The story of the government grasshoppers

In his new post at The Star-Ledger, Dan's duties include writing occasional editorials. His first effort, a simple and fairly non-controversial comment about fiscally imprudent government, appeared in Sunday's paper and online on nj.com's opinion page.

Here is the text:

Thanksgiving gathering in Maryland

Doug and Lisa were hosts for a Thanksgiving celebration that included members of both sides of their family. Here they are with their parents, Hugh and Dolores; their daughters Elizabeth and Rebecca; Doug's sisters, Cathy and Julie; Julie's husband, Dan, and their children, Christine and Andy.



Lisa's sister and brothers plus spouses and children also were on hand. There was plenty of fabulous food, game-playing and conversations that went on into the night.

Elizabeth is in her second year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rebecca is a senior at Towson High School. Doug has been spending a lot of time in Nevada lately working on engineering plans for an interstate highway project in Las Vegas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday. We hope everyone gets to spend some time relaxing with family and friends.

Wherever you are and however you celebrate, have a happy Thanksgiving - and please write in to tell us all about it!

R puters making us dummerer?

Hugh writes about The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein. Here's an excerpt from his review:

While my father often told me he remembered seeing his first automobile, I remember seeing my first jet plane, television set, desktop computer, cell phone, and countless other modern devices. Science has handed us more gadgets and devices in the last 100 years than in all previous human history, and the exponential pace of development is not abating.

If Mark Bauerlein is correct, the young people he identifies as “The Millenials,” those born between 1980 and 2000, have carried the process so far that they do not see the need to learn anything from the past.

Bauerlein’s primary thesis is that the media and digital revolution touted as a great boom to education has not fulfilled the promise, and, in fact, has stifled important learning from books, magazines, newspapers and other hard copy sources.

Read Hugh's full review.

Dan has new duties at NJ's largest newspaper

In his other life at The Star-Ledger, Birch Street Webmaster Dan is moving from the news pages to the editorial/opinion pages.

As Deputy Editorial Page Editor, Dan will be editing articles for the newspaper's OpEd page and helping shape the Star-Ledger's editorial position on important issues. He'll be working with the new editorial page editor, who previously was the paper's senior political correspondent.

Click on the newspaper logo to see the announcement that appeared in the Sunday paper.

Shanna on TV special - UPDATE: See the video

Shanna appeared along with other fans of Britney Spears in a half-hour program on MTV called "The Britney Collection." The show featured some of the pop star's hit music videos interspersed with quick clips of her fans commenting about them.

The program had its debut on Sunday night following "Total Finale Live," a special marking the end of the 10-year-run of the popular "Total Request Live" show.

Here's a montage of brief excerpts from the show. I've altered the appearance except for Shanna's clips, which appear as they did on the broadcast.

(Please do not copy or link to this video.)(If the player doesn't work, click here to see it on Google Video.)

According to MTV's schedule -- which they don't always follow -- "The Britney Collection" will be repeated Sunday (11/23) at 8 p.m.

By the way - HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNA (Nov. 24)

Marie, Brian and Xander plan to move back to NJ

THIS JUST IN:

After more than a decade in California, Marie and Brian are planning to move back to New Jersey with their son Xander, now 2 years old.

Marie surprised her dad with the news today, but said their plans have been in the works for several weeks. As much as they like California, Marie said, she and Brian see better opportunities for the future in New Jersey.

They plan a cross-country drive at the end of the year, arriving in Trenton shortly after New Year's. They will stay for a time with Brian's parents in Trenton while getting settled.

More details as they become available.

Xander was king for Halloween

Check out Xander's Halloween costume -- It's Tiny Elvis!



Here he is looking more like himself while pumpkin-shopping:

Our new way to 'Keep in Touch'

Welcome to the Birch Street Web's new "blog" (web-log), the latest innovation in our effort to help our extended family keep in touch.

This new format (launched Nov. 11, 2008) should make it easier to keep the hundreds of items in our family web site organized and easy to find.

The latest postings will always appear at the top of the home page, and as you scroll down you'll go back in time. At the bottom of each page you'll find a link for "Older Posts."

Down the right-hand column you'll find a couple of indexes to help sort posts -- by date, and by category labels such as "Birthdays" and "Travel."

There's also a Search window at the top left corner of each page where you can search the blog by a word, name or phrase.

