwsh. 

B&G Home Interiors, 658 Cookman Ave.

2015 “Best of Houzz” designer Jon Martinez is celebrating his second anniversary this summer. Eclectic accessories, gifts, framed artwork and a downstairs showroom featuring stylish sofas, arty end tables, wall hangings and rugs. 

Glide Surf Co., 520 Bangs Ave.

Owners Phil and Jessica Browne display their affinity for the sand and surf in their alternative boutique, with surfboards, surf apparel, beach dresses and bikinis.

All Natural Products

CLEAN CONSCIENCE
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So what’s the deal with Solar? 

By Erika Kemp and Stephen Smith 

Uncle Mark gets at least five calls a week about free solar. “Hello, are you the homeowner? My name is Chris…I am calling to tell you about a great new program that can dramatically lower your energy bills.” Chris sounds like he’s calling from 10,000 miles away and he probably is. He is reading off a script. And there is no way his name is Chris.    

For better or worse, this is the voice of solar in New Jersey—a state well-marinated in shams, scams and telemarketing schemes. So, needless to say, Chris won’t be selling Uncle Mark any solar today. 

Which is a shame, because New Jersey is a very active solar market with more than 550 firms competing for new business. Indeed, the Garden State was an innovative and early adopter of solar power when it embraced its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) policy in 2005. As a result, solar power in New Jersey is well understood and the market is mature in terms of cost efficiencies, competition amongst suppliers, and predictable return on investment for homeowners and businesses interested in going solar. 

The state’s Solar Renewable Energy Program (SREC) in particular demonstrates New Jersey’s commitment to solar power. Basically, it says that every megawatt hour of energy produced by a Jersey-based solar system can be bought, sold or traded to another entity in the state for their use in complying with the state RPS, or their own corporate renewable energy goals.

As a result, New Jersey is the fourth-largest solar state market in the country. 

The next time Chris (or one of his fellow telemarketers) interrupts dinner, you and Uncle Mark might want to give him the time of day. The industry is robust, the deals are appealing and the technology is solid. That being said, this is a significant financial decision. So before you go solar in 2016, consider the following 8 questions:

Why do I get so many calls from sketchy telemarketers offering me “free” solar? 

Because “customer acquisition” is now the most expensive part of selling a residential solar system. It is hard to believe that solar firms find cold-calling to be an effective strategy for such a personal and significant investment. They are pushing to make sales with as little upfront investment as possible, hence the seemingly asinine telemarketing approach. Solar power equipment and labor costs have plummeted in the past 10 years; it is now more expensive and takes longer for a solar company to find and close a deal with a client than it is for the company to build the system. As a result, solar companies are pushing hard to source clients as cheaply and efficiently as possible. 

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Is solar worth it? 

It is if you have high electricity rates—and electricity rates in New Jersey are higher than the majority of U.S states. This is one of the most expensive electrical utility markets in the northeast. Going solar helps homes offset high electricity bills by producing your own electricity and, in some cases, you can sell excess electricity generated back to the utility company using a methodology called “net-metering” (see question #7). For a fixed expense, residential solar customers have a predictable amount of electricity at a predictable cost during a time when the price of electricity has the potential to soar.  

Generous state and federal tax credits also come into play. The federal Tax Investment Credit (ITC) that encourages solar and renewable energy investment has contributed massively to the growth of solar across the U.S. It provides a tax credit for homeowners and businesses that equals 30 percent of the total solar-system investment cost.  The ITC was extended by Congress last December and is currently set to expire in 2023. 

There is also a nice mix of state policies and utility incentives available to New Jersey businesses and homeowners. These include the aforementioned New Jersey Renewable Portfolio Standard, which mandates that 1 percent of energy produced in the state of NJ must come from solar power by 2028. This legislation is managed by the New

Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which ensures that New Jersey utilities comply by managing the rollout of residential, commercial and utility-scale solar generation programs across the state. Another is the Solar Renewable Energy Credits program, the primary vehicle the state has used to implement its RPS. Homeowners can register to sell the credits they get from owning an operating solar system in New Jersey to companies that aggregate and then sell them off. Finally, check with your local utility for Utility-Specific Incentive Programs being offered current and prospective customers for going solar. 

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Are all solar companies basically the same? 

No. In fact, there are three distinct types—third-party system owners, building contractor firms, and solar installers—and it’s important to understand the pros and cons of working with each. 

Third Party System Owners are larger companies like Verengo, SunRun and SolarCity. They offer people various financing options, including leases and loans (in addition to installation services). The name of this category stems from the fact that you do not own the system on your roof. These are the calls you get when you’re sitting down to dinner. Interestingly, there’s not a state in the U.S. with more third-party party owned systems than New Jersey. The rapid reduction in the price tag of residential solar systems since around 2010 has weakened the appeal of these deals somewhat. However, if you don’t have the cash, this may be the most affordable route to going solar.  

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Building contractor firms are smaller, contractor-based firms specializing in general construction, electrical work or roofing work that now also offer solar installation services. To compete with larger finance firms, building contractors typically partner with a lender to offer options to homeowners who are looking to finance. But they also offer systems for outright purchase. They are typically regionally focused and can offer more personalized customer service than the larger companies. You are unlikely to receive cold calls from these companies—they tend to rely on referrals and traditional advertising. 

Solar installation firms are strictly installers of solar systems. They have similar qualities to building contractors, but are more likely to have the best overall understanding of solar equipment performance. They have connections with established contractors who can handle any roofing or electrical infrastructure needs demanded by a project. The personal service and attention a smaller installer offers is the polar opposite of the cold-call experience. One disadvantage of working with smaller installers, however, is that they may be unable to offer a diversity of brands and equipment because of exclusivity agreements they could have with a manufacturer. 

What are the must-ask questions I need answered by an installer before I sign up for solar?

• Do you have the electrical license required? Is your contractor license current?
• Can you demonstrate experience with similar residential solar projects, as well as with the equipment you are proposing for my roof?
• With whom have you worked locally? A good installer should be able to supply you with a name and phone number…even better, a visit with the homeowner. References matter.
• Where are your components—specifically your modules and solar inverters—manufactured? Solar power component manufacturing is an international business. Installers offer products from Asia, Europe and the Americas, typically, and there are differences in certain equipment that result in varied pricing. If buying equipment made in the U.S. is important to you, ask the installer what American-made options are available for you.
• What kind of warranties do you offer for workmanship and for components? Each solar system is different. Solar module warranties should run 20 years at a minimum and most solar inverter warranties are now 10 years. A solar inverter allows the modules to be installed in less-than-optimal (i.e., shady) conditions and still generate plenty of power.
• Be sure to ask about the equipment and workmanship warranties, as well as whether any planned or unplanned maintenance is included in the contract.
• Who handles operations and maintenance, how frequently and for how long? Your installer should show you an “O&M” plan, complete with module cleaning and a routine maintenance schedule, along with various service packages for system maintenance. There shouldn’t be much needed, as solar systems essentially have no moving parts. In the case of third-party owned systems, all maintenance is performed by the third party. As with any other investment and/or home improvement, it is important to get multiple bids and compare them before selecting an installer. 

Will this technology become obsolete in a couple of years, like my computer and my cell phone?

No. The product cycle time for solar components is actually quite long, so it’s likely you’re getting up-to-date components. Solar equipment technology has not evolved significantly in the past few years, which is a good thing for consumers because it has allowed banks, system owners, installers and manufacturers to develop a detailed understanding of how systems work and produce energy. This helped a maturing of their perspectives on solar power without the additional need of analyzing significant technological changes at the same time. The development of smaller micro-inverters for the residential market is probably the biggest development for residential and smaller commercial systems in the past five years. Micro-inverter companies are established enough to be well understood by installers, and manufacturers offer warranty terms equaling those of traditional inverter manufacturers.

How are people financing these systems if they can’t afford the cash outlay?

Even though system prices have dropped, solar leases are still popular. Leasing a system is a good option to go solar without any upfront costs, however, be aware that the system is owned by the leasing company—which means it gets the ITC and incentive benefits, not you. Even so, solar financing is big business in New Jersey. Personal loans and home equity loans are always options. Since system costs have declined, you may want to reach out to your bank and price out a loan or home equity line to finance your purchase. That way you receive all the incentives and tax benefits. Or you could put it on plastic. 

Consult your accountant (or Google around) to better understand how to consider the ITC tax benefits relevant to your personal tax situation. And, of course, make sure to ask to see all the financing and contract terms before agreeing to anything. Some companies ask buyers to sign on the dotted line through email or web-based signatures before sharing the financial details. Better to deflect the commitment and make sure you understand the small print beforehand.  

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If I generate more power than I use, how can I sell it?

Net Metering is the general term used to explain how system owners can sell power to utilities. Essentially, signing a net metering contract with your utility means your utility will purchase back the same amount of energy you use, for the same price it sells you that energy. Energy production beyond this amount doesn’t receive any credit from the utility, so it is important to size your system correctly with your installer’s help and guidance.

How do I know I’m getting the best deal for my system?

Hey, this is New Jersey. There’s nothing wrong with squeezing the installer a little! Let the company know you are looking at multiple bids. This may bring the price down, but it also creates an opportunity to explain what is different/better about the products and service the seller is offering. Remember that there are lots of options available to install your solar system, and it’s a long-term investment, so don’t compromise on what you want out of the deal.

It is also helpful to know your average monthly and annual usage before you enter into conversations with installers. This shows them you know what you are doing, and will make them more accountable to you during the entire sales process. Finally, ask about product options and warranty terms when meeting your installer. Showing a little knowledge of the primary system components— modules and inverters, for instance—and asking the installer to explain warranty terms can help you form a good comparison between products and position yourself well for the price and terms negotiations. Knowledge is power in the hands of the solar client.

The take-away here is that, for New Jerseyans, this looks to be a smart time to go solar. This is one of the most mature and healthiest solar markets in the nation. The current prices for solar power—combined with newly renewed federal and state incentives—means the return on investment for a solar system in the Garden State has never been higher. In addition, utilities and permit agencies in New Jersey are very familiar with the regulations and requirements governing solar power installations, which further drives down the non-system costs associated with going solar. And, as mentioned earlier, technological advances are occurring at a stable, consistent rate, allowing financers and installers to thoroughly understand solar power technology. 

So are these telemarketers on the level? 

They almost certainly are. If you hear them out, they are likely to set up a call with someone more skilled and informative. The reason you are not talking to these folks first is just a matter of economics. That being said, a solar system is an expensive and complicated electrical appliance you are attaching to the roof of your home. It would be nice to feel like that first contact was a solar expert but, as Uncle Mark is so painfully aware, it’s not. 

THREE FOR THE MONEY

Third Party System Owners

PROS

• Responsible for maintenance
• Low or no upfront capital cost
• Low risk

CONS

• Typically higher system pricing for financed systems
• No ITC
• Fixed contract
• Monthly payment
• Typically not local
• Less local customer service

Building Contractors

PROS

• Local focus
• Good customer service
• Competitive pricing
• Experience with solar and roofing

CONS

• Less competitive financing options
• Limited product offerings

Solar Installers

PROS

• High competition, good pricing
• Lots of solar experience
• Local focus

CONS

• Can be tied to specific product or finance partners
• Less experience with specialized construction needs

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Editor’s Note: Erika Kemp and Stephen Smith are the co-owners of Solvida Energy Group (solvidaenergy.com), a consulting firm that analyzes solar market technical and industry trends. They are also “newly solar” homeowners, having opted to purchase their own system, and are frequent visitors to one of the first solar-powered homes on the Jersey shore. Special thanks to Scott Moscowitz, Director at GTM Research in Boston, who provided valuable insight to the current state of solar in the Garden State. 

