These past few months have been rough in New Brunswick, New Jersey and the North East in general. First, there was the snow, possibly the most profuse in more than a century. Dr. David A. Robinson of Rutgers University [1] says it all:
“Unfortunately, snow records are not lengthy or complete at most locations around the state, but I am confident in stating that most locations established new monthly snowfall records for any winter month in at least the past 130 years.” [2]
Then there was the rain. The …

Today’s Submission By: Alex Giannattasio
1.  Recommendation of the Day – The Pizza Tapes; Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and Tony Rice. In certain circles, the infrequent and erratic collaborations of bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman and Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia have become the stuff of legend; theirs was truly a match made in heaven. Nowhere else is this more evident than in their album The Pizza Tapes (2000). The jam CD was recorded over the course of two nights in Grisman’s personal recording studio. It features such classic folk, blues and …

There are two kinds of men in the world: those that associate their own personal happiness with the success of a football team and those who consider sports in general an unnecessarily hedonistic half of the Roman “bread and circus” approach to government. No amount of measured and reasoned consideration will convince the former that yelling at their televisions will not affect the outcome of the game. No amount of cheap beer, good food and friends will convince the latter that there might be more value in the pursuit of …

“It is impossible to make a mistake.” When a friend first handed me Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, I wasn’t sure that this was going to be the book for me, or even that I’d find the time to read the whole thing. After I had read it (in a matter of four or five hours) I knew it couldn’t have happened any other way…

I read an interesting article[1] the other day by Tom Swick, a veteran travel writer.[2] In it, Tom made mention of the precarious state of travel writing today. Staff writers are becoming more and more scarce, even as their freelance counterparts are finding it harder and harder to sell their work, and all at a time when travel writing is just coming into its own. On the one hand magazines and newspapers, almost universally afflicted with substandard advertisement income and faltering readership bases, are less and less ready, willing or …

This week the Johnsonville Press turns one year old, thanks to our writers, editors, and of course, you, the reader. You may not always be there for us, be we certainly love you anyway. Why else would we continue to produce interesting content, week after week, for little thanks and no compensation?

As Of Yet Untitled

Let me be clear: I am not an Obama supporter. I did not vote for the man, and frankly, I disagree with the majority of his policy initiatives. That said, to my mind, no President has made a more real and concerted effort to cut through the muck of political rhetoric (read: lies) and work in a bipartisan manner with the opposing party.

This Christmas, for the first time ever, I decided to wrap my gifts in wrapping paper. In the past, I’ve avoided this practice, in favor of the “gift bag and tissue paper” approach. The latter is simple and easy, the former, time consuming and difficult. And yet, for whatever reason, this year I chose to snip, fold and tape up my gifts—with surprising precision for a noob, I might add. Even more surprising, at least for me, was how enlightening the whole experience of wrapping gifts proved to be.

Edward Wheeler, a longtime New Brunswick resident, has been homeless for the past five months. He attended last Tuesday’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Drive at Scott Hall, hosted by Operation Robin Hood. Mr. Wheeler, a father of seven, came out to help with brown bag distribution, and to get a meal of his own. He had this to say….

Last Tuesday, Charlie Kratovil and other Operation Robin Hood activists gathered to make brown bag lunches (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a piece of fruit) for the homeless. Attendees marked the event as a success. We spoke to Charlie K., to follow up on the current activities of ORH and the response garnered from the University…