“What are burek and cevapcici?” I asked my Croatian friend when he described the menu at his favorite Bosnian/Croatian restaurant.Cevapcici is a homemade grilled sausage made of ground pork, beef, lamb, onion, garlic, and spices including cayenne and paprika. Burek, he explained, is a phyllo dough s...

“Can I come in through the back door?” or “Please schedule my appointments so I don’t run into anyone I know.” These requests were routine in the early part of my forty-year private practice as a clinical psychologist. Teachers didn’t want to encounter their students or students’ parents. Doctors wa...

Green Team Leading the way to living greener‘Skip the Stuff’ Ordinance Aims to Reduce Plastic Take-Out TrashA simple, effective solution to that drawer, the one full of unneeded condiment packets, chopsticks, stirrers, bundled packages and a LOT of plastic utensils, is now in effect in Westfield.Oft...

Why does it feel like as soon as NJ Transit announced a 15-percent rate hike, the trains literally came to a complete stop?Last week, riders were once again stranded all along the commuting corridor we call home — one of the busiest in the nation.NJ Transit is a mess. Trains rarely run on time, ther...

Do you feel as I do? Are you inundated with messages exhorting you to pursue your passion, find your purpose, and develop your hobbies? Last week, I attended a meeting at a senior center with a group in our sixties and seventies. A pastor urged us to find our passions and make retired life zing.The ...

This past week marks one of the most significant milestones in the lives of young adults in our area — their graduation from high school. As they donned their caps and gowns and strode across the commencement stage before an audience of proud parents, relatives and friends, our graduates reflected o...

AREA — The Rutgers union representing more than 6,000 full-time faculty members, graduate workers, and others is calling for Rutgers Board of Governors member William Tambussi to resign or be removed from the Board after Tambussi was indicted on racketeering charges alongside powerful South Jersey D...

Last week, the Westfield Mayor and Council voted to rezone 25 properties in what they called “the fringe” area of the Centraol Business District to allow professional offices to operate out of certain street-level spaces.The move drew opposition from nearby residents who claimed that allowing anythi...

In January, my first and longest Westfield friend’s dear husband died. We’d met in 1980 when I strolled my baby daughter down our street near Wilson School. She, too, had a toddler, a boy, and in no time, both families gathered in our backyards for playdates, barbecues, and laughter. The kids went t...

Westfield resident Kathy O’Gara, in a letter to The New York Times published June 11, bemoaned the high civilian death toll in Israel’s recent hostage rescue. Ms. O’Gara, noting that prior hostage deals secured the release of many more hostages without the accompanying death toll, arrived at the “lo...