Happy holidays in Japan & Taiwan

By Sarah Rossbach

Wherever I travel, I cherish that feeling of being transported in time and place to experience a historic site as the ancients did. When in Versailles, I imagine Marie Antoinette is frolicking as a milkmaid in her hameau.  In London, I picture Sir John Soanes at his desk gazing at a roman plinth as he designs the Bank of England. In Kyoto garden, I envision the fictional Prince Genji courting Lady Murasaki with a clever cherry-blossom-inspired haiku. Which is why I am so utterly irritated by the busloads of selfie-stick-toting tourists who interrupt my carefully curated daydreams. My solution? Travel during Christmas

And not to Aspen, Park City, Gstaad, St. Moritz, Hawaii, the Caribbean or other traditional winter holiday destinations. This past December, we took our family vacation in Japan and Taiwan, two fascinating countries that can be completely booked-up during the height of their tourist seasons. Japan, for example, is impossible during its more temperate fall—with the brilliant colors for autumn leaf-watchers—and in spring, too, when it’s overrun with tourists elbowing their way between the plum and cherry tree blossoms. At many of the popular historic sites in Taiwan, visitors find themselves unable to secure tour reservations during the high seasons. These situations are unlikely to change. Right now, the US dollar enjoys a favorable exchange rate with both the Japanese yen and the new Taiwan dollar; taxis and mass transit are 50% less expensive than in the West, making both countries vastly more affordable than, say, England or France

Eschewing the yearly wrestling match with the Christmas tree, the added pounds from holiday parties and the challenge to find that perfect present for each and every member of the family, my husband and I boarded a flight with our son to Tokyo a week before Christmas. The planning for this trip began when our daughter, who is teaching English in Taiwan for a year, announced that she would not have the opportunity to return to New Jersey for the holidays

Flying halfway around the world isn’t an easy endeavor. Having done so on a number of occasions, there are some rules I try to follow. If you can save up your airline points, try to upgrade to an economy-plus or, even better, a business class seat. Also, try to arrive in the late afternoon so you can go to bed early and get on a local sleep schedule. Pre-purchase a Japan Rail Pass in the US so that, when you arrive at Narita Airport, you only have to pick up your tickets to the hour-long direct train ride to Tokyo. Before any train trip, we pre-booked our assigned seats at Tokyo Station.

All photos by Sarah Rossbach

TOKYO IN 36 HOURS

Our stay in Japan’s largest city was meant to be short, less than two days. We chose the Palace Hotel, located in the middle of the city (a convenient 10-minute walk from Tokyo Train Station) and overlooking the Emperor’s 1.3 square mile park-like estate. This neighborhood, known as Marunouchi, is Tokyo’s financial district, so it’s quieter and less busy during the weekend and in the evenings. As a result, it was easy to book a table for dinner near our hotel. In much of modern Tokyo, restaurants are not at street level; thanks to the guidance of our hotel’s concierge, we enjoyed amazing sushi on the 35th floor, steaming ramen on the 6th floor and $10 soba on the 7th floor of various local office/vertical shopping mall buildings. Of course, western restaurants exist. Yet the food loses something in translation. Case in point was brunch the next day at my favorite French bakery chain, Maison Kaiser. There were only three weird choices: beef mushroom soup, sliced beef or beef in a chef’s salad

Our time being short, we hired a guide for the afternoon to take us on a Tokyo version of speed-dating. Our guide, Mariko Okunishi, directed us through the city’s excellent (and clean!) subway system to the Meiji Shrine, Neju Museum and Garden, Harajuku Street—a young people’s area where women dressed like little western girls (which I really didn’t need to see)—Shibuya Crossing, the busiest crossroad in the world, and the Ginza aka Tokyo’s Fifth Avenue. The constraints of time and jet-lag prevented us from visiting the 7th century Asakusa Buddhist Temple and various museums devoted to bonsai, Japanese woodcuts and our son’s passion, Anime

The 95-year-old Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the Meiji Emperor and Empress and embodies the traditional Shinto worship of nature.  It is a living monument, as locals celebrate weddings and children’s “coming of age” celebrations at 30 days, three, five and seven years. At the entrance to the park are troughs of water and ladles to clean and purify yourself (i.e. wash your hands). The shrine and its 170-acre park was the highlight of our day.

AH, KYOTO

Kyoto is a two-and-a-half-hour ride on a super-clean bullet train from Tokyo. We were smart and arrived early at the station to get the lay of the land; we had to query a handful of uniformed workers before locating our platform. We knew to request a seat on the right side of the train in order to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. While Tokyo has been Japan’s capital since 1868, Kyoto was the seat of power in Japan for over 1,000 years and, as such, offers a stunning breadth and depth of historical and cultural sites. Whenever Kyoto is mentioned, the Japanese sigh and say, “Ah Kyoto”—no doubt invoked by romantic images of parasol-toting Geishas strolling by cherry blossoms in spring and vibrant red Japanese maple leaves in autumn

That being said, as we stepped off the train, I was struck by how much Kyoto, like Tokyo and New York, is a modern city. Japanese sensibility still can be found at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, as well as gardens, preserved palaces and museums. Kyoto boasts over 2,000 temples and shrines, ranging from ones designated as World Heritage Sites to mini sidewalk altars. To immerse ourselves further in Kyoto’s culture, we splurged a bit and stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, where guests sleep on futons in tatami rooms and dine on nine-course kaiseki meals for dinner and breakfast, presented by uber-polite kimono-clad servers. While the quality of these inns can vary, our stay at the Yoshikawa Inn was very comfortable, warm and dry on a cold and rainy day. It was a highlight of our five days in Japan. 

Though lighter in December, tourism at Kyoto’s top attractions is a year-round business. To beat the Chinese tourist buses, we rose early and visited the Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple (page 13), a very gold Buddhist temple. In concept, it dates back to 1398. But in fact it is a 1950s replica of the original, which was burned by a deranged monk. Another wonderful site is the Kiyomizu-dera Temple (left), founded in 778 and built in the 17th century with joinery (no nails) on a hillside overlooking Kyoto. While it is a Buddhist temple, Shinto shrines dot the grounds to “protect” the wooden temple from fire. Visitors often seek blessings and good fortune; they can drink from a spring-fed waterfall that is said to have wish-granting powers, leave petitions to the gods, or purchase good luck talismans. A former practice (fueled by the belief that anyone who survived a 13-foot jump from the temple veranda would have wishes fulfilled) wisely is prohibited now.

Surrounded by two moats, the Nijo Castle, the former Shogun’s home, is definitely worth a visit. The castle floors were built to squeak on purpose—as an early form of burglar alarm called “nightingales”—alerting the Shogun of assassins. The 400-year-old Nishiki market is also a fun typical Japanese destination. Its neat, colorful stalls selling everything from matcha to mocha (tea to rice cakes), sushi to sake, and pickles to dried fish. If you enjoy gardens, take a trolley to the Arashiyama area to visit Tenryu-ji, a Zen Temple with a tunnel-like bamboo grove leading to Okochi Villa, a beautiful garden designed by film star Denjiro Okochi. Across the river is a park full of wild but people-friendly monkeys.

Unfortunately, we did not make it to Nara, the capital city of the neighboring prefecture to Kyoto. It boasts some of the best examples of Tang Dynasty Chinese (yes, Chinese!) temple architecture. However, our next stop, Taiwan—a four-hour plane ride from Tokyo—would offer many outstanding examples of Chinese dynastic art and architecture.

ON TO TAIWAN

The island nation of Taiwan, home to 23 million people, was known for centuries to the west as Formosa, or beautiful island in Portuguese, a name bestowed upon it by 16th century sailors. In the ensuing years, Taiwan’s indigenous people were pushed to the margins by Han Chinese, who now make up more than 95 percent of the population. In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war on mainland China to Mao’s Communist forces. The island has been known officially as the Republic of China ever since. While increasingly proud of its native Taiwanese culture, Taiwan offers fantastic Chinese food, temples and works of art—some would say the best in the world. Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, has emerged as one of the most vibrant cities in Asia.  It is clean, relatively safe, has reliable and inexpensive transportation, great food and a vibrant nightlife. The Taiwanese demeanor strikes me as a pleasant, modern mixture of traditional Chinese and Japanese politeness. And because Taiwan is still perceived by much of the world as an electronics producing nation, it refreshingly isn’t on everyone’s tourist destination list. Yet

We arrived in Taipei on Christmas and, happy to forego our traditional heavy Christmas dinner, we dined at James Kitchen, an informal and quirky Taiwanese restaurant a local friend had recommended.  Our taxi dropped us off on winding Yongkang Street, which is lined with hip shops and restaurants, and we entered a narrow building cramped with diners. The owner led us past the kitchen, up rickety steps to a tatami room, with customers’ drawings covering every inch of the walls and ceilings so low I couldn’t stand up. Seated on cushions at our low table, we enjoyed mushroom dumplings, pork lard rice, sautéed vegetables and the fish that James Kitchen is known for. Our check was about $15 per person

Much of Taipei is very modern but, as we had in Japan, we sought out the traditional and cultural. One of our first stops was the Lungshan Temple (above). Originally built in 1738, the temple still serves as a local Buddhist center where people come to pray. Along the alley leading to the temple, we entered a simple vegetarian noodle stall, favored by monks, to enjoy soup noodles and dumplings for about $3 per person

If you are adventurous and don’t mind street food and street ambiance, you can get delicious, healthy food fast and cheap. For instance, at a stall near a university, bowls of perfectly prepared cold sesame noodles topped with shredded cucumber came to $1 per person. Even at the wonderful and popular Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung, the check for beer and more than enough steamed soup buns and dumplings to fill five adults totaled $60. The bill for a yummy hotpot dinner of fresh vegetables and sliced beef was about $15 a head. Taiwan also has expensive and upscale restaurants. Some can be found in department stores and hotels, including our hotel, Le Meridian. So after enjoying wonderful inexpensive meals, I treated our family to Cantonese food at My Humble House. Its name is something of a deception, as nothing at the restaurant—from the food to the décor—is humble. Delicious, yes. Humble, no. The service was swift and professional and I am still dreaming of the shrimp dim sum and the barbecued pork, buttery moist pork with a crispy skin—sort of a yin-yang of textures. While you can splurge on expensive eight-course meals, our bill for an a la carte dinner at this top restaurant came to a reasonable $135 for four people.

