Sometimes you just want to get home By Ellen Donker When it comes to air travel, I have one rule: fly nonstop whenever possible. Splitting up a flight leaves you open to delays on top of other typical travel woes: weather problems, TSA workers not getting paid, airline staffing shortages and more. The less time I spend in an airport the better. Unfortunately, I broke my rule a few weeks ago. I dragged my heels getting tickets to Fort Myers, Florida for spring break. By the ti

New nonprofit All Paws In helps fur babies find their way back home By Cindy Perman Conover and Sandford Fishkind helped rescue Goldie, a goldendoodle, who was left in a crate in the snow in Irvington Park and adopted with the help of PAWS Montclair. Maya was found loose in Irvington. Conover and Sandford Fishkind arranged a foster for her. After the owner agreed to surrender Maya, she was adopted with the help of PAWS Montclair. Sandford Fishkind with Coconut, a Pomeranian

By Kristen di Gennaro Many of us have used AI for various reasons. Google searches use AI to find sources in response to a question. Currently, Google provides an overview instead of sources. This fully formed response uses generative AI, technology widely available since 2022. Generative AI has led to widespread panic, especially among college teachers who see changes in students’ writing. Gone are the sentence fragments, run-ons, subject-verb discrepancies and other signs o

Columbia High School's Science Research Program connects students and mentors By Savannah Martin The Science Research class of 2026. Bottom row, L to R: Isabella Palkhiwala-Sarette, Lola Karp-Foster, Juliet Givoni, Rachael Mayer; Second row, L to R: Susannah Litwin, Julia Freidrich, Emerie Katz, Olivia Traub; Third row, L to R: Theo Boddeker, Christopher Kondak, Joey Kerner, Melia Crain; Top row, L to R: Angelo Lynch, Zachary Brenden, Hudson Ebright Columbia High School

Small business owners keep their work human while taking advantage of the new tech By Amy Lynn-Cramer Left: A back yard installation in progress by Split Rock Design. Right: An AI-generated image to help homeowners visualize new landscaping in the newly-created planting bed. Split Rock Design specified the plants based on their expertise. On any given day, Anthony and Melanie Cortese, the husband-and-wife team behind Split Rock Design, a Maplewood-based landscape design firm,

Love is a Spanish tortilla By Ilysse Rimalovski Estelle Fournier makes this Spanish tortilla that carries her back to her time in Pamplona. The double cheek greeting, customary for the Fournier Lopez-Silvero family, feels especially welcoming these days. As new Maplewood residents by way of Summit, NJ, they already seem at home. Rooted in the arts community, Estelle Fournier has replanted herself along with her husband, Dr. Alberto Lopez-Silvero. Their four grown daughters, A

Time to thaw out and get it together By Alex Koenig L to R: Betsy Cahn and Linda Thibodeau of Curated Spaces; Gwen Vigorito and Mindy Catron of Align Wellness Studio and Dr. L. Dawn Christian of Village Dental Group There comes a point every year when winter starts to feel less cozy and more like a personal attack. The oversized scarves, boots and puffer coats have lost their charm, the dry skin situation is fully out of hand and suddenly everyone is craving the same thing: a

The quiet force behind Maplewood's arts scene By Adrianna Donat One of the best known projects of the Maplewood Arts Council is "Art in the Tunnel," designed to add "creative heat and light" into what had been a dark and dreary commuter passage. If you’ve ever walked through the Maplewood train station tunnel and been jolted awake by a burst of vivid artwork or paused in town to read a poem hanging in a public space, you’ve already encountered the work of the Maplewood Arts C

Immerse yourself in comedy, art and auction By Ellen Donker Max Weinberg's Jukebox is the featured performer. The band will play audience requests from a video menu of more than 200 songs. Twenty years may seem like a short or long time, depending on your perspective. For residents who remember the groundbreaking for the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), and its growth as a destination to experience live performance, arts education and community connection, it’s a

Route 22, culture shock and the community that made it all worthwhile By Ashtyn Asay My first thought when visiting Maplewood Avenue was that it reminded me of Main Street in Park City, Utah, a charming, uphill drag that was one of my favorites back home. It was early September 2024. Even on a weekday afternoon, snippets of chatter floated down the sidewalk from outdoor diners. Commuters walked purposefully to and from the train station. To a couple from a sleepy mountain cit

