Here’s a catch-22 for the modern age: How do you get inside the head of a suicide bomber? If you’re John Updike, you set your 22nd novel in Paterson, where six 9/11 hijackers, including Hani Hanjour, the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon, lived in the spring of 2001....
Read More »

It took him a lifetime to get it, but artist Paul Jennis finally landed his dream job. ...
Read More »

Jim McGreevey’s tell-all (okay, more likely “tell-some”) memoir is due out next month. In the interest of public service, we provide a handy guide for Trenton insiders....
Read More »

At age four, Chery Lin fell in love with handbags. Decades later, she fell in love with vintage handbags that revealed to her a kind of beauty she’d never seen. “Even something as simple as a handbag, if beautifully designed and crafted, can give you pleasure every day,” she says....
Read More »

Charlene Napoleon was only a teenager when her obsession with cream puffs began. The Trenton native learned to make the creamy, dreamy treats from a friend’s dad—a professional baker—then spent the next couple of decades perfecting the art while working as a hairdresser and a trainer for Redken Laboratories....
Read More »

If an apple must fall, at least let it fall into a pie. A really good apple should be treated with respect, says Carole Walter, renowned cookbook author, serious baker, and unabashed fan of American apple pie....
Read More »

As a musical group, the Original Hobo Band is known as much for its colorfully mismatched uniforms as for its lively performances....
Read More »

Plenty of New Jerseyans have influenced the world, and now there’s a place to honor them, at least virtually. ...
Read More »

More than once, Evelyn Axelrod says, “I’ve said too much.” But the words come easily, perhaps because the wife of Herbert Axelrod—the pet-care magnate, philanthropist, and patron of the arts—is breaking her long silence about his controversial sale of 30 rare stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra....
Read More »

Dr. Jeff Levine gained national attention last year when he shed almost 200 pounds—nearly half his weight—all in the name of reality TV....
Read More »

Hope Jones can remember the day when, as a kid, she mastered the art of chocolate chip cookies and vowed that someday baking would become more than just a hobby....
Read More »

Growing up, Michael Somerville used to sneak downstairs late at night to watch one of his comedy idols, Johnny Carson, on television. By the time he was a college freshman, he had become hooked on making people laugh—especially after a successful attempt at stand-up comedy. But upon graduation in 1994, the Berkeley Heights native needed a full-time job....
Read More »

Father Vincent Fortunato is undergoing a conversion. Well, at least in football terms. He serves as the New York Giants team chaplain. ...
Read More »

Back in 1988, when Jon Solomon was fifteen and a deejay-in-training at WPRB in Princeton, 103.3 fm, he volunteered to fill the Christmas Eve slot in the station’s December schedule. He wasn’t busy that night, since he celebrates Hanukkah....
Read More »

She helped her husband become governor and stood by him when he shocked the world. Then she became a working single mom, focused on the present—until The Confession stirred up the past. Now Dina Matos McGreevey is concentrating on the future. ...
Read More »

Scientists want to bring shellfish back to Barnegat Bay. But can they bring back the baymen? ...
Read More »

Sylvester Stallone credits Chuck Wepner as the muse for Rocky. As the sixth installment comes to a theater near you, the “Bayonne Bleeder” is finally getting paid. ...
Read More »