To get a sense of Taiwanese culture, a friend who lives locally took us to Di Hua Street, the oldest street in Taipei, to view shops selling tea, ceramics, fabric and Chinese medicine. With a few structures dating back to the era of Dutch rule in the mid-1600s, much of the historic architecture has been restored without displacing local businesses.  We spent the afternoon wandering through a traditional Taiwanese district with narrow streets, local shoppers and 19th century buildings still in the hands of the original families

If Taipei is your only stop in Taiwan, you still can enjoy scenery and hiking, be it in the city’s vast botanical garden, a steep climb up Elephant Mountain, or a trek up the more challenging Yang Ming Mountain. A bit further away (daytrip distance) is Taroko Gorge, with its hiking trails and rope bridges, Yilan’s hot springs, and beautiful Sun Moon Lake

To my mind, the most compelling reason to visit Taipei is to view the world’s finest collection of Chinese art at the National Palace Museum just north of the city. How did these treasures land in Taiwan? When Chiang Kai-shek made his speedy exit from China, he and his KMT (Kuomingtang) troops had time to cart away crates of nearly 700,000 exceptional works of art formerly owned by millennia of emperors. Here the peerless imperial treasures—jades, Neolithic bronzes, porcelains, painting and calligraphy scrolls, jeweled mystery boxes—are exhibited with clear explanations in Chinese, Japanese and English. With exhibits rotating several times in a year, it would take over 30 years to display the entire collection. On our visit, we saw rare jade carvings, fine Song Dynasty celadon porcelains and stunning bird, animal and flower paintings by Giuseppe Castiglione—an 18th century Jesuit priest who began his stay in China as an Italian missionary. Castiglione became a trusted Imperial court painter who also created portraits of the Empress and Emperor during the height of the Qing Dynasty

As a student studying Chinese in Taiwan, the National Palace Museum was my favorite destination and it was as quiet as a library. Today, busloads of Chinese and Korean visitors crowd exhibits. The locals typically wait until Friday and Saturday evenings, when the crowds disappear and they can visit the museum free

The ancient Chinese have a proverb: “Walking 10,000 miles is better than reading 10,000 books.”  When visiting any foreign country, we learn a great deal experiencing firsthand its scenery, sites, food and people. During our five-day stay in Taiwan, I noticed something that I had been blind to when I lived there as a student many decades ago. I was struck by how polite, kind and helpful local strangers were to us and to each other. Whether at Christmas or anytime of the year (except hot, humid typhoon months of July and August) visiting Taiwan is a lovely experience

GEISHAS, GEISHAS  EVERYWHERE 

Alas, few of them are real…or even speak Japanese. Kyoto’s Geisha costume stores and rental shops do brisk business by the busload with young Chinese women, who mince along the winding temple paths or through the narrow streets of the historic Geisha districts. After weaving through scores of ersatz Geisha girls, we finally bumped into the “real deal,” along with her retinue, in the Gion district, best known as a filming location in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.

“The duck mix in the little tacos enjoys a two-step dance with the broccoli pops that escape convention with that hint of chili  in the sesame sauce.”

By Andy Clurfeld

Just

Route 9 South, Old Bridge, next to the Emporium International Market

Phone: (732) 707.4800 

Open Monday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m., Sunday from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Prices: Soups and salads: $10 to $13. Starters:$10 to $13. Entrees: $22 to $38. Side dishes: $6. Desserts: $8 to $12. Reservations and major credit cards accepted. There is a serviceable wine list and a more creative cocktail list.

I am power-shopping at Emporium International Market, snagging a vacuum-packed, hot-smoked whole mackerel and asking the kindly woman behind the seafood counter to dole out a quarter-pound of caviar, which will cost me $10 and elevate the hors d’oeuvres at my next night’s dinner party from nice-enough to all-luxe. I’ve already had wrapped a pound of peppered slab bacon, which I’m cooking in my mind: Tiny dice, fry, remove bacon-nibs, add a huge amount of greens, sauté, top with the little bacon bits, eat.

I am snapped into the here-and-now by the members of my dine team. We’re booked for dinner at the restaurant next door and it is now post-time for chow time, they remind me. It’s 7:30. The Emporium is open ’til 9:30. I want to get back to finish my shopping; I feel as though I’ve only just tapped this market on Route 9 in Old Bridge with all manner of Eastern European foods and a distinct Russian accent. But dinner in two hours? Fat chance.

justrestauranrnj.com

Seven minutes late for our reservation, we spill over into Just, the singularly named spot that shares an address with the Emporium, and apologize profusely to the hostess. “I was shopping,” I start to say as the gal smiles and replies: “No problem. It happens all the time.” I bet it does. The owner of both the market and the restaurant, Igor Maller, is a native of the Ukraine who emigrated to New Jersey and, once upon a time, operated a club in Moscow. International is his way of life. Putting together the one-two punch of a market aimed at adventurous home cooks and a restaurant whose menu runs the global gamut is a no-brainer for the culinary juggernaut: Maller’s vision of geographical borders and boundaries is that they don’t exist. Unite, fuse, take ingredients to their natural conclusions, and prove that even if politicians can’t seem to bring about world peace, the big table of the world proves we all eat many, many of the same things, just in different guises.

justrestauranrnj.com

The conductor of Just’s culinary orchestra is chef Jonathan Vukusich, who reins in the far-reaching menu by believing in the taste-good factor. His food is approachable and, often, fun. He elevates comfort foods, street foods, iconic foods to date-night dine-out levels. He cares about deliciousness and design in equal proportions and executes his plates with panache. In the airy dining room that is often filled to the max, the vibe is merry and bright. It’s a happy scene.

We are happy to embark on a world tour with the starters. There’s a take on Tater Tots stuffed with shrimp, crab and a binder of mozzarella and goat cheeses. There’s a sesame-flecked tuile molded into a cone and filled with sushi-caliber tuna and wasabi’d tobiko. There are mini soft-shelled tacos plumped with Peking duck and shreds of cucumber and scallions, then swished with a citrusy, slightly sweet hoisin sauce. There’s broccoli fried Korean-style, then splashed with a heat-licked sesame sauce. Funny how the tuna cone, with its now-conventional forward-flavor Japanese accents plays off the soothing taste and texture of the seafood-cheese nuggets; intriguing how the duck mix in the little tacos enjoys a two-step dance with the broccoli pops that escape convention with that hint of chili in the sesame sauce.

justrestauranrnj.com

The kitchen also has fun with avocados, fashioning them into an Eastern Med-North African salad by torching, then plating them with chickpeas, nutty-tart pickled garlic and a burnt orange vinaigrette that achieves the kitchen’s goal of unification: Don’t count out the intrinsic flavor of an everyday orange to ratchet up the tastes of a creamy, mild avocado, earthy chickpeas and good old garlic. For it does…especially in this fired-up incarnation.

One of my personal favorite spices is sumac, the sour-tangy-tart red berry that is picked from a bush in the Middle East, dried and ground into a powder or flaked. Its inherent balance, not to mention vibrant color, makes it a fine choice when lemon won’t do. Here, at Just, sumac powers up shrimp and scallops that are served over couscous flecked with vegetables. A coconut curry sauce infused with tomato takes a shine to Chilean sea bass: The velvety curry is cut by the acid in the tomato, and the result is a balanced accent for the mild, yet rich fish. Hamachi sashimi, however, is overwhelmed by shiitakes and peppers sautéed in a sauce of coconut and ponzu that’s incongruously sweet. It was wrong for the fish.

The pork shank special, relatively tame in a brandied mushroom sauce, isn’t one of Just’s top-tier entrees, but the accompanying pork-fried orzo, with its smoky nibs, should be sold by the quart. Short ribs could be partnered with the broccoli app: The meat is slow-roasted in a Korean barbecue sauce and served with a super-smooth puree of potatoes that cozies up to salsify. Tasty stuff.

www.istock.com

Desserts follow suit here, meaning you’re not going to get simple or plain. An apple tart cosseted in puff pastry is given a condiment of its own in a honey-quince foam. Vanilla ice cream, too. The pastry’s a little thick, a little heavy, but the apple-honey/quince partnership is a natural. What do you get when you layer chocolate fudge, toasted meringue and a graham cracker custard? A S’mores crème brulee. Didn’t you earn that badge on a Scout camping trip, Skippy? You also can face-off with Oreo zeppoles, which you will either love or choose to ignore. The requisite uber-intense chocolate confection is dubbed “Mona Lisa,” and it’s a layered cake of dark chocolate mousse, ganache and whipped cream swirled with raspberry preserves. It’s more obvious that its sly-smile namesake.

As I figured, we’re at Just way past Emporium International Market’s closing bell. But that’s okay. I leave feeling as though the shopping prelude and the eating opera is exactly what this excursion to a tucked-away world is supposed to be about.  

justrestauranrnj.com

NEW TWIST 

Shortly after you are seated for dinner at Just, you will be served pretzel buns with honey-Dijon mustard butter. These are clever and addictive. The pretzel bun is much like a soft pretzel, and definitely on the Amish end of the soft pretzel spectrum. The butter, softened and speckled with mustard seeds, isn’t too sweet, but there’s a definite smack of honey.

You must slather the butter—in my case, in frosting-like proportion—onto the pretzel, eat and repeat. The repeating process is likely to, well, repeat itself.

EDGE takes you inside the area’s most creative kitchens.

Paragon Tap & Table • Bacon Wrapped Pork 

77 Central Ave. • CLARK

(732) 931-1776 • paragonnj.com

I like to take traditional items such as pork and ravioli and create dishes such as Bacon Wrapped Pork tenderloin with Wild Mushrooms. Pair it with an award-winning craft beer or craft cocktail and see why were recognized by NJ.com as one of the region’s hottest restaurants. 

— Eric B. LeVine, Chef/Partner

BoulevardFive72 • Seared Day Boat Scallop

572 Boulevard • KENILWORTH

(908) 709-1200 • boulevardfive72.com

Seared Day Boat Scallop, served with a Green Lentil Daube, Applewood Smoked Bacon Lardons, and Herbed Caper Butter. This has been a signature dish at Boulevard Five72 since we first opened. Over the years, our Scallops has been one of my most satisfying items to prepare.

— Scott Snyder, Chef/Owner

Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse • Wasabi Crusted Filet Mignon 

1230 Route 22 West • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 518-9733 • partyonthegrill.com

We prepare a crusted 8-ounce filet mignon served with gingered spinach, shitake mushrooms, and a tempura onion ring. 

Daimatsu • Crab Avocado Salad

860 Mountain Ave. • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 233-7888 • daimatsusushibar.com

One of my favorite creations—I prepare something different every week—Crab Avocado Salad features snow crab, chipotle jelly, avocado, cilantro, lime soy dressing with yuzu citrus foam and caviar on top. 

— Momo, Chef

Publick House • Pan Roasted Salmon 

899 Mountain Ave. • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 233-2355 • publickhousenj.com

Our pan roasted salmon is one of our best selling entrees. Seared to give it a beautiful crispy skin, it is paired with roasted fingerlings, rock shrimp, chopped red peppers, cream, and saffron. The juxtaposition of textures and flavors really makes for an unforgettable dish.

— Bernie Goncalves, Owner

Luciano’s Ristorante & Lounge • Warm Goat Cheese Salad

1579 Main Street • RAHWAY

(732) 815-1200 • lucianosristorante.com

The warm goat cheese salad with tender greens and a mulled cabernet dressing and toasted pine nuts is a signature appetizer at Luciano’s, where fresh ingredients and personable service in a beautiful Tuscan décor create a fine dining experience. Our menus are seasonally influenced to feature the best of what’s available in the market. 

— Joseph Mastrella, Executive Chef/Partner

Morris Tap & Grill • Herb Chicken with fresh Gnocchi

500 Route 10 West • RANDOLPH

(973) 891-1776 • morristapandgrill.com

Herb chicken with fresh gnocchi and house sausage finished with red wine garlic demi. This dish is a perfect example of how my team and I create fun and stylish food, and why we have received accolades for the last 4 ½ years from every major New Jersey dot-com and magazine. 

— Eric B LeVine, Chef/Partner

Boulevard Seafood Company • Sautéed Black Sea Bass 

49 West Main Street • SOMERVILLE

(908) 722-0600 • boulevardseafoodcompany.com

Our Sautéed Black Sea Bass sits atop asparagus, finished with a black olive & caper vinaigrette. This is one example of the simple preparations we use that let the quality of our locally sourced seafood shine.

— Scott Snyder, Chef/Owner

Spirit: Social Eatery and Bar • Jersey Breakfast Bar Pie

250 Morris Ave. • SPRINGFIELD

(973) 258-1600 • mclynns.com

Get in the Spirit! Our Jersey Breakfast Bar Pie features potatoes, Taylor ham, cheddar cheese and onions. It doesn’t get more Jersey than that!  

