Selected feature writing demonstrating my work in place, culture, and regional life.
“No Secrets in the Decoy World,” Asbury Park Press, July 1, 2001, AA1-AA2.
Transcript
No Secrets in the Decoy World
By Jennifer Ansbach
Asbury Park Press, July 1, 2001
TUCKERTON — The first Tuckerton Seaport Carving and Decoy Show yesterday gave visitors a chance to see the craftsmanship of the animals up close and talk with the carvers.
The show combined displays from both the Long Beach Island Woodcarvers Association and the Seaport Carvers at the Tuckerton Yacht Club, the newest addition to the seaport.
“I’m usually trying to recruit members to the club,” said Jack Cahill, president of the Woodcarvers Association. “A lot of us (carve) just for the enjoyment of doing it. We’re trying to acquaint people with quality carving.”
Decoys, shorebirds and other wildlife filled the tables of the main floor and upstairs in the yacht club. In addition, carvers sold supplies such as wood, woodworking tools and decoy feet and eyes for those interested in trying their own hand at carving.
“I think if people look closely at some of these pieces, they’d realize the time and effort and skill it takes,” Cahill said. “These are world-class carvers. They actually compete all over the country. We’re really fortunate to have quality men like this in our club. It’s a good hobby. It keeps them out of trouble.”
Cahill said while many of the carvers were there to sell their work, he likes the opportunity to examine the work of others and ask questions about how the different pieces were made.
“For the most part, there are no secrets,” Cahill said. “They’ll be more than willing to tell you how they did it.”
For Bill Schade, a member of both carving organizations at the event and a member of the seaport, the decoy show opened a window on the past.
“I’m a firm believer in history, especially maritime history,” Schade said. “This is something the state of New Jersey needed a long, long time ago. All the states have something to commemorate the way people used to live in the 1800s. That’s why I joined the seaport a long, long time ago.”
Schade also works as a volunteer at the seaport, where he explains the art of decoy carving to visitors. Construction is set to begin on several new buildings that are part of the seaport’s second phase.
Later this summer, the seaport will host the “Down Bay Gala,” a fund-raiser on July 21. Tickets are $125 per person for the July 21 event, and reservations are required.
On Aug. 25, the Long Beach Island Woodcarvers Association will host its 22nd annual Woodcarving Show, which includes competitions and carving demonstrations.
“Shucking Clams an Art Form: Surf City Store Owner Teaches Proper Way,” Asbury Park Press, July 18, 2002, B3.
Transcript
Shucking clams an art form
Surf City store owner teaches proper way
By Jennifer Ansbach, Correspondent
SURF CITY — Jim Cordas has been breaking clam shells while trying to shuck them for more than 10 years, but Tuesday that all changed.
Cordas took the Boulevard Clams “Learn to Shuck” class.
“I thought I’d stop in and learn a little bit more about why I’m breaking clams when I open them,” Cordas said. He had only a few hours left before his flight back home to Kentucky, and he wanted to squeeze in the opportunity to improve his skills.
Cordas attended alone because if anyone else in his family learned to shuck, they would have to do it, he said. They all prefer that he does the work of shucking while they do the eating, he said.
Mike Sulish, owner of Boulevard Clams, has been offering the classes for the past 15 years.
“People come up while we’re busy, and they say, ‘Can you show me how to do this?’ and we just can’t take the time,” Sulish said.
He decided that once a week he’d offer the free class to teach those who don’t know how to get the raw clam open, as well as helping those like Cordas refine their methods.
Over the years, Sulish estimates he has taught hundreds of people how to shuck clams. A retired biology and anatomy teacher, Sulish takes his time with a quick clam anatomy lesson before beginning the hands-on procedures.
“There are two muscles in the clam,” Sulish explains. “In order to get the clam open you need to open them up. A lot of people try to overpower the clam because it’s smaller. All the work should be done by your left hand holding the clam.”
Sulish discusses the clam knife, which can be rounded or pointed, stiff or flexible.
“I like the flexible one,” Sulish said.
Then Cordas had the clam in his hand, following Sulish’s instructions on how to sever the two muscles, separate the mantle, a membrane between the clam and the shell, and present the clam with as much natural juice as possible.
Afterward, Sulish showed Cordas the proper way to eat raw clams.
“If you did a good job, it’s going to slide right off the shell like nobody’s business,” Sulish said. “If you didn’t, it’s going to be all down your shirt and you’re going to be embarrassed.”
Cordas received a clam shucking certificate as well as a pictorial guide on clam and oyster shucking, reviewing what was taught in the class.
“I think I learned something there as far as taking (the mantle) off the top,” Cordas said. “They always look chewed up when I’m done.”
Classes are held 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays at Boulevard Clams, on Long Beach Boulevard in Surf City.
“A Very, Berry Good Time,” Asbury Park Press, October 22, 2001, B2.
Transcript
A very, berry good time
By Jennifer Ansbach, Correspondent
WOODLAND — With warm sunny weather, and an atmosphere more patriotic than of fall thanksgiving, the 18th annual Cranberry Festival had its biggest crowd yet.
