Category: Local/New Jersey

  • YANECONE, YADAMIEC, BLAUSTEIN AND MULDOWNEY

    An outsider not familiar with Ezra’s Essays might have read the title of this essay and believed it referred to an international law firm.  That is not the case. The title reflects the fact that this is a country of immigrants.  At the moment none of my readers are native Americans such as Cherokee, Iroquois,…

  • Thanksgiving 2010

    The title to this essay has underlining under the date of 2010.  This is to distinguish it from an essay that was written here four years ago called “Thanksgiving 2006.”  Since that essay of four years ago was written, there have been some encouraging developments. The players in this essay are Jenny M and her…

  • PUTTING A PRESIDENTIAL FOOT IN IT

    Yesterday was August 22, 2010.  In the op ed column of The New York Times, there were great editorials from Frank Rich, Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and Nicholas Kristof.  In addition to those columnists, there were essays in The Washington Post.  The reason that these essays and editorial comments were written has to do with…

  • POSOLE

    I am writing this essay in the hopes that it will prove to Tom Scandlyn, Howard Davis and Jim Reese that this old country boy’s tastes have gone to new heights.  As a public service, I will try to save you a trip to your dictionary because the word “posole” is another upscale word for…

  • PATTING ONE’S BACKS

    From time to time there comes a moment when we can make someone else’s life a little bit more enjoyable.  Two Costa Rican immigrants have made several appearances in these essays.  They are Jenny M and Ronald H.  They are married, but in conformance with Costa Rican custom, Jenny retains her maiden name.There are three…

  • THE ONE-HOLER JUBILEE

    In the summer of 1969, I was working as a lobbyist for the AT&T Corporation in Washington.  Ordinarily such work is limited to three years and I had been there on the order of three and a half years.  So I was not surprised when the instructions from New York were that I should return…

  • MORE OF BITS AND PIECES, AND ODDS AND ENDS

    You will recall – or I hope you will recall – that these are bits that come from my notepad and that there is no connection from one subject to another.  So we continue with the spirit of bits and pieces, odds and ends.  The first thought has to do with the cicadas.  It might…

  • HE ALWAYS SHOOK MY HAND

    Eric Bogle is a prolific songwriter who started his life in Scotland in a town called Peebles.  At age 25, he took off for Australia and has long since become a citizen there. Bogle composed a song which is really a poem to recognize the existence of a love affair wherein the husband eventually died. …

  • LADIES’ CHATTERINGS

    This essay purports to comment on the conduct of females in restaurants which has come to be disturbing in some cases.  Before I am accused of bias against females, I would cite at least two points in my defense.  Those of you who have read Ezra’s Essays over the years know that I am a…

  • I’M STILL GORGEOUS INSIDE

    If you are a close follower of the essays that come from this desk, you may recall an essay done last spring.  It was called “I’m Gorgeous Inside.”  It had to do with a for-sale sign on the house immediately adjacent to this one which had an appendage to the for-sale sign which said, “I’m…