— Mark Houlker, Chef

Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse • Volcano Roll 

23A Nelson Avenue • STATEN ISLAND, NY

(718) 966-9600 • partyonthegrill.com

Hot-out-of-the-oven, crab, avocado and cream cheese rolled up and topped with a mild spicy scallop salad.

Galloping Hill Caterers

Galloping Hill Road and Chestnut Street • UNION

(908) 686-2683 • gallopinghillcaterers.com

Galloping Hill Caterers has been an incredible landmark for nearly sixty years. We pride ourselves in delivering “over the top” cuisine, impeccable service and outstanding attention to detail. That is the hallmark of our success! Simply, an unforgettable experience. Pictured here is one of our crepes flambé that really creates lots of excitement!

— George Thomas, Owner

The Garden Restaurant • Top Sirloin Baseball Cut Steak

943 Magie Avenue • UNION

(908) 558-0101 • gardenrestaurantnj.com

The Garden’s top sirloin baseball cut steak is deliciously prepared to set off every flavor on the palette. Accompanied by our “sweeter than lobster” Nigerian jumbo tiger prawns, this butcher’s choice certified angus is served on our chef’s finest steak board to display the flavor infusion accentuated with house made sweet peppercorn sauce. Served with a simple accompaniment of seasonal roasted vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes.

— Justin Massie, Executive Chef

You heard it here first.

By Mark Stewart

New Jersey is a land of famous firsts. According to the state.nj.us web site, we have played host to the first light bulb, first steam locomotive, first phonograph, first submarine, first drive-in movie, first electric guitar, and first football game. There are many more, of course. And yet, in this litany of #1’s, there is one fantastic first that is nowhere to be found in school textbooks or anywhere in our popular culture. On April 25th, 1893, during a ceremony atop the Navesink Highlands overlooking Sandy Hook, the Pledge of Allegiance was given as the national oath of loyalty for the first time. 

How this day came together is a tale of passion, politics and power. How it ended up in the dustbin of history is a reminder of how fragile our cultural heritage can be. 

The Pledge of Allegiance looked a little different back then. It read: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Subsequent wording referencing the “United States of America” and “Under God” was added in the 1920s and 1950s, respectively. The original version was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (right) and published in The Youth’s Companion as part of a school program to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas

All images courtesy of Upper Case Editorial Services

The Columbus Day ceremony was held on October 21. A mere seven months later—blinding speed by 1890s standards—Bellamy himself led a group of young men in reciting the Pledge during an event in New Jersey that might draw millions were it recreated today. It involved an unprecedented international naval review (above), followed by parades and parties in New York City that went on for days. The next time anything like it was even attempted was during the Bicentennial, in 1976, when the tall ships arrived

JERSEY BOY

The key player of this story was not Bellamy, but William McDowell (right), a Newark-based financier whose business occasionally took him across the Atlantic. Upon each return to the U.S., McDowell marveled at the excitement that spread throughout the passengers as the first piece of American soil appeared. For the immigrants who filled steerage class, this moment was particularly meaningful. It marked the start of a new life. Roughly a third of Americans can trace some ancestry back to one of the people on these vessels. On a clear day, that first glimpse of America was the majestic Navesink Light Station, now known as the Twin Lights. Wouldn’t it be something, McDowell thought, if—before the two brownstone towers came into view—a gigantic American flag rose dramatically above the horizon? McDowell may not have been the first person to think of such a thing. However, he knew how to make things happen. His “Liberty Pole” plan first needed to gain the approval of the U.S. Lighthouse Board in Washington. The board was not known for its rapid decision-making. Fortunately, McDowell had friends in high places. 

An ardent patriot, he was among a group of patriotic Americans who hoped to rekindle America’s national spirit, which had been profoundly fractured since the Civil War. In 1889, McDowell founded the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, or SAR for short. Its aim was to recognize and celebrate American ideals and culture. The group enjoyed rapid acceptance and growth, counting among its early membership several wealthy and influential business and political leaders. In the summer of 1890, SAR officers decided to take the “Sons” part of the organization’s name literally and denied membership to women. McDowell was appalled. His great-grandmother, Hannah Arnett, was a popular heroine of the American Revolution. In 1776, a group of men meeting in her Elizabeth home were preparing to take the oath of loyalty to Great Britain in order to protect their lives and property. Arnett overheard them and called them traitors to their faces. Mr. Arnett’s attempt to remove his wife backfired; she threatened to divorce him on the spot. Eventually she convinced the group to reject the oath. An editorial by Mary Smith Lockwood published in The

Washington Post asked, “Where will the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution place Hannah Arnett?” McDowell offered a response in the same newspaper, offering to help start the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

A few days later, with McDowell among the attendees, the DAR had its first meeting. Its President General was First Lady Caroline Harrison, wife of President Benjamin Harrison. With his new allies, the Harrisons (left), endorsing his plan to erect his Liberty Pole, McDowell had no problem getting a thumbs-up from the lighthouse board members—and little trouble raising the money to realize his dream.  The Liberty Pole would be 135 feet tall—think of a car dealership flag on steroids—standing twice the height of the Twin Lights’ massive brownstone towers. The pole was constructed from two separate poles, hinged in the middle. The base was larger than most people could wrap their arms completely around.   

HELLO, COLUMBUS

McDowell actually hoped to place Liberty Poles at the high point of every harbor where immigrants were flooding into America. This ambition (which ultimately went unrealized) paled in comparison to a proposal made by a group of Chicago millionaires that included familiar names like Swift, Armour, McCormick and Marshall Field. They convinced Congress to approve the creation of a Columbian Exposition, a World’s Fair to end all World’s Fairs. They managed to outbid New York for this honor—no small feat, considering the backers of the New York bid included J.P. Morgan, William Waldorf Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

New York’s “consolation prize” would be the aforementioned week of patriotic celebrations, all kicked off by a flotilla of international warships. The vessels would gather at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and then steam north to anchor in Sandy Hook Bay the day before the naval review in New York Harbor. Once these plans were set and a date (April 26, 1893) picked out, McDowell scheduled his Liberty Pole dedication ceremony for the morning of April 25. The program would include the raising of the John Paul Jones flag timed to coincide with the passing of the warships. 

The John Paul Jones flag (below) was the flag in America in

 the 1890s. Its history stretched back to the 1779 seas battle where Jones refused to surrender his battered ship to the British, exclaiming, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Because the flag made famous by the Star-Spangled Banner was still  in private hands, the John Paul Jones flag was considered one of the nation’s most treasured artifacts. It was transported from event to event by  a Mrs. H.R.P. Stafford (right), and always drew a large and enthusiastic crowd. Special trains and steamers were scheduled to carry the many hundreds of people who wanted to travel from New York City and Northern New Jersey to attend the Liberty Pole dedication. At this point, McDowell had every reason to believe the Harrisons would attend. However, things didn’t quite work out as planned.

SELLING THE FLAG 

Unbeknownst to McDowell, he had an important partner in Boston. The publisher of The Youth’s Companion, Daniel Ford (right), shared his belief that America needed to rekindle its patriotic pride. As the owner of the largest-circulating weekly publication in the country, Ford had the ability to promote this idea to his 500,000-plus readers. Of course, Ford was also a businessman. His nephew, James Upham, was in charge of the magazine’s premium department. Upham launched a plan in the late 1880s to sell flags by convincing the Companion’s legion of young readers that no schoolroom should be without one. The plan met with moderate success, but had yet to realize its potential. Then Francis Bellamy joined the staff.

Bellamy was an unlikely candidate for everlasting fame. He was a Baptist minister in Boston who had recently been relieved of his duties for pushing the Christian Socialist message too hard in his Sunday sermons. Fortunately for Francis, one of his congregants was Daniel Ford. Ford wasn’t a fan of the minister’s politics, but he admired the 36-year-old’s way with words and offered him a job at the Companion.Like McDowell, Ford had some influence in the White House. He encouraged President Harrison to okay a plan to make Columbus Day in 1892 a national school celebration…and to anoint The Youth’s Companion as the creator and distributor of the official program. Once Ford received the go-ahead, he assigned Bellamy to work with William Torrey Harris, head of the National Education Association. Harris was an admirer of the Prussian education system and believed the primary role of schools was to turn children into obedient citizens. Together, they hammered out a carefully orchestrated one-hour ceremony. At the urging of Upham, the program included the raising of a flag. Upham hoped that any school that did not yet have one would order a flag from his department. Taking this idea a step further, Ford and Upham also instructed Bellamy to pen a 15-second oath of loyalty for the children to recite. The program—including Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance—was published in the September 8,1892 edition of the magazine. On October 21, 1892, thousands of schools celebrated Columbus Day. 

Since every school now had a flag, most continued to have their students recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. It became so popular that a movement started to make it a national oath for all Americans, not just kids. This concept attracted broad support, and not just because it might awaken the nation’s patriotic spirit. Ellis Island had opened a year earlier to accommodate the ever-growing influx of immigrants. Unlike, earlier waves, this one included a high percentage of people from Southern and Eastern Europe, many of them Jews or Catholics—religions that were misunderstood in the 1890s. Some questioned whether these new Americans would be loyal to the United States. An oath of allegiance thus held great appeal. President Harrison, who was preparing to run for reelection, thought a national oath was a superb idea. 

The push for a national loyalty oath was not without its potential obstacles. Caroline Harrison, McDowell’s great friend, succumbed to tuberculosis that fall. Benjamin Harrison then failed in his bid to retain the presidency, losing to the man he had beaten four years earlier, Grover Cleveland. Fortunately, while Cleveland steered away from many of Harrison’s policies, he continued to support the idea of elevating the Pledge of Allegiance to national-oath status. The new president also gave his blessing to the great naval celebration in New York. Better still, Letitia Stephenson, the wife of the new vice-president (and grandmother of Adlai, the future UN ambassador) became the President General of the DAR.

With everything still on track for April, Ford, Upham and Bellamy—along with John Winfield Scott, who ran the Companion’s New York offices—began working with William McDowell to co-opt the Liberty Pole dedication on the 25th, including the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance during the flag raising ceremony. 

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

On the morning of the 25th, a cold and drizzly Tuesday, hundreds of dignitaries disembarked from railroad cars and excursion steamers and made their way to the top of the Navesink Highlands for the Liberty Pole dedication. Thirty-five naval vessels cruised past the lighthouse, with the lead ship firing a salute. An artillery crew from the New Jersey National Guard returned an ear-splitting volley. Mrs. Stafford displayed her famous flag and Bellamy led members of the Lyceum League in their historic recitation of the Pledge. The crowd performed the “Bellamy salute” as first described in his Columbus Day program. (During World War II, the salute was deemed too close to the Nazi salute and was changed to the current hand-over-heart version). An enormous “peace flag” covered the front of the lighthouse. The day concluded with speechmaking and poetry readings. The event was covered on the front page of all the New York papers the next day, and in various magazines for weeks afterwards. By any measure, it was an unforgettable occasion. 

Except that, almost immediately, it was forgotten. 

So what happened? The weather was lousy, making photography a challenge. There are a handful of images from the day, but few convey the importance or scope of the occasion. Near the end of the program, a steady rain began, scattering the crowd. Letitia Stephenson, who suffered from crippling rheumatism, did not show. Then came the much sexier news stories. The following day, the same warships assembled in New York for a review by President Cleveland. Days of parties and parades pushed the Pledge event off the front page. Harper’s Weekly created a spectacular six-sheet foldout feature that showed all of the ships in the harbor. A few days later, the Chicago World’s Fair opened, seizing the national consciousness. 

