Welcome to the page devoted to some of my favorite features, including stories I wrote about a 50-year-old Olympic hopeful, the history of undefeated teams at my H.S. alma mater, and a chance reunion of World War II POWs.
When Alex Abrash landed a job after college in 1984 with a Poughkeepsie company that released classical music on open reel-to-reel tapes, the vinyl record was king of musical formats, and a new technology, a compact disc, was poised to dethrone it. READ MORE
“Do you have any James Patterson?” a customer asked Matt Schab, owner of Lazy Days in Long Beach, last Saturday afternoon. READ MORE
Perhaps no statement encapsulated both the brutality of her son's murder and the deep pain she and her family feel than the one Kathy Calabrese read to Judge Meryl Berkowitz ... READ MORE
Decorator Evelyn Truhn stands in a young lady’s bedroom evaluating three teens in bikinis on a wall. The trio return her stare from .READ MORE
Glyn and Kelly Jaime were living in their new summer home, a 1922 single-level bungalow, only a month before it was included on the Long Beach Historical & Preservation Society’s annual Heritage House Tours in June 2008. READ MORE
When Joe Lehr returned to the classrooms he attended at East School to speak to elementary students during the school’s 80th anniversary five years ago, he found ... READ MORE
The beach had a significant role in Holly Prussman’s life — and death. READ MORE
Speed skater Jacki Munzel has been honest with herself. The reality is that, at age 50, her chances of ... READ MORE
They both crossed the sea to fight in history's most destructive war, saw action in a major battle, were wounded and taken captive by Nazis and lay bedridden in German hospitals before they met in a prison camp. READ MORE
“It’s the right spot to be,” Mary Ann Marino said of a bench on the Long Beach boardwalk that she and her family dedicated to her firefighter son, Ken, soon after he was killed at the scorched World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. READ MORE
Weeks after her husband, Ken Marino, was killed in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Katrina Marino e-mailed his favorite baseball player, Ken Griffey of the Cincinnati Reds, requesting that he hit a home run for her husband that day. READ MORE
One wears worn, special dance-like shoes so he can shift his feet on the pedals more easily. The other, nearly six decades his junior, doffs his dress shoes to play in his socks. READ MORE
Statistically speaking, the 1973 Oceanside High School boys’ soccer team was more dominant than the New England Patriots, who head into Super Bowl XLII on Sunday with a perfect record. That’s the opinion of Ron Atanasio, ... READ MORE
Obscured by sand and weeds, the weathered concrete slabs on the lot that abuts the boardwalk between Edwards and Riverside boulevards are like Long Beach’s ancient ruins. READ MORE
"They have a cure for old age now," 79-year-old Roger Folz quipped as he slowly, carefully climbed the stairs in his office. "Die young." READ MORE
Greg Vedder and his girlfriend, Tarrah Hirsch, had been hunting for a house to redo after Hurricane Sandy ripped open the roof of an apartment he owned on West Broadway in Long Beach one year ago. READ MORE
Wonderous Stories once played the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the Who’s “Tommy” and Yes’s “Close to the Edge” — all in their entirety. READ MORE
With a TV camera on his shoulder, Keith Lane had been to Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Honduras and other war zones, and he videotaped the fear on the soot-covered faces of victims from the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. READ MORE
Call it an instance of supply outpacing demand, or display space. While Long Beach produces many artists and photographers, some have long struggled to find places to exhibit their work. Art galleries in town have seemingly closed shop just as soon as they opened, so one alternative has been wall space at local business. READ MORE
Michael Muratore and Stefano Malluzzo have brought a bit of Fifth Avenue to the West End. Each month, the owners of Rose & Eye, a women’s boutique on the corner of West Beech Street and Wyoming Avenue, dress up large display windows with ... READ MORE
Three days after terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers, Bob Beckwith drove to Manhattan as a retired New York City firefighter who spent time fishing and traveling. READ MORE
It turned out to be Thomas Tarantino Jr.’s last trip to his favorite restaurant, but it was the first time he walked in, ordered a Happy Meal and paid for it all on his own. READ MORE
More than eight months after Hurricane Sandy slammed Long Beach, signs of the city’s comeback are all around ... READ MORE
Leone Baum has problems with the way younger people are communicating, with text and instant messages, MySpace postings and Twitter updates. READ MORE
His profession didn't lead him to New York, but his heart did. Tim Haviland moved to the Big Apple after meeting his wife, Amy, on the Internet. He loved New York, and when he had the opportunity to work in the Twin Towers he glowed, said Amy Haviland. READ MORE
For Frank McQuade, it was a tough decision to skip his annual trip to the gala dinner at the New York State Republican Convention in Manhattan last week and instead have some tea. READ MORE
“I’m starting to shake again just talking about it,” 34-year-old Patrick Harten said last Friday, the day after he helped US Airways Flight 1549 avoid a potential catastrophe on its way to a crash-landing in the Hudson River. READ MORE
People suggested that he was foolish, that he should have just pocketed the valuable, sold it and never told a soul. READ MORE