I live in Brooklyn but, since this is not only a Brooklyn story, let’s start with New Jersey.  Two developments catch my attention.  The first is an effort by the state’s Department of Education to “take over” the public schools in Newark, the state’s largest city and home to its largest black population.  A […]

            Long Island is probably best known to many people across the United States as the place where Howard Stern, the early morning radio talk show personality and now best-selling author, was raised.  If they listen to his show or read the book, they may conclude that Long Island is a place that, for whatever […]

            “Daddy, what are we?”             “What do you mean?”             “You know, where are we from?  Are we Italian, Irish, Jewish; you know, like that?”             “Well, we’re from here; we’re Americans.”             “Daddy!!!  What am I going to say in school?”             More than once, my now nine year old daughter and I […]