More distractions followed, including a financial panic that spring. It was the worst in American history to that point, putting one in four Americans out of work. McDowell abandoned his Liberty Pole scheme and got back to business. Francis Bellamy continued to work at the Companion. And even though the Pledge of Allegiance would soon come to be regarded as America’s national oath of loyalty, no one could quite recall when and where its first recitation took place. As for the John Paul Jones flag, it was donated to the Smithsonian after the death of Mrs. Stafford. Curators there felt they did not have the necessary documentation to establish its authenticity. It was boxed up and never displayed in public. A few years later, the enormous Ft. McHenry flag made famous by the Star-Spangled Banner was donated to the Smithsonian, and the John Paul Jones flag was soon forgotten.

There is a small but dedicated cadre of history bugs who have managed to piece together the origins and early days of the Pledge of Allegiance. They were deeply disappointed in 2014 when New Jersey celebrated its 350th anniversary. Not a word about the Pledge or the Liberty Pole or the great naval procession could be found anywhere in the official literature or on the state web site. And if all those amazing things aren’t part of the state’s official history, well, who’s to say they even happened at all?

Winston Churchill famously observed that, “History is written by the victors.” There is a lot of truth to this thought. Unfortunately, it fails to answer a critical question about the history that isn’t written…namely, who decides what is worth throwing away? 

Editor’s Note: It turns out this is one piece of New Jersey worth saving. At the Garden State Film Festival in Atlantic City this spring, one of the nominees for Best Documentary is a 40-minute film narrated by Ed Asner entitled You Heard It Here First: The Pledge of Allegiance at the Twin Lights. 

We’re number one! We’re number one!

By Diane Alter

I grew up in New Jersey, mere steps from the Jersey Shore. My birth certificate (wherever it is, it was a long time ago) is proof. An avid runner, cyclist, and lover of all things outdoors, I have explored much of the Garden State on foot, or on family road trips that were more exhausting that any trek I ever tackled. Needless to say, I’ve learned a couple of things during that time. 

First, New Jersey is more than the sum of its beautiful beaches, sylvan suburbs, picturesque farms, busy roads, fantastic foods, powerful politics, and original culture. 

Second, to truly appreciate the collective character of the state, you have to understand the curious pride we New

Jerseyans take in our accomplishments. Read on and I think you’ll see what I mean. The force of one is definitely strong with us.

New Jersey has more engineers and scientists per square mile than anywhere else in the world. 

The state’s biopharmaceutical industry is its largest. The sector encompasses pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical device manufacturing. Also, if you consider pharmaceuticals to be chemicals, that makes us the largest chemical-producing state in the nation. 

Upper Case Editorial Services

New Jersey has more diners than any state in the country. 

The Garden State boasts more than 500. The oldest still in operation is the Summit Diner. If you haven’t wolfed down Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a hard roll, some would say you haven’t really lived. If you consume these sandwiches regularly, some would say you don’t have long to live.  

Courtesy of akaBuddy

New Jersey is home to the most haunted house in America.

The Seabrook-Wilson House (left) in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown has earned that distinction, according to Weird NJ, thanks to the ghostly apparitions that are frequently reported in and around the house. Built around 1650 and referred to locally as the Spy House, it was originally a tavern where British troops got liquored up enough to spill military secrets. 

The world’s largest indoor farm is located in New Jersey. 

And you’ll never guess where: Newark. AeroFarms took over an old industrial site and transformed it into a 69,000-square foot vertical farm. By employing LED lighting and nutrient-rich “aeroponic” mist, it is capable of producing 2 million pounds of herbs and vegetables. 

New Jersey is the fluorescent mineral capital of the world. 

More specifically, the neighboring towns of Franklin and Ogdenburg in the northwest corner of the state. At least 56 minerals found in the mines glow brightly under a blacklight, many of which exist nowhere else on the planet. 

The world’s champion gum-chewer calls New Jersey home.

In 2014, Michael Amato blew 15 bubbles in 60 seconds to set a Guinness-certified world record. Another recent Guinness record-setter was Manny Yarborough of Rahway, an American sumo wrestler. At 6’8” and 704 pounds, he was the world’s largest athlete. Manny passed away last December of a heart attack.

Upper Case Editorial Services

The world’s longest boardwalk is in New Jersey. 

That would be Atlantic City, of course, at 4.5 miles. It’s also the oldest, having opened in 1870. In 2013, Seaside Heights set a record for the longest ribbon-cutting in history when it finished rebuilding after SuperStorm Sandy. The ribbon measured 5.1 miles. 

The first professional basketball game was played in New Jersey. 

In 1896, Trenton’s Masonic Temple hosted a meeting between teams from the Trenton YMCA and Brooklyn YMCA. The players all got a cut of the gate. New Jersey also hosted the first official football game, between Rutgers and Princeton, in 1869. The first “official” baseball game was supposedly played in Hoboken in 1846, but newspaper accounts of games dating back to the 1830s have since come to light.

Scott Kelly

Mark Kelly

New Jersey has put the most identical twins in space.

One set is enough for the record here. Mark and Scott Kelly grew up in West Orange. Mark, who is married to Gabby Giffords, is six minutes older. New Jersey also put a man on the moon (Buzz Aldrin, Oradell) and produced the first American woman to walk in space (Kathyrn Sullivan, Paterson).

Courtesy of Dusso Janladde

New Jersey has the world’s tallest roller coaster. 

Great Adventure’s Kingda Ka stands 456 feet tall. The ride is basically a dead drop, and is less than 30 seconds long. At a top speed of 128 mph, it’s the second-fastest on the planet. New Jersey can also claim the most insane amusement park ever: Action Park. That was actually the name of a 2013 documentary, which featured the unforgettable Cannonball Loop. If you rode it, you know what I’m talking about. 

GPS COMES TO GREEN BROOK 

The General Plumbing Supply Team at their new Green Brook Showroom is ready to help customers with all their kitchen, bath and lighting needs. GPS is one of the largest plumbing supply operations in the state, with fourteen locations — nine of which are showrooms — designed to show off the latest trends in kitchen and bath design. GPS works with contractors and homeowners alike, and they partner with all of the best-known brands, from Kohler and Moen to KraftMaid and Grohe. Thanks to Elisabeth Woomer for her help with the story on page 15.

ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE AWARD 

Trinitas honorees gathered to display their awards at the 97th Meeting of the New Jersey Hospital Association. At center, Gary S. Horan, President and CEO, FACHE, displaying his 2016 Distinguished Service Award, flanked by, from left, Joe McTernan, DHSc, FACHE, Senior Director of Community and Clinical Services; Mary McTigue, VP, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Offi-cer, Brant Maslowski, MICP, Mobile ICU Coordinator, holding the Excellence in Quality Improvement Award which recognized Trinitas’ Mobile Integrated Health Service (MIHS) program; Raffi Matossian, MD, Emergency Department; Lucy Ankrah MA, MSN, ANP-BC, Transitional Care Coordinator, and Rod Muench, Director, Pre-Hospital Services, all of whom celebrated both awards.

I AM LEGEND 

Shade M. Lee, a 94-year-old Elizabeth resident who served in World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, was saluted for his service by receiving a “We Honor Veterans” certificate from the VA and NHPCO program in recognition of his service and sacrifice. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. They served as air fighters and bombers in World War II. Lee trained at Moton Field, the Tuskegee Army Air Field, and was educated at Tuskegee University, in Alabama.  Trinitas staff members celebrated his historic place in US military history.

KUDOS FOR COMMITMENT 

Carolyn Forcina, Regional Representative for the American Hospital Association in Washington, DC, presented a plaque to Gary S. Horan, President and CEO, in recognition of the decades of service Trinitas and its predecessor hospitals have offered to the residents of Elizabeth and surrounding communities.  

A DEGREE ABOVE

Rutgers University School of Nursing graduate, Dr. Dawn M. Zimmerman,DNP, RNC, APN, CNE, faculty member at the Trinitas School of Nursing  (right), is now among the less than 1% of nurses nationwide who hold the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She joins Nicole A. Champagne,  BS, RN, DNP (left) and Janine Graf-Kirk, DNP, RN-BC, CNE, of the School  of Nursing, who hold this prestigious advanced degree.

WORD OF MOUTH

The Garden Restaurant in Union recently welcomed the acclaimed Justin Massie as its new Executive Chef. Massie, a graduate of the California Culinary Academy of San Francisco, honed his craft in prestigious 5-star kitchens, including the Ritz Carlton Dana Point in Laguna Beach and the Peninsula and SLS Hotels, both in Beverly Hills.  He returned to New Jersey to work at the celebrated Heldrich in New Brunswick. “You need to love what you do to be successful in this industry, and I absolutely love what I do,” Massie says. “Even if it’s a classic dish, I look to put my own contemporary twist on it, just to show people something they’ve never seen before. I look to outdo myself on a daily basis, and that’s what gives me the drive to get to the next level with everything I do.

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING 

Elegant Image in Westfield held a grand reopening recently at its more spacious quarters on South Avenue West. Owner Claudia Cruz and her husband Jon Regen (center) did the ribbon-cutting honors as Westfield business leaders Jerry Sullivan, Jeffrey Christakos, Gene Jannotti, salon manager AmyLynn Rollins, members of the Elegant Image staff, and Councilman Sam Della Fera, celebrated the relocation. The Westfield salon was previously located on West Broad Street.

Photo provided by Joe Renna, Photographer

SEEING IS BELIEVING

The Eye Care & Surgery Center hosted the Westfield Chamber of Commerce for an evening of education and engagement. From left to right: Gene Janotti, Greater Westfield Chamber Board Member; Dr. Joel Confino and Dr. Ivan Jacobs, co-founders of Eye Care & Surgery Center, and Dr. Milton Kahn, partner.

Gifts with THE FORCE

R-TOE-D-TOE
You don’t have to be artificially intel-ligent to snag a pair of Star Wars ’Droid Socks. Available at best-wedding-anniversary-gift-ideas.com.

JUST FUR FUN
The Chewbacca Can Cooler keeps beverages cold and fuzzy. Available at thinkgeek.com.

DARK SIDE The Thermos Kylo Ren FUNtainer may make bullies think twice before demanding your kid’s lunch money. Available at toysrus.com.

LUKE WORN?
You can’t know a Jedi without first walking in her footsteps…or Skywalker Light Saber Heels. Available at fun.com.

WAY COOL
The BB-8 Mini Fridge was inspired by the skittish astromech in The Force Awakens. Available at zulily.com.

BIT OF A STRETCH
Thanks to Rebel Alliance Yoga Pants, your downward facing Babbajo never looked so good. Available at thinkgeek.com.

Gifts for the ONE You Love

DOTS BEAUTIFUL Burberry’s whimsical update on its classic Giant Check Scarf—the #1 high-end fashion item at Bloomies over the holidays—is back in stock. Available at bloomingdales.com.

CAMP TIME
Gamers can rest easy with the Xbox One Pillow by Joseph Galbraith. Available at redbubble.com.

SIMPLY AMAZIN’
Old-School Baseball Cards are making a comeback with young collectors. Available at attackofthebbcards.com.

IN THE RED
Cat in the Hat fans will want to un-box the infant/toddler Thing 1 Bodysuit as soon as it’s delivered. Available at aliexpress.com.

FETCHING FASHION
The Barkology
Alpha Dog Cap let’s your dog know who’s #1 (duh, he is, of course). Available at bissf.com.

SLICE OF LIFE
Brand your own image into every piece of toast with the Selfie Toaster. Available at hammacher.com.

EDGE takes you inside the area’s most creative kitchens.