A day (and a few holes) with the crew bringing cleaner water to South Orange By Adrianna Donat The lead service line replacement that took place in Maplewood last year has started in South Orange. We’ve probably all experienced the same moment of neighborhood déjà vu: you turn the corner and (surprise!) there’s a line of orange cones, a truck with flashing lights and a fresh street is auditioning for Holes: The Musical. Beyond the driving hazard, it can make you wonder what e

On roots, restlessness and the price of belonging By Ken Gagne A few months ago, I stood in a banquet room in Chicopee, Mass., attending my high school class’s 40-year reunion. Forty years? It felt like a clerical error, the kind I assumed someone would correct once I pointed it out. The faces were familiar in the way old furniture is familiar; you recognize the shape even after it’s been reupholstered. We hugged. We laughed. We squinted at name tags. Knee pain was discussed.

By Kristen di Gennaro Readers who grew up in the 1980s might be familiar with the classic R&B song A House is not a Home , made famous by the late singer Luther Vandross. The song was initially recorded almost two decades earlier by East Orange native and Grammy award-winning singer Dionne Warwick, who is a South Orange resident. As the song’s title illustrates, the words “house” and “home,” though often used interchangeably, are not completely synonymous, as we aim to “turn

The snow extended our trip and allowed us to see what he had become By Ellen Donker We enjoyed a visit with our son Timmy at the Charleston Tea Garden. Whenever someone hears that my son Timmy lives in Charleston, S.C., they talk about what a beautiful city it is and assume I must go there all the time to visit. Although Timmy has been there for almost eight years, most of it spent in college and grad school, I have been there just a handful of times. I have sometimes felt li

Major renovation of a ’30s classic makes Maplewood feel like home Written by Rose Bennett Gilbert; Photography by Mike Van Tassell This Tudor underwent a renovation that restored its charm with attention to details such as oak beams, iron-framed casement windows and bespoke brick work. They were still barely married when Greg Lembrich first pitched the idea of moving to New Jersey to his wife, Alexandra Carter, an avowed “forever New Yorker who hated New Jersey from afar.” Yo

Your mental health will thank you By Alex Koenig A group of adults recently sat hunched around the cafe tables in the General Store Shops & Cafe in Maplewood, their ideal 2026. There were glue sticks, scissors, tiny rolls of decorative tape, stickers and magazine clippings with words one placed a gold star next to “more joy” like it was legally binding. Things got emotional. Not “I’m sad because I glued on a photo of a superyacht I will never own” emotional. More like, “Oh wo

An Olympian returns to South Orange to raise her daughter By Amy Lynn-Cramer Hazel Clark is back in her childhood home with husband Shane Mcilwain and daughter Hazel. When three-time Olympian and South Orange native Hazel Clark walks through the front door of her childhood home, she’s returning to her and service once filled the air. Everything I learned about hard work started right here. The lawn that once drew national news cameras tells only part of Hazel Clark’s story. C

Kyiv in your kitchen By Ilysse Rimalovski To find the Shatashvili family living happily in our community is nothing short of a miracle. It’s been three years since Maryna, her husband Iraklii and their three children Samuel (14), Tamar (12) and Ester (7) emigrated here from their beloved home in Ukraine. The Shatashvili family in their hometown of Dnipro, Ukraine in 2021: Maryna, Iraklii and their three children Samuel, Tamar and Ester. With each challah braided, baked and de

By Danielle Alfonzo Walsman Our crossing guards are familiar faces looking after the youngest souls of our community as they make their way to school. Having spent the past few months on this three-part series honoring some of the superstars among their ranks, I am reflecting on the beauty of the intergenerational work of these warm-hearted men and women. That is, we don’t all have the benefit of in-town grandparents, but all our lives are enriched by the care and wisdom of t

A one-man-band filmmaker examines the complex stories of cannabis By Donny Levit Howard Ellis released his passion project, "Bar None: Cannabis Redemption" in March 2025 Maplewood documentarian Howard Ellis didn’t begin with a clear subject to chase. Instead, he began with curiosity and a willingness to be inspired. Through interviews and observation, he discovered a rich subject worth exploring. For Ellis, the story of cannabis incarceration was unfamiliar territory. He was