If providence has anything to do with it, you might try to arrange for your first date with someone to be on your mother's birthday.
That way, if that first date gets serious and years later you need to remember the anniversary of your first date - it's your mom's birthday.
How simple is that?
On this date in 1973, I spent the day, a Friday, driving a Maxwell House coffee van around Manhattan - oddly enough, in search of C. W. Post College (General Foods made both Maxwell House coffee and Post cereals) - and had my first accident in a commercial vehicle.
I was driving along lost in the big city when I decided to move from the right center lane to the right curb lane. And when I did, I ignored the horns of the city - the city is full of honking horns - and pulled over and into a livery cab.
So, you could see I really wanted to get home to New Jersey and go out on a date.
We planned to see a Laurel & Hardy movie at the Park Theater on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell.
When I arrived at the gal's house I told her mother about the truck accident and it being my mother's birthday.
The gal's mother thought I might be kidding about the accident, or the birthday, or both. She didn't know me very well.
The gal seemed to think I was full of surprises.
Apparently when I'm telling a true story, sometimes people think it's my imagination going on. And when I tell a story-story, they don't know what to think.
So we went on the date and saw the movie. And that led to another date and another and I can still remember our first date.
When I reminded my wife of our anniversary, she asked me how many years.
And when I said 33, I think I surprised her. Yeah, after all these years.
Heck, it's been 23 years since I left General Foods. Talk about surprises. It's a writer's life for me.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
4.27.2006
4.25.2006
WEEKEND SUBWAY - MONDAY PUDDLE
Pardon us as we contemplate the Navy while staring in the Reflecting Pond North at the Newark City Subway light rail station in Branch Brook Station.
You can say the place flooded Monday morning and evening because of the heavy rain.
But the place flooded because the drains were clogged ... probably with cigarette butts from the ineffective no smoking ban on the NJ Transit platforms.
Reflections at Branch Brook Park
A wider reflection at Branch Brook Park
"Hop on the bus, Gus, make a new plan, Stan..."
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
You can say the place flooded Monday morning and evening because of the heavy rain.
But the place flooded because the drains were clogged ... probably with cigarette butts from the ineffective no smoking ban on the NJ Transit platforms.
Reflections at Branch Brook Park
A wider reflection at Branch Brook Park
"Hop on the bus, Gus, make a new plan, Stan..."
If you arrive on the weekend to see what's left of the famous cherry blossom trees blooming in Branch Brook Park and Belleville Park, you won't have to worry about riding on the light rail on weekends. Buses are provided ... for your convenience.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
4.20.2006
THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY - PART TWO
When I get in the zone to write a poem it becomes the most natural thing in the world.
The words appear and finish each line themselves and suddenly appears before my very eyes a beginning a middle and an end - but don't ask me how.
Later, when I try to read through the scrambled scrawl, the word pictures aren't always clear and the metaphors get tangled in the unreadable words.
And I wonder what in the world was I thinking?
I'm sure this happens to you all the time.
That is, it would if you ever get in the zone to write a poem.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
The Trouble with Poetry (part one)
The words appear and finish each line themselves and suddenly appears before my very eyes a beginning a middle and an end - but don't ask me how.
Later, when I try to read through the scrambled scrawl, the word pictures aren't always clear and the metaphors get tangled in the unreadable words.
And I wonder what in the world was I thinking?
I'm sure this happens to you all the time.
That is, it would if you ever get in the zone to write a poem.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
The Trouble with Poetry (part one)
4.11.2006
WHEAT LINCOLN PENNIES SALE
Hurry and you too can get eight ounces of pennies for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
Hurry. The government won't be making any of these old pennies again!
Do it for Lincoln!
This all makes me wonder how many pennies are in an ounce?
I do know that 1,995 pennies equals $19.95, and that doesn't include shipping and handling.
I've always said that two cents jingles and a nickel doesn't.
What do you think about our old friend the penny?
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Original ad ripped out of recent Newsweek magazine. You can't do that with an online edition, now, can you?
4.05.2006
POETRY IN THE WOODS - No. 3
Motion on the Main StageAndrew Motion, Poet Laureate of England was the featured reader at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival on Saturday in Stanhope, N.J.