Paragon Tap & Table • Korean BBQ Pork 

77 Central Ave. • CLARK

(732) 931-1776 • paragonnj.com

At Paragon Tap and Table we feature as many cultures of cuisine as we feature regions of craft beer. This Korean BBQ Pork is served on soba noodle cake with tempura fried scallion. It’s one of the many dishes that is featured on the spring menu. I change the menu seasonally, while keeping a strong variety of our customers’ favorites. 

— Eric B. LeVine, Chef/Partner

BoulevardFive72 • Grilled “Chermoula” Organic Salmon

572 Boulevard • KENILWORTH

(908) 709-1200 • boulevardfive72.com

This Mediterranean-inspired, signature dish is served with fingerling potatoes, roasted golden-beet puree and a whole grain mustard sauce. The Salmon is sourced from the North Atlantic’s Faroese Island Fiords by Boulevard’s own seafood company. 

— Scott Snyder, Chef/Owner

Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse • Wasabi Crusted Filet Mignon 

1230 Route 22 West • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 518-9733 • partyonthegrill.com

We prepare a crusted 8-ounce filet mignon served with gingered spinach, shitake mushrooms, and a tempura onion ring. 

Daimatsu • Crab Avocado Salad

860 Mountain Ave. • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 233-7888 • daimatsusushibar.com

One of my favorite creations—I prepare something different every week—Crab Avocado Salad features snow crab, chipotle jelly, avocado, cilantro, lime soy dressing with yuzu citrus foam and caviar on top.

— Momo, Chef

Publick House • Publick Burger    

899 Mountain Ave. • MOUNTAINSIDE

(908) 233-2355 • publickhousenj.com

A great burger is a combination of many things. It starts with the patty, our house blend of chuck, brisket, and shortrib, which is grilled to temperature. Topped with caramelized onions, crispy applewood smoked bacon, and perfectly melted white cheddar, sandwiched between a lightly charred brioche bun. Served with double fried, house cut French fries. The Publick Burger is always the perfect meal.

— Bernie Goncalves, Owner

Luciano’s Ristorante & Lounge • Handmade Cavatellini 

1579 Main Street • RAHWAY

(732) 815-1200 • lucianosristorante.com

At the restaurant our main goal is to give our guest a pleasurably dining experience with fresh ingredients and personable service, in beautiful Tuscan décor accompanied with our fireplaces which are available for dining and private parties of all types. Our menus are seasonal influence to what is available in the market from food, wine, and cocktails. Our handmade Cavatellini with crumbled sweet sausage, shaved broccoli rabe, and broccoli rabe and pine nut pesto is topped with fresh ricotta and shaved Parmesan.

— Joseph Mastrella, Executive Chef/Partner

Morris Tap & Grill • Shrimp Crepes

500 Route 10 West • RANDOLPH

(973) 891-1776 • morristapandgrill.com

At Morris Tap and Grill, I am always looking to share seasonal dishes that reflect local flavor and creativity. Our Shrimp Crepes feature local vegetables blended to make this light and refreshing dish an instant favorite for our guests.

— Eric B LeVine, Chef/Partner

Boulevard Seafood Company • Yellowfin Tuna Poke 

49 West Main Street • SOMERVILLE

(908) 722-0600 • boulevardseafoodcompany.com

Diced sushi-quality tuna tossed in sesame-soy chili dressing, with avocado, jicama and sugar snap peas.  One example of the dishes we prepare using seafood that we bring in daily to our retail market, which is located on the restaurant premises. 

— Scott Snyder, Chef/Owner

Spirit: Social Eatery and Bar • Double Cheddar Infused Burger

250 Morris Ave. • SPRINGFIELD

(973) 258-1600 • mclynns.com

It doesn’t get better then a double cheddar infused burger from the new Spirit: Social Eatery and Bar.  

— Mark Houlker, Chef

Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse • Volcano Roll 

23A Nelson Avenue • STATEN ISLAND, NY

(718) 966-9600 • partyonthegrill.com

Hot-out-of-the-oven, crab, avocado and cream cheese rolled up and topped with a mild spicy scallop salad.

Galloping Hill Caterers

Galloping Hill Road and Chestnut Street • UNION

(908) 686-2683 • gallopinghillcaterers.com

Galloping Hill Caterers has been an incredible landmark for nearly sixty years. We pride ourselves in delivering “over the top” cuisine, impeccable service and outstanding attention to detail. That is the hallmark of our success! Simply, an unforgettable experience. Pictured here is one of our crepes flambé that really creates lots of excitement!

The Manor • Seared Atlantic Salmon with Almond Couscous

111 Prospect Avenue • WEST ORANGE

(973) 731-2360 • themanorrestaurant.com

Fresh and light, this seared Atlantic salmon with almond couscous, asparagus tips, and a roasted tomato beurre blanc is full of bright, rich flavors. Our range of creative contemporary cuisine offered alongside classic Manor favorites ensures that every guest can find something special on their next visit.

— Mario Russo, Chef de Cuisine

Building the Ultimate Game Room 

By Caleb MacLean 

The suburban basement doesn’t get the love it deserves. Finished, unfinished, damp or dry—it is a launching pad for household pests and odd smells, and, in its own taunting way, a monument to unfulfilled potential. How one fills that yawning void is a matter of personal choice, personal taste and personal budget. The most personal solution? An all-out play space: aka the ultimate game room.   

 In newer (and grander old) homes, basements offer a great deal of square footage. Even after allowing for HVAC equipment, storage, water heaters and other appliances, there may still be 200 or more square feet that can be devoted to a fun dungeon. Often much, much more. The first order of business is to ensure the space is clean, dry, well lit, ventilated and climate controlled—in other words, finished. Fortunately, most suburban homeowners already have reasonably civilized basements. 

Next comes a critically important question: What will be the true nature of this space? Presumably, the overarching goal is to promote meaningful interaction with family and friends. Which requires stepping back a bit and looking at the “culture” of your family. 

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Will this space be an extension or celebration of that culture, or is it a way of changing the game, so to speak?For example, if your family tends to gather around a monster flatscreen, then maybe you want an even more monstrous flatscreen downstairs as part of an awesome home theater array. Or maybe, just maybe, you want to change the game…and create a space that promotes some old-school interaction.

The home theater option? You can knock that out in an afternoon at Best Buy. To create a truly extraordinary fun dungeon, however, takes the kind of obsessive, time-consuming effort and financial commitment that, by its very nature, will almost certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In a perfect, totally self-indulgent world, the menu must include most, if not all, of the following items:

• Vintage Pinball Machine
• Vintage Arcade Game
• Vintage Jukebox
• Vintage Vending Machine
• Carnival Midway Game
• Foosball or Air Hockey Table
• Pool or Ping-Pong Table

If you happen to be an inveterate collector or borderline shopaholic, all the better, because this is going to require some legwork, both physical and virtual. If you need some starting points, read on…

FLIPPING FANTASTIC… THE PINBALL MACHINE

Having grown up in the pre-video game age, I hold that humankind has yet to invent an entertainment device that improves on the mechanical pinball machine. It combines the demanding skills of lightning-quick anticipation and hand-eye coordination with the relatively undemanding ability to stand, pull and release a spring-loaded plunger and push buttons every few seconds. Pinball first gained popularity as a gambling device, and was actually outlawed for many years. The “modern” pinball machine, with its rolling scores and rubber bumpers came on the scene in the 1960s. A new, electronic generation of machines hit the arcades in the late 1970s. The arcades themselves went the way of the dinosaur as soon as home video game systems achieved a certain level of sophistication: Why pour quarters into a slot when you can hit the reset button for free? 

But pinball machines survive—even the old ones. They were built well and built simply enough so that they could be maintained and repaired without too much expense or expertise. They are now bought and sold like vintage automobiles, only much less expensive. And “tune-up” kits are available online to keep them clicking.

When purchasing a pinball machine for home use, the first decision to make is whether you want a vintage mechanical ’60s or ’70s model, or one with a computer that runs the show. The machines from the ’80s and ’90s have a lot more bells and whistles, and usually feature multi-ball play. Many of these are licensed after entertainment properties, such as The Addams Family movie franchise, starring Angelica Huston and Raul Julia. The Addams Family pinball machine happens to be the all-time best-selling pinball machine, with more than 20,000 units sold and many (if not most) still available. It was manufactured by Midway and designed by Larry DeMar and Pat Lawlor. 

Lawlor, it’s handy to know, was regarded as the industry’s creative genius. If you go shopping for a machine and see his name attached to it, it’s probably fun to play. Interestingly, for many years the Holy Grail for video game designers was to make a virtual version of The Addams Family pinball. An Addams Family machine in good, working condition will run you around $7,500.

For a test of your flipper skill without all the solid-state electronics, a machine from the 1970s may be the way to go. These were the mainstays in arcades at a time when the most sophisticated video game was Pong. Their price and popularity depends on a number of variables,including the art on the back-painted glass. A challenging machine treasured among silver-ball aficionados is Gottlieb’s Target Alpha, which came out in the mid- 1970s. Its fun and challenging play field was used in several other machines. 

A well-restored example of Target Alpha can cost up to$5,000, but as with most machines of this era, prices vary based on availability and condition. With any pinball machine you purchase, it’s important to understand what’s involved in maintenance and repair. You can do most of it yourself if you have some mechanical acumen. If not, we are fortunate to live in a state where there are a number of people who both sell and service vintage machines. To get a feel for the different options take a drive down to the Silver Ball Museum in Asbury Park. It was actually featured in our Wendy Williams fashion shoot a few years ago.

HIGH SCORE…  THE ARCADE VIDEO GAME

In the old days, the golden rule of video arcade games was “pay a quarter, die three times.” It cost money to get seriously good at Space Invaders or Pac-Man or Donkey Kong or whatever “your game” happened to be. Space Invaders gobbled up quarters at an astonishing rate. In its day, the game made more money than the first Star Wars movie—by a factor of three times! Its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, became a video game legend. He went on to create Donkey Kong and other hit arcade games for Nintendo before turning his attention to home gaming, and was the driving force behind Wii.

Going out and finding your favorite arcade console is fairly simple. You can track down a refurbished vintage model online, at auction or from a regional dealer. Or you can check out new arcade consoles that offer multiple “classic” games. Though eschewed by purists, they have become movie—by a factor of three times! Its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, became a video game legend. He went on to create Donkey Kong and other hit arcade games for Nintendo before turning his attention to home gaming, and was the driving force behind Wii.

Among collectors, one of the most popular vintage arcade games is a maniacal attack-and-rescue space game called Defender. When it came out in 1981 it was predicted to be a flop because its level of difficulty was so high. It required players to watch four different parts of the screen at the same time and work controls in combinations that took hundreds of quarters to master. Of course, that turned out to be the key to Defender’s success—players became obsessed with annihilating alien spacecraft and rescuing their buddies before they plunged to their deaths. Larry DeMar and fellow pinball programmer Eugene Davis designed the game for Williams, which ended up selling more than 60,000 units. They sell for about $2,500 today.

JUKEBOX HERO… MUSIC MACHINES

Your fun dungeon needs a soundtrack, of course. And what’s more fun than a vintage jukebox? These machines are not for audiophiles; what goes into them is far more important than what comes out of them. That being said, there is a burgeoning market for classic machines that have been converted to play CDs or use Bluetooth. The sound quality may be better and the maintenance simpler, but then you don’t get to track down all those favorite 45s your kid sister scratched up or your mom gave away for pennies at a garage sale. 