The attendees and money haven’t been counted yet, but Maryalice Starr, secretary of the Festival Committee of Chatsworth, said this year’s cranberry celebration drew more than the 100,000 people at last year’s event. “It was a nice weekend,” she said yesterday. “A quiet, peaceful weekend.”
The streets were nearly impassable to cars with visitors filling the streets downtown in Chatsworth. The festival features live country and western music, food, a juried arts and crafts show, photography and recipe contests, antiques and of course, cranberries.
“We’re in the heart of cranberry country,” festival Chairwoman Lynn Giamalis said. “We’re surrounded by cranberry bogs.”
Giamalis said the committee used about 50 pounds of fresh cranberries and 55 small bags of dried cranberries for the baked goods sold at the festival.
Streusel cakes, muffins, breads, sticky buns and dumplings were available. In addition, the red berries filled jars of jams, jellies, chutneys, vinegars and sauces. The cranberry ice cream stand was a popular spot yesterday, too, as the warm weather made ice cream a welcomed treat. Ocean Spray offered samples of a new line of white cranberry juice blends, which are less tart than traditional cranberry juices.
Although many craft vendors had plenty of Halloween and Christmas merchandise available, there was also plenty of red, white and blue for sale. Although one vendor said he thinks the patriotism shopping has crested, he said that there is still enough demand to justify having it out. Many visitors to the festival also wore red, white and blue, making it look more like the Fourth of July than mid-October.
“I come for the atmosphere, the cranberries, the arts and crafts,” Keith Saunders of Long Island, N.Y., said, as he picked up some baked goods for his co-workers.
For the past five years, the profits from the festival have gone to the White Horse Inn restoration. The Inn, on Main Street, is over 150 years old. With the $75,000 raised last year, the exterior of the building has been redone and a porch added. The interior has also been gutted and is being redone. The cranberry bog tours, a favorite of festival attendees, were canceled this year because the harvest was picked early for Ocean Spray’s new juice. Giamalis estimated the tours brought in $15,000 last year.
Gregory J. Volpe contributed to this article.
Devil On Higher Ground
By Jennifer Ansbach
New York Sportscene, December 1998
The Devils’ Brendan Morrison aspires to be a quality player for New Jersey, both on the ice and off
“Last year was a learning experience for me.”
Brendan Morrison sits in the New Jersey Devils locker room after an early-season game. “This year it’s on a bigger scale. Every day, you have to come in here and prove yourself,” Morrison said. “Not that I didn’t think I had to do that last year. I mean, you’re expected to do a job, and you’re paid to do a job, and that’s what you have to come to the rink and do.”
Morrison, 23, comes to the rink to do a big job this year: fill the skates of last year’s scoring leader Doug Gilmour. Gilmour chose to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks over the summer, leaving the Devils—who were already struggling on offense—to look for someone to contribute to the point totals every night. Morrison is expected to be a complete NHL package: quick, smart, defensive-minded and a point machine. Local papers trumpeted his potential and achievements with alarming regularity.
The rookie comes with a reputation for success. He attended the University of Michigan, where he led the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in scoring his last three years. He was named the CCHA Rookie of the Year in 1993-94 and was named the league’s Player of the Year in both 1995-96 and 1996-97. In addition, Morrison was named to the NCAA Titan West First All-American Team and the CCHA First All-Star Team three straight times (from 1994-95 to 1996-97).
He was named the Most Outstanding Player in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. In his senior season, he won the Hobey Baker Award—college hockey’s top honor—and was named the MVP of the CCHA Tournament. Last season, in the American Hockey League, Morrison played in the All-Star Game and made the All-Rookie Team.
But these awards don’t begin to tell who he is. A franchise waits, watching.
Veteran defenseman Scott Stevens, the Devils’ captain, believes in Morrison’s potential. “He’s a skilled player, no question about that,” Stevens said. “He sees the ice well, he passes well. That’s the biggest thing. He makes good plays, and he’s young. He’s going to get better. He’s explosive. He’s got good speed.”
The speed makes him a natural for playing alongside Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias, creating a line that can produce scoring opportunities with its quickness.
“I think Brendan is the type of player like Doug Gilmour,” said Sykora, who often played on Gilmour’s line last season. “He’s going to be the next Doug Gilmour. He’s got so much skill. He’s a pleasure to watch. He just needs a little more experience and soon he’ll be a top scorer in the league.
“Like for me, he can get you the chance to score. You get some speed and some open ice, and he gets me the puck all the time. He’s got so much skill, it’s a joke. He’s going to be a real player in this league.”
Morrison shakes off the praise. “I don’t worry too much about what people are saying.” Instead, he focuses on what he needs to do to succeed in the NHL.
“I just try to be the best I can be,” he said about what inspires him to keep working rather than just basking in his achievements. “I’m a competitive person. I always want to excel at everything I do. I always want to be the best at everything I do. In hockey, every time I go out I want to do things and I just want to see how good I can be.”
How good he can be remains to be seen, but there is already Calder Trophy buzz surrounding the rookie. “No pressure, but he better win Rookie of the Year,” teased teammate Sheldon Souray.