Motion's poem LEARNING TO FISH consisted entirely of the names of fishing lures. He said he no longer had children, but 'expensive adult dependents,' who, alas were not much interested in fly fishing.
In FROM THE BALCONY Motion described his visit to Sicily and the constant reminder of the island's active volcano Mt. Etna.
Motion closed with "poems written recently about my father who died earlier this year," UNDERGROUND and WISH LIST.
Elizabeth AlexanderNearly as far away from the Main Stage as you could be and yet remain on the Waterloo Village grounds, Festival Poets Elizabeth Alexander, Natasha Trethewey and David Tucker read their work in the Braw Pond Tent.
Natasha Trethewey has a voice like a warm woolen scarf. You could almost hear her reading a grocery list and finding the beauty in the words "Corn Flakes." However her verse is nowhere near the supermarket variety.
Trethewey read GRAVEYARD BLUES, MYTH, SOUTHERN GOTHIC, INCIDENT, MONUMENT and SOUTH.
Born in 1966, Trethewey told of her parents going to Cincinnati to marry because it was against the law for them to marry in Mississippi under the misogny laws.
"Natasha (in) Russian means Christmas child - even in Mississippi," she said.
Natashsa TretheweyCopyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
Support this web site, shop at Amazon through this link, thanks
The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival 2006
IN THE BLOOD - Andrew Motion
NATIVE GUARD: POEMS - Natasha Trethewey
AMERICAN SUBLIME - Elizabeth Alexander
4.04.2006
TUESDAY NIGHT OR WEDNESDAY MORNING
On Wednesday, April 5
at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
in the morning,
the time and date will be
01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won't ever happen again.
At least not in this life time.
You may now return to your (normal ?) life.
*** Hey, it was one of those email forwards
Some people have too much time on their hands
Other people have more than time on their hands!
at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
in the morning,
the time and date will be
01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won't ever happen again.
At least not in this life time.
You may now return to your (normal ?) life.
*** Hey, it was one of those email forwards
Some people have too much time on their hands
Other people have more than time on their hands!
4.03.2006
MONDAY MORNING RANDOM THOUGHTS
The SPJ Region One Conference was hardly a chorus of pontificating professors.
The panels I attended were more fun and more enriching than sitting in a classroom. Not that there's anything wrong with sitting in a classroom. I practically longed once again for those halcyon days. But as a part-time thing, it's good to hear other perspectives from a cross-section of journalists, and, yes, professors, too.
Although NJ Transit decided to shut down the Light Rail connection from Penn Station to the campus, it was a beautiful day and many people reported delightful walks through the city or satisfactory rides on city buses.
Parking meters in front of Robeson Center on MLK Jr. Blvd. charge 25 cents for half an hour. They have a two-hour limit. The young man who parked behind me, he said he was from Nutley, said not to bother with the meters. I didn't listen. Later, I saw several cars, including the Nutley kid's car, with RU Police envelopes under their windshields.
Meanwhile, across the street there were no parking meters. When I arrived, there were no spaces, either. But, hey, there were parking garages on the other side of the campus square. (You're not supposed to believe them when they say LOT FULL.) So there!
On Friday one panelist said there were 19 million blogs.
On Saturday, Danny Schechter allowed that there were 21 million blogs. Someone else said you shouldn't rely on the government's count of immigrants at an L.A. protest.
Frank Scandale, editor of The Record, Hackensack, said that everyone (in the room at least) should buy a newspaper every day. It doesn't have to be his newspaper, but BUY A NEWSPAPER. What is it, 50 cents a day? Three bucks a week? For the Price of an expensive cup of coffee that you sometimes don't finish, you could read a newspaper every day, he said, I'm paraphrasing.
UT found the conference reinvigoring about this career choice of ours.
Next year's SPJ Region One Conference will be April 13 & 14 at Hofstra in New York.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Support this web site, shop at Amazon through this link, thanks
The panels I attended were more fun and more enriching than sitting in a classroom. Not that there's anything wrong with sitting in a classroom. I practically longed once again for those halcyon days. But as a part-time thing, it's good to hear other perspectives from a cross-section of journalists, and, yes, professors, too.