Jukeboxes are less pieces of furniture than they are small architectural marvels. Their designs reflect their times. They set the tone for a game room, not just acoustically but visually, as well. Consequently, the choice of a jukebox will almost certainly be the most personal fun-dungeon choice you make. For most people, the model they choose harkens back to a special time or place in their lives. It may be a gleaming, chrome tabletop model like they used to have in truck stops and diners. Or perhaps an eye-popping Rock-Ola or Wurlitzer from the 1940s. The originals have gotten very pricey—often $10,000 and up—but the modern reproductions are quite nice and affordable.

If you must go Old School, then consider a sleek, mid-century Seeburg. What they lacked in color they made up for with functionality and simplicity of design. You can buy a fully restored Seeburg from the 1950s for $5,000 to$7,500. 

ICE COLD…  BEVERAGE DISPENSERS

Beverage availability is a key component in any basement re-do. You can certainly invest a couple of hundred dollars in a small fridge and be done with it. But to stay faithful to the theme of interactivity, it’s worth considering a more traditional delivery system. Soda fountains and beer taps are what most people think of first. The home version of your basic five-flavor countertop soda dispenser—like the one at your neighborhood pizzeria—runs around$1,500. There are a lot of parts to clean and maintain, so homeowners often end up cutting a maintenance deal with the same company that services the one at the pizzeria. 

The less-elegant choice of a vintage vending machine might actually make more sense in the long run. There are lots of refurbished machines on the market that keep soda and beer cans (or bottles) cold until they roll out at the push of a button. They are very simple mechanically—once you buy a restored one, you’re unlikely to have a problem with the vending mechanism. How much is a restored machine?Anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. 

Another choice for beverages is the old-time refrigerated chest. Here you want a reproduction; the originals are wildly inefficient. You open the lid, reach in, and grab a cold one. Big and colorful, they run between $500 and $1,000 depending on size and come emblazoned with your favorite old-time soda logo (especially if your favorite old-time soda is Coke). 

STEP RIGHT UP… CARNIVAL GAMES

The most overlooked piece of the fun-dungeon puzzle has to be the tried-and-true carnival game. You know, the ones that look so easy…and $20 later you realize you’ve been had. Well, what better place to practice for your next visit to the midway than in the comfort of your own home? There are any number of options, some of which you can cobble together yourself if you’re handy. From a space-saving standpoint, however, you’d be wise to a) stick to the vertical ones and b) avoid games with sharp or high-velocity projectiles. Popping the balloons with darts and knocking over the milk bottles with baseballs are not wise choices in an enclosed space.

Actually, your best bet may be the most boring game on the midway, what the carnies call Fat Cats. You know this one: three or four rows of stained cloth felines that seem to be touching each other. But of course most of that is “fur,” which means your soft toss (the ball is usually misshapen or oddly weighted) must hit the cats perfectly to tilt them back. With a little practice in your basement, this is the most winnable game at the carnival—which is why the prizes in that booth are always the worst! A Fat Cat set up will run you $300 to $600. 

HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES…  TABLE GAMES

Feeling good about your hand-eye coordination? Then don’t go anywhere near a foosball or air hockey table. For some reason, the better athlete you are, the less athletic these games make you feel. The odd corollary to this rule is that, the more you drink, the better you get. (Or at least, the better you think you get). Still, what ultimate game room would be complete without at least one of these two classic contraptions?

www.istockphoto.com

A bit of trivia: Although it never appeared in a single episode of Downton Abbey, the tabletop soccer game we call Foosball was very popular in England in the 1920s. It has enjoyed popularity in the colonies since the 1950s, has been a staple of frat-house culture since the 1970s, and was played avidly by Chandler, Joey and Monica in Friends in the 1990s. The Foosball table is designed so that games can be played one-on-one or two-on-two. In 2002, the International Table Soccer Federation was formed with the goal of making it an Olympic sport. There are a lot of cheaply made Foosball tables on the market, so if you feel that yours will be getting a serious workout, best to invest in the ones that start around $400.

Air hockey is one of those infuriating games where kids have just as good a chance of winning as grown-ups. It is almost impossible to “square up” the round puck with the round mallets—the result being all kinds of crazy, counterintuitive caroms. The game was invented by the good people at Brunswick in the early 1970s and was immortalized in the 1976 film The Bad News Bears. Prices vary, but a good 8-foot table starts at about $700. By the way, there is an unwritten rule that the same fun dungeon cannot have both a foosball and air hockey table. Oops, now it’s written.

THE CLASSICS…  POOL & PING-PONG

There is a similar rule about pool tables and ping-pong tables—except that you can find models that combine the two, so it’s not quite the same rule. The differences between pool and ping-pong (aka billiards and table tennis) couldn’t be more obvious. The former rewards a pensive, mathematical approach, while the latter requires quick wrists and even quicker reflexes. Depositing a pool table in a basement takes Hulkish strength and determination. Ping-pong tables fold in half and have wheels. If you have young kids, ping-pong is likely to entertain them for years. Pool certainly has its appeal, but is more of an acquired taste.

Buying a pool table is not a simple process. You definitely want quality and should be willing to pay for it. The problem is, you can pay for quality and not get it. Reviews and ratings of pool tables on the ’net sound suspiciously like they were written and planted by people in the industry, so to get the best value it’s worth doing your homework.

According to Bruce Sanderson, buyer and store manager for Pelican Sport Center in Morris Plains, the best strategy is to arm yourself with a checklist of bottom-line goals. For instance, the frame, top and cabinet of a pool table should be made of solid wood, with no veneers or laminates. Also don’t settle for anything less than a one-inch slate. And avoid cheap rubber bumpers, which produce poor rebounds. “Ken-66 rubber is what you’re looking for,” he says.

There are other telltale signs of inferior quality. The diamond sites along the sides should be actual inlays, not painted on. Pockets should be leather, not vinyl. And demand felt that incorporates a Teflon coating, which makes spills easier to clean and resists pilling. A good quality felt, says Sanderson, should be 75% wool content and 25% nylon blend, between 19 and 20 ounces per yard.

Bottom line? Be prepared to spend $2,000 to $3,500 for a table built to last. Price points can soar into the five digits for fancy designs, but keep in mind that these tables play the same; you’re paying for looks. Brunswick and Olhausen are the big brand names in the market. However, Imperial features the same construction at a slightly lower price—and the company is located right here in New Jersey.

Online reviews and ratings for ping-pong tables feel a bit more honest, perhaps because there is relatively little money at stake. The most durable tables combine a strong frame and substantial playing surface. You can easily spend over $1,000 on a top-of-the-line Kettler, but very good ones are available for $500 to $600. If you start with a pool table and decide you want ping-pong, too, you can purchase a two-piece conversion top with padding underneath for$200 to $300, depending on the finish. 

Game On!

BANG FOR THE BUCK
Channel your inner Sheldon
(or Amy) with the Big Bang Theory version of Monopoly. Available at cbsstore.com.

A CERTAIN RING TO IT
You don’t have to be a genius to play Circular Reasoning, but
(according to MENSA) it helps. Available at mensamindgames.com.

WHITE WALKERS WELCOMEThe Game of Thrones version
of Risk elevates war and
chaos to new heights.
Available at battleaxegames.com.

PLUG & PLAY
Strategy, logic and quick thinking are the keys to winning Power Grid, where the goal is to keep your cities from going dark.
Available at boardgamegeek.com.

BUG JUICE
Each interchangeable link in the Code-A-Pillar teaches little ones the basics of coding.
Available at fisher-price.com.

NEVER SKIP A BEAT 

The John Taylor Babbitt Foundation generously awarded Trinitas$5,171 to help support the cost of one defibrillator monitor for the new Emergency Department’s ICU Step-Up unit.  At age 16, John Taylor Babbitt was a three-sport athlete, a dedicated student, and an active member of his Chatham, N.J., church youth ministry. He was “larger than life,” says his father, David. While playing basketball at church one evening in 2006, John Taylor died of sudden cardiac arrest, the result of an undiagnosed genetic disorder. Since then, David and his wife, JoAnne Taylor Babbitt, have championed greater access to automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, which can help someone’s heart re-establish an effective rhythm after a heart attack.

Pictured above: John Taylor Babbitt Foundation Board Members toured the Trinitas Emergency Department in August. Left to right: Marion Joyce, Nadine Brechner (Trinitas Health Foundation), David Babbitt, JoAnne Babbitt, and Andrew Babbitt.

ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE? 

Trinitas Regional Medical Center is in the midst of a Capital Campaign to raise $18.7 million to expand our Emergency Department and dramatically improve its ability to manage extremely high patient volume and acuity levels. Our plan will nearly double the number of patient beds, provide immediate access to advanced diagnostic equipment and create environmen-tally appropriate areas for pediatric, elderly, behavioral health and non-emergent patients. With this expansion progressing on time and on budget, we are very happy to say we are on track to unveil a brand new ED in 2017. 

We recently received some very exciting news about the campaign: The JC Kellogg Foundation has awarded us a $4 million challenge grant, meaning that all gifts over the next three years will be matched dollar-for-dollar until we reach $4 million! This is a wonderful time to support the patients of Trinitas and DOUBLE the value of your gift.

Please join us and make a gift today! Your gift will be matched by the JC Kellogg Foundation, and will help us create a BIGGER, BETTER, STATE-OF-THE-ART Emergency Department for all of our patients! To make a gift to the Emergency Department Capital Campaign, please contact Nadine Brechner at nbrech-ner@trinitas.org or Rob Eccles at reccles@trinitas.org or call the foundation office at (908) 994-8249.

A NIGHT OF JAZZ TO REMEMBER… 

If cool jazz is your groove, join Trinitas Health Foundation’s Jazz Celebration featuring David Sanborn on Thursday, November 17th.  Enjoy a light buffet supper at NJPAC followed by the concert at 8 pm.  Orchestra seating, advance parking, and a memento of the evening are included.  What a cool, sweet treat of an evening! Contact Ryan Hubler (908) 994-8101 or by email at rhubler@trinitas.org if you’d like to purchase a ticket(s) or discuss sponsorship opportunities.  

Fussy Babies 

A recent study out of the University of Buffalo suggests that babies who are fussier and take longer to calm down may be at higher risk for future obesity. Infants were taught to push a button for a reward in the study. Researchers found a correlation between babies who were willing to work for a non-food reward (such as bubbles) and the ability to recover quickly from crying or distress. Likewise, there was a correlation between babies who worked for a food reward and who took longer to stop crying.

Other studies, published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), have explored how feeding can be used as a strategy to calm or pacify infants. Association with increased carbohydrate intake and practice to calm down infants was found. Analysis indicated that fussier babies were twice as likely to be fed solids and non-milk liquids at 3 month of age. “Those infants were also more likely to be given cereal in the bottle,” points out

Yelena Samofalov, MD Trinitas Pediatric Health Center 908.994.5750

Yelena Samofalov, MD of the Trinitas Pediatric Center, “which is not consistent with current feeding recommendations. These feeding practices also can lead to infants being overweight. We suggest to our patients to follow your doctor’s advice regarding feeding your infant…and not to use food as a pacifier for a fussy baby.”

Parkinson’s Breakthrough 

Parkinson’s researchers have long been searching for a way to get out in front of the disease before its symptoms develop. Scientists at University College in London may have made a breakthrough in this effort with a non-invasive eye test. They observed that rats exhibited changes in the back of the eye before visible symptoms occurred and before brain cells had been significantly damaged. Parkinson’s is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide and currently there are no blood tests or brain scans that can render a definitive early diagnosis. Identifying an early biomarker would be a game-changer. 

Stem-Cell Scams? 

Stem cell therapies hold profound promise for a wide range of diseases, with public awareness at an all-time high. Yet only one stem-cell product has actually been approved for sale by the FDA: Hemacord, which is used for blood disorders. None of the other 300-plus therapies advertised around the country have been deemed safe or effective. They include treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and even autism.  Many of the companies offering these therapies do not even have a stem-cell expert on staff. 

Nice Pick 

So it was under our noses all along? Well, technically, in our noses. German scientists announced the discovery of bacteria in the human nose that produces an antibiotic that holds great promise in the fight against super bugs. The human body isn’t typically fertile ground for antibiotics—most come from the soil. However Lugdunin, which is made naturally by a microbe that lives in nose hair bedding, works in ways that researchers don’t yet fully understand. “Although preliminary, this report is very exciting,” says

William Farrer, MD
Chief of Infectious Diseases
Trinitas Regional Medical Center
908.994.5455

William Farrer, MD, the Academic Chief of Infectious Disease at Trinitas. “We are running out of antibiotics as bacteria mutate to become ‘superbugs,’ resistant to most if not all antibiotics. Research on the human microbiome and its role in health and disease has exploded in recent years. This discovery may lead researchers to find other potential antibiotics made by the bugs living in and on us.” 

Bagpipe Lung: It’s a Thing 

It may be time to reach out to the trumpeter in your life. Doctors in England recently diagnosed a fatal case of what they are calling “bagpipe lung”—a deadly reaction to mold and fungus that can live in the moist interior of many wind instruments. In this case, the 61-year-old victim was a bagpipe player, but scientists warn that the same conditions could exist in saxophones, trumpets and other instruments. They suggest that owners do regular cleanings to prevent the build-up of harmful pathogens, and that musicians who develop a lingering cough get themselves checked out in order to prevent permanent lung damage. 

Cancer Study to Assess Gene-Editing Technology

You may be hearing about something called CRISPR–Cas9 over the next couple of years. And that would be a good thing. It’s a promising new therapy being tested against cancer at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Texas and California-San Francisco with the blessing of the National Institutes of Health. CRISPR–Cas9 involves a gene-editing technology used to alter a patient’s T cells so that they do a better job recognizing and attacking tumors. The FDA hasn’t approved CRISPR–Cas9, so the initial goal of the study is to determine whether it’s safe. The study is being funded by tech billionaire Sean Parker, and will be tested on a handful of patients who have melanoma, sarcoma and myeloma. 

Benefits of Unsaturated Fats 

Is the key to staying slim eating more fat? University of Minnesota researchers analyzed 56 different studies on diet and chronic disease and noticed something interesting: People who consume unsaturated fats (such as avocados, nuts and fatty fish) along with fruits, veggies and whole grains are 29% less likely to develop heart disease or suffer strokes, 30% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and at a 57% reduction in the risk for breast cancer. Carbs and processed sugar are the real bad guys, the study suggests, adding that when it comes to monounsaturated fats like olive oil, for most people there is no such thing as “too much.”

Mark Preston joins the robotic team at Trinitas.

By Yolanda Navarra Fleming

Mark Preston didn’t grow up with the dream of becoming a doctor. In fact, he says, the first time he had any inkling of entering the field of medicine was during his senior year in college, when he was digging out a particularly deep splinter in his hand. At the time, he was at Dartmouth College majoring in government. A year later, in a remote part of China, he got sick and spent a day as a patient in an open ward of a hospital.      

“As I witnessed the nurses and doctors caring for much sicker patients, I was impressed and moved by the caring manner of the staff and also taken by the vulnerability one has while being a patient,” he recalls. “That really left an impression.”

A rare moment when the da Vinci surgical robot at Trinitas is not in use.

Upon returning home to his career in finance, he became an EMT, which further opened his eyes to a career in medicine: “Finance wasn’t going to satisfy me…I succumbed to my calling and went back to school to become a doctor.”

Fast-forward to 2016. Dr. Preston—one of the first doctors in the U.S. to become board certified in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (more commonly known as urogynecology)—is now on staff at Trinitas Regional Medical Center, which is among the busiest robotic surgery centers in New Jersey. As director of the Women’s Center for Incontinence and Pelvic Surgery in Waterbury, CT, Dr. Preston relied on robotic surgery as an important part of his practice for the past five years. He brings to Trinitas his expertise in robotic sacrocolpopexy, a surgical technique for repairing pelvic organ prolapse (dropped pelvic organs).

“The problems that I deal with—urinary incontinence, other bladder issues and prolapse—impact so many women,” he says. “These conditions are treatable. You don’t have to live with them. I am very excited about the fact that Trinitas has such an established and highly esteemed robotic surgery program. It’s a real bonus to be able to walk into an already established program of such high quality.”

Known for his relaxed, easygoing personality—and unflappable demeanor in the OR—Dr. Preston spends at least 45 minutes to an hour talking to patients upon first meeting. The key, he says, is to listen to the patient and make sure you are addressing her desires and concerns. 

“It’s really important that patients feel I understand them and that they are comfortable with me,” Dr. Preston explains. “I’ve kept that primary care attitude that I had when I first started in medicine: I love getting to know patients and building a relationship with each person. I spend a lot of time listening, finding out what their goals are, and explaining their problems, the options available, and then ultimately what to expect from the treatment we decide on.”

After his first year of clinical rotations at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, when it came time to choose a specialty, Dr. Preston gravitated to primary care because, he says, “it’s where one gets to know patients over many years and builds a relationship with them. Intellectually, I liked physiology and internal medicine—figuring out how things work or are going wrong. But what I really liked doing was surgery.”

OB/GYN, he concluded, was the only specialty that would combine his favorite aspects of doctoring.

“Within the gynecologic surgical specialties, I found I had a knack for visualizing where things ought to be that have fallen out of place and how to put them back, and I enjoyed the creativity needed to do that,” he says.

“For instance, I see a bulge in the anterior vaginal wall,” says Dr. Preston, “and then try to figure out what’s causing the bulge—is it a weakening or tear in the middle of the vaginal wall or at the top or at the sides, or has the uterus dropped, pulling the wall with it? I have a larger-than-average surgical toolbox, which means I can tailor a surgery to the specific needs of the patient. Rather than having one surgical technique to deal with cystocele, I have four that I can use. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to complete fellowships both in pelvic reconstructive surgery and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery.“

All too often, Dr. Preston sees a patient after an unsuccessful surgical outcome. As a member of the American Urogynecologic Society’s Quality Outcomes Committee, he helps to develop national quality guidelines and measures in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. The organization maintains surgical outcomes registries, works with national quality groups and the federal government on quality measures, and monitors the regulatory environment as it pertains to the specialty.

Although the experience of performing surgery is different for every doctor, what remains the same is the intensity and the importance of remaining laser-focused. What Dr. Preston believes sets him apart is the way he responds to the pressure. When he is on a case, there are no distractions. 

“I am one hundred percent focused on the surgery,” he says. “It’s almost as if time stands still. Fatigue, pains, and other worries…they all disappear when I am in the OR.” EDGE

Mark R. Preston, MD Urogynecologist
Trinitas Regional Medical Center (908) 282-2000

Editor’s Note: Dr. Mark R. Preston did his post-graduate urogynecology training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Emory University Medical School and the Center for Women’s Health and Female Continence in Salinas, CA.

Dr. Adriana Suarez walks the walk…and talks the talk. 

By Yolanda Navarra Fleming

When a doctor and a patient literally don’t speak the same language, building a relationship based on trust and under-standing poses a challenge that, at times, can be impossible to overcome. As a native Spanish speaker, Dr. Adriana I. Suarez-Ligon offers patients of Trinitas Regional Medical Center the most current and accurate breast health care in two languages.     

“There is a large language barrier that exists between the Latino community and the healthcare system,” says Dr. Suarez, who recently joined the Surgical Department at Trinitas as a breast surgeon—and is also an Instructor of Surgery at Rutgers University–New Jersey Medical School in the Division of Surgical Oncology. “Enough is lost in translation when doctors do speak the same language as their patients. I am excited to bridge the gap between the Dr. Adriana Suarez-Ligon (left) pictured with Veronica Vasquez (right), MHA, CN-BA, Breast Patient Navigator, within the Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center. local Hispanic community and the healthcare system.”

Born in the Bronx to Cuban parents, Dr. Suarez received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey–New Jersey Medical School in 2009, and completed her general surgery residency at Rutgers in 2015. 

Dr. Adriana Suarez-Ligon (left) pictured with Veronica Vasquez (right), MHA, CN-BA, Breast Patient Navigator, within the Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Medicine and surgery are complicated,” she says. “Breast cancer is complicated. Even speaking the same language, medical terminology is a language on its own. Just think, we doctors go to medical school for four years before we even complete a specialty training program, which is oftenup to a decade of training before we go out into practice our given specialty. We have all that time to understand the disease processes that we treat and the treatments we offer. Patients generally don’t have that background and now we have to explain their disease to them in an office visit that may not last more than one hour. At least doing so in their native language is a start.”

Dr. Suarez, who doesn’t remember a time that she didn’t want to be a doctor, has followed in the footsteps of her father and aunt, both OBGYNs. However, medical school intrigued her with the prospect of not only being able to care for patients, but also to remove their disease. 

“I really loved the idea of being able to care for female patients with the perspective of being female myself,” she says. “As a breast surgeon, I am able to take care of the female patient with a surgeon’s hands.”

With every new patient a partnership is formed, Dr. Suarez explains. The human being is her top priority, not just the case.  She interacts with mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, wives and husbands and oftentimes, she says, she sees herself in a patient. 

“Each patient is different and at different stages in their lives,” Dr. Suarez explains. “They’ve had vastly different life experiences that make them the unique people they are. These unique experiences also shape how they respond to their diagnosis, whether benign or malignant, and how they approach the treatment plan. I very strongly believe in giving patients all the information they need to make informed decisions for themselves. That said, not all patients want all the information [these patients are rare, she maintains] and want me to make the decision for them; I am okay with this, too.”

And just as no two patients are alike, no two breast cancers are created equal. Indeed, Dr. Suarez takes a special interest in breast cancer disparities, especially among Hispanic women, young breast cancer patients, and high-risk patients. 

“Each breast cancer is as unique as the patient that has the disease,” she explains. “It is very important for doctors to approach each patient with breast cancer on a very individual basis. Similarly, patients need to acknowledge that the stories that they hear and the information that they read may not apply to them. With the accessibility of the internet, there is a lot of information floating around that is not all validated. Be careful and ask a lot of questions.” 

As comfortable as Dr. Suarez is interacting with patients and their families, it is in the operating room where it all comes together. The OR, she says, is a place of Zen and extreme concentration. 

“Operating on my patients is a privilege,” she explains. “One I am very grateful to have. In the OR, my patients relinquish control over their body and trust me to provide them with the highest level of care. I leave everything behind when I enter the OR with a patient and focus solely on them.” 

“I truly believe that my patients and I are partners in their healthcare process. I am the one trained to provide them with their surgical care, but together we make the decisions”

Adriana I. Suarez-Ligon, MD Breast Surgery
Trinitas Regional Medical Center (908) 994-8230

Editor’s Note: Dr. Adriana I. Suarez-Ligon is a frequent lecturer on a wide variety of topics related to breast cancer. She is trained in the spectrum of benign and malignant breast diseases, and is an expert in the vast spectrum of breast pathology. For benign disease, she performs excisional breast biopsies. For malignant disease, she offers breast conservation surgery, oncoplastics, skin and nipple sparing mastectomies, as well as axillary staging procedures. Earlier in 2016, Dr. Suarez completed a Society for Surgical Oncology Accredited Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. She and her husband, a coach for Nike, have two children.