Souray makes Morrison the target of frequent good-natured attacks because of the attention he gets. “He takes the ribbing good,” Souray said. “He’s been at the top level of players at every level he’s played. He gets a lot of accolades, but he’s humble.”
“Don’t listen to anything he says,” Morrison said of Souray, unsure of which ridiculous story the defenseman might be telling.
Morrison must feel the pressure, with all the positive press he gets and the high expectations bestowed upon him by his coaches, teammates, fans and even his competitors. Rookies on other teams have Morrison in their sights and track his achievements as closely as their own.
“At times you feel a little more pressure [in this league],” Morrison said. “I guess the pressure I feel the most is the pressure I put on myself. That’s the way I’ve always been. I set a high standard and high goals and just try to stay on an even keel and try to get better.”
Staying on an even keel sets Morrison apart from other young professional athletes. His reputation for modesty and courtesy precedes him.
Morrison claims his polite nature is a result of he and his sister Jennifer’s upbringing in Vancouver by their supportive parents, Ron and Debbie. For this reason, Morrison remains grounded, despite the awards and hype, and he talks about how humbling it is to see someone in his Michigan jersey.
“That’s a credit to my parents,” he said. His parents make the trip out to New Jersey to watch him occasionally. “The way they raised me and brought me up, they taught me to always respect people and be polite. I mean, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be. There’s no reason to be a jerk to anybody. I just think they did a good job of teaching me manners.”
His family remains a focal point of Morrison’s life. While many players seem to pay lip service to the importance of family and home life, Morrison’s conversation often returns to his family.
Morrison doesn’t stay up nights worrying about possible injury or losing the edge. His worries are less self-centered. The most important thing in his life right now is having healthy family and friends.
“My biggest fear is probably seeing a family member or close friend passing away,” he said. “It’s a tough thing to deal with at the time, and I’ve had to deal with it a couple of times. I don’t really sit there and think about it. You can’t be in fear of things like that. I guess if I had to list something that would probably be it. You just don’t want to see other people really suffering.”
He spends his summers back in Vancouver with his family and friends. New Jersey’s landscape is no match for this idyll of home.
“In the summer, I like to be outdoors,” he said. “I try to do quite a lot of fishing—trout and salmon. And I go golfing, a typical hockey player thing probably. It’s a great area with the mountains and ocean. You’ve got to take advantage of it. Nature-wise [New Jersey] doesn’t really compare to mountain scenery. When I go back during the summer I enjoy it. It gives you a good sense of it all. It’s a nice place to visit.”
But when vacation ends, Morrison returns to New Jersey to live the life he loves. “It’s fun playing at all levels of hockey and having the camaraderie that you get, as far as coming to the rink every day and learning new things, meeting new people,” Morrison said. “I just like the atmosphere.”
Morrison spends his time in New Jersey away from the rink with the other young players. He and his girlfriend, Erin Jones, joined Sykora and Elias at Madison Square Garden not to face off against the Rangers but to take in an Elton John concert.
“He’s a really close friend,” Sykora said. “Our ages are close together. We go out to eat. He’s really fun to be around. He’s a good guy. He’s great with his teammates. It’s just nice to be around him.”
Morrison thrives on the connection to his teammates. Being drafted by the Devils is one of his best memories.
“It was a big thrill,” Morrison said. “I mean, the draft year was in ’93, and it was in Quebec. It was an exciting time. You never really know what is going to happen on draft day. So you’re anxious, excited, nervous…you’ve got everything so rolled up in one. And then when they finally announce it, it’s a big thrill. You get to go down on the floor and meet everyone and put the jersey on. It was definitely an exciting day for me.
“I think that definitely ranks up there as one of my best days. Another one was winning the national championship in college. I mean, that was an exciting day. Anytime you win a trophy as a team, that’s where I get the most satisfaction. When you make sacrifices as a team and reach your goal, that’s most satisfying.”
Morrison said winning the championship and committing to the team meant passing up a lot of traditional college fun and not having an extensive social life. He said he had to work hard instead of going out to parties.
Hockey wasn’t the only thing Morrison worked hard at in college. He laid the foundation for his entrepreneurial dreams with an economics degree.
“Initially I wanted to go into the business school, but it’s pretty hard playing hockey and going to the business school at Michigan,” he explained. “They only accept like 200 people each year, and once you get in there it’s pretty strenuous as well. So I figured an economics degree is a pretty close second. Well, not close, but it’s related. Eventually, I’d like to own my own business. I don’t know exactly what area I’d like to get into right now, but that’s something one day I’d like to utilize it to do.”
For now though, Morrison remains focused on his friends, family and teammates. “My ideal day would have to include a bit of everything: being with family and friends,” he said. “In the afternoon, maybe get some fishing and golfing in, catch a couple fish. And get some hockey in at night. If it’s going to be ideal, then I’d have to win the Stanley Cup that night. That would be perfect. Enjoy it with the teammates.”
He laughs.
“He’s a good guy,” said Sykora, reflecting on Morrison on and off the ice. “He’s the total package.”
Original caption: Brendan Morrison is one of the Devils who has the offensive skills to replace the free agent loss of Doug Gilmour.