Although NJ Transit decided to shut down the Light Rail connection from Penn Station to the campus, it was a beautiful day and many people reported delightful walks through the city or satisfactory rides on city buses.
Parking meters in front of Robeson Center on MLK Jr. Blvd. charge 25 cents for half an hour. They have a two-hour limit. The young man who parked behind me, he said he was from Nutley, said not to bother with the meters. I didn't listen. Later, I saw several cars, including the Nutley kid's car, with RU Police envelopes under their windshields.
Meanwhile, across the street there were no parking meters. When I arrived, there were no spaces, either. But, hey, there were parking garages on the other side of the campus square. (You're not supposed to believe them when they say LOT FULL.) So there!
On Friday one panelist said there were 19 million blogs.
On Saturday, Danny Schechter allowed that there were 21 million blogs. Someone else said you shouldn't rely on the government's count of immigrants at an L.A. protest.
Frank Scandale, editor of The Record, Hackensack, said that everyone (in the room at least) should buy a newspaper every day. It doesn't have to be his newspaper, but BUY A NEWSPAPER. What is it, 50 cents a day? Three bucks a week? For the Price of an expensive cup of coffee that you sometimes don't finish, you could read a newspaper every day, he said, I'm paraphrasing.
UT found the conference reinvigoring about this career choice of ours.
Next year's SPJ Region One Conference will be April 13 & 14 at Hofstra in New York.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Support this web site, shop at Amazon through this link, thanks
4.02.2006
A Walk Through Newark, N.J.
Professor Clement Price conducted a mini-tour of the historic old downtown of Newark. The professor, who has been on the Rutgers staff since the late 1960s, provided personal insight into the changes and future of one of America's earliest cities.
Tour starting point, near Paul Robison Student Center, Rutgers-Newark 
Building advertising, Newark, N.J.
Professor Price points out the effect of daylight saving time on the clock at Rutgers Law School.Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Crabgrass Frontier : The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson
God Lives in the Suburbs by John Chervokas
Clement Alexander Price, Ph.D.:
The Afro-American community of Newark, 1917-1947: A social history. Photocopy
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Freedom Not Far Distant: A Documentary History of Afro-Americans in New Jersey
Small Towns, Black Lives: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey
Many Voices, Many Opportunities: Cultural Pluralism & American Arts Policy
BOOKS ABOUT NEWARK, N.J.
Newark: The Golden Age (Postcard History Series) By Jean-Rae Turner, Richard T. Koles, and Charles F. Cummings
Newark, NJ (Images of America Series) By Jean-Rae Turner, Richard T. Koles May not be available through Amazon.
Newark New Jersey (The Making of America Series) By Jean-Rae Turner, Richard T. Koles
Newark's Little Italy: The Vanished First Ward By Michael Immerso
No Easy Walk: Newark, 1980-1993 (Visual Studies) By Helen M. Stummer
Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1925-50 By Barbara J. Kukla
The Ballantine House and the Decorative Arts Galleries at the Newark Museum By Ulysses G. Dietz
A real history of Newark and Newarkers (Unknown Binding) By Thomas Fleming
Baseball in Newark (Images of Baseball) By Robert Cvornyek
Book list compiled by Uncle Tonoose.
4.01.2006
April 1 brings spring and buds
Birds squeaking
in the trees
squirrels
scurrying
and cherry
blossom trees
blossoming.
Beyond Heller Parkway the car picks up some speed. On the left, Branch Brook Park is famous for its cherry blossom display. But anyone waiting for cherries to fall from these trees is in for a long, long wait. If you grew up here, you know they are cherry blossom trees, not cherry trees. And that there are single blossoms and double blossoms.
-- Rambling round Harborside , Jersey City
Across the tracks at Franklin Station, for a few weeks in the spring, you can see the cherry blossoms bloom. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, they are not cherry trees. The cherry blossom trees produce blossoms not Cherries.
-- Underground, Newark City Subway
Daffodils smiling
two-tone yellow smiles,
the Saturday WSJ
on the grass
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
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