Another new feature: Comments. This has the potential to make the Birch Street Web much more interactive, to get some conversations going among family members.

If you click to post a comment on any article, you'll find a box to type your message and a choice of ways to identify yourself. The simplest is to choose "Name/URL" and then enter your first name or nickname so other family members will know who you are. (You don't have to fill in a URL, but you can if you have a web site you'd like to link to.)

NOTE: Although the settings on this blog should keep it out of web searches, there's still a chance of a stranger wandering in, so we'll stick to our policy of leaving out last names and other specific identifying information.

At least for now, the old index pages of the Birch Street Web can still be accessed:
The Front Page
Birch Street Gallery
Birch Street TV
But they will no longer be kept up-to-date with new material. And because Google is restructuring its web-hosting system, the older pages may have to be moved to different locations. We'll do our best to keep you posted and to make sure everything can be found from this new blog site.

Let's all keep in touch!

WRITE TO US TODAY!

* RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE *

Walking in the woods, fall 2008

Photos taken by Dan in the Watchung Reservation in central New Jersey, on Oct. 26 and Nov. 9.


(Click to go to the photo album to see larger images)

INTRODUCING: Our newest way to keep in touch

The Birch Street Web continues to expand and to evolve. Since its founding in March 2007 it's format and design have changed a few times, and now it's time to rearrange the furniture once again.

The plans by Google to phase out its "googlepages" system -- where the Birch Street Web began and has grown into a network of more than 125 linked pages -- prompted me to look for alternatives. I tried out the new "Google Sites" system but didn't like it as much. Then I tried Google's "Blogger" system and realized it has a lot of advantages as an organizing tool for our family web site.

One benefit is that readers -- meaning you -- can add comments to the posts, so we can can have discussions among as many family members as care to join in. As you scroll through this blog please try out the comment feature and add your remarks to any posts you'd like.

This blog system also allows me to "label" each post, grouping them into whatever categories I choose. Now if you click on a label, such as "Birthday" or "Travel," you'll get a display of all the articles that carry that label. In addition there's a Search window at the top of each screen where you can type in any keyword - such as someone's name - and call up all entries that include that word. Yet another index allows you to select articles by year and month.

So my plan now is to use this blog as the entryway to the Birch Street Web, replacing The Front Page as the starting point for accessing all our content. At least temporarily, I'll keep The Front Page up-to-date as well, but eventually it will point you here.

Although I just launched this blog a few days ago, I've already copied many Birch Street Web entries here, and put in entries with links to just about every old article on the original site. If you notice anything missing, please let me know.

I welcome your ideas on how to use this new section of our family web. You can add comments to this post, or e-mail me at birchstreetweb@gmail.com

--Webmaster Dan

Walking for a good cause

Shanna, Kevin and their parents took part in the Memory Walk to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association on Oct. 26 in Manhattan's Riverside Park. Read Shanna's report.

See more photos in Shanna's album or slideshow

25th Anniversary for Kevin and Kathy

Shanna writes:

October 8th was my parent's 25th anniversary. Kevin and I took them out to eat at Sunset Cove in Tarrytown, NY.

The restaurant was really nice and had great views of the Hudson and the Tappan Zee.

Here are a couple of photos:

Mom & Dad


Kevin and Shanna

Christine's second season in marching band

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Raiders Marching Band moved up to a higher level of competition for the 2008 season, Christine's second year as a member of the flute line.

The band competes in U.S. Scholastic Band Association shows. After winning the 2007 state championship in Group 6-A, this year they went up against the biggest and best bands in the state and region in Group 6-Open.

With their show, titled "Destiny," the "Spiffy" band received higher scores while placing lower in its new, tougher bracket. It took third place in the N.J. championship competition and came in 7th out of 11 bands in the Northern States Regional event held in Allentown, Pa. on Nov. 1.

Here is a slideshow of photos from the Fall 2008 season.



This brief video clip shows the final segment of their 2008 show, "Destiny," as performed at the Allentown competition.



The show went off flawlessly, and there was a lot of emotion among the band members - seniors, especially - who felt they outdid themselves in their final competitive performance.

The marching band, as well as other SPFHS music groups, will be traveling to Florida this spring to perform at Walt Disney World.

Click here for more on the SPFHS Marching Band.
(If that doesn't work, click here)