OCEAN GROVE, NEW JERSEY -- NEDRA’S QUILTING RETREAT

              Nedra’s sister Sonya and her husband, Ted Weiss, bought a Victorian “ginger bread” house that used to be a bed and breakfast residence in the early 1900s.  It is in Ocean Grove New Jersey on a street called Pilgrim Path about four houses west of the Great Tabernacle.  Ted Weiss was born in Hungary, raised in South Amboy, NJ, and served 16 years in Congress representing the west side of Manhattan.  This was their “get away” house from Manhattan where they could relax on vacation and invite family for holidays.  Ocean Grove was a Methodist meeting grounds and the Great Tabernacle invited Chautauqua circuit speakers and famous preachers to stimulate the hundreds of weekend or summer visitors.  It was a dry town and so strict for its behavior that no motor cars were allowed to enter, leave, or be driven on Sundays.  One of my colleagues at Stony Brook University said in his youth it was called “Ocean Grave.”

              Now it is like most small towns and has its gay community, its revelers, its secular attractions linked to a gorgeous Jersey Shore, a board walk, and numerous musical performances at the Great Tabernacle.

              Nedra and I go at least twice a year to Ocean Grove because Sonya hosts Nedra’s quilters from Long Island, NY.  About 11 of them come and they call themselves “The off the wall quilters.”  They enjoy each other’s company and use those twice a year week of quilting to work on their projects.  I have been the resident drone because I use that opportunity to read books and write.  In this latest retreat I read and wrote reviews of two books for the Quarterly Review of Biology, one a biography by George Brownlee  of two time Nobel Prize winner Fred Sanger and a book by Nessa Carey on Junk DNA.  I then read Frank Close’s biography, Half Life, a scholarly study of Bruno Pontecorvo’s contributions to atomic physics (especially slow neutrons to induce nuