The last of my children graduated from high school.     My son and daughter threw their caps high into the air and cheered their liberation from one symbolic institution before contemplating their matriculation into other, much larger institutions significantly further away.     Or at least far enough away that they won’t be needing rides home from school each day.   For me, the culmination of their grade school years has been a melancholy series of lasts.  The last lacrosse ...

I’ve been celebrating Halloween with my kids for over a decade now, and as a result, I’ve got a few Halloween hacks for parents to share. 1. Go to the pumpkin patch early. Some might take this advice a step further and skip heading out to the over-crowded pumpkin-slash-apple-slash-pony-ride-slash-corn-maze extravaganza entirely, but not me. Those fall pumpkin photos with the kids are just too amazing to miss. But go early. Most farms are pretty empty the first few weekends in October, but not so much as ...

          By the mid 70s, Italian studios were moving onto different trends, like giallo horror, poliziotteschi crime, and macaroni war. For those that still produced spaghetti westerns, the rule of the day was comedy. Yet, some directors weren't ready to hang up their colt pistols. The pictures they made these years were referred to as twilight spaghetti westerns.           Even darker than their 60s predecessors, twilight spaghetti westerns were categorized by their apocalyptic ...

Research published this week in the journal Circulation, reported findings of a 34 year study on over 100,000 people found five modifiable lifestyle       behaviors associated with a 14 year longer life expectancy in women and a 12 year long life expectancy in men at age 50. The health behaviors related to longer life included never smoking, eating a healthy diet, maintaining a normal weight, drinking alcohol in moderation or not at all, and getting more than 3.5 hours a week of moderate to vigorous activity. The ...

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – Holy Savior Academy’s (HSA) ‘Biddy’ Cheerleading Squad, the Storm,  recently completed their 2017-2018 season with a first place win in their division at Cheerfest. Held May 12 at Six Flags Great Adventure, the annual multi-state competition featured teams from throughout New Jersey.  “This cheer season has been such an exciting time for these girls; some of them have been cheering together since kindergarten and others just started this year, but everything seemed to come ...

With school out and the summer sun shining down, thoughts turn to summer vacation trips.  Team Nest Builder offers these 5 home-related tips to follow to avoid everything from minor inconveniences to major headaches upon your return: Pause Your Post & Paper Piled up mail and newspapers act like a “rob me” sign!  Avoid tipping off strangers to your absence by pausing your postal service and newspaper.  Complete the form at holdmail.usps.com/holdmail and the USPS will hold your mail for pick-up or delivery ...

Are you a person with Medicare living with diabetes or know someone who is? Take control of your health through a free and fun six-week workshop series. Meet others going through similar experiences and learn about diabetes and its risks, preventing complications, healthy eating, exercise, medication management, dealing with stress and depression, action planning, and much more. Graduates from this program have lost weight, modified their eating habits, started walking, and got their blood sugar levels under control. “I have ...

NEW BRUNSWICK - Rutgers University will provide the city’s police dispatching services in a move that New Brunswick says will cut costs and put an end to dispatcher shortages that resulted in officers doing the job. The city’s 12 current dispatchers will be laid off at the end of the day on June 30, and Rutgers will supply dispatchers as of July 1 under an agreement that city council members approved Wednesday. All 12 city dispatchers can apply to Rutgers to get jobs, and are expected to be hired if they pass health ...

TAP into Piscataway is an all-online, objective, newspaper serving residents, organizations, and businesses in Piscataway and the surrounding areas. We are part of the TAPinto network of more than 60 locally owned and operated online hyperlocal news sites with more than 6 million readers. The TAPinto team would like to feature news about Piscataway from you, too!   Share your news for FREE about: Civic groups and charitable organizations helping in the community Youth groups and sports teams Girl Scouts and Boy ...

This week's feature will focus on TAPinto Paterson's franchisee, Steve Lenox. Find out how the current owner of a public affairs firm went from a former State Director for Senator Frank Lautenberg to a proud TAPinto franchisee for New Jersey's third largest city.   Q. When did you join TAPinto.net? I joined TAPinto.net in September, 2017.  Because TAPinto Paterson existed under previous owners the site was already live, allowing me to get more comfortable with content creation and ...

Facebook recently announced it will be changing its feed and algorithms so that news from publishers and posts from businesses will be relegated in favor of posts about your neighbor’s cat.  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is making these changes because he is concerned about his legacy and that of the company he founded. If Mark Zuckerberg is truly worried about his legacy and that of Facebook, casting legitimate news publishers and businesses into the abyss will only further tarnish ...

Corre, no camines (that’s “run, don’t walk!”) to see Coco, the newest animated feature film from Pixar Animation Studios/Disney. This beautiful movie is something that families will cherish seeing together. Like Moana last year, I took my family (ages 7 to 70+) to see Coco over Thanksgiving weekend, and everyone was delighted by the splendor of this wonderful cinematic experience. Coco tells the story of a young boy named Miguel who yearns to be a musician, although he comes from a long line of shoemakers who not ...

There is a glaring hole in recent Game of Thrones seasons that needs to be addressed: the ability of Valyrian steel to destroy White Walkers has not been acknowledged since before Jon Snow’s death. In fact, it hasn’t been mentioned since the Season Five finale when Jon Snow reveals this discovery to Sam Tarly. Jon has cared about little more than the war between the living and the dead since long before his death, but after being killed later that same episode, he never mentions Valyrian steel’s power again. Since ...

Overparenting.  It’s the new buzzword for helicopter parenting, enabling and micromanaging.  I did them all. I’m happy to say that I’ve (mostly) grown out of it.  The truth is that there are still moments when I have the urge to step in and take over.  It’s normal to feel that way; however, I know I’ve made progress when I feel the urge and don’t act on it. When children are very young, it’s not so bad.  After all, they need to be guided, nurtured and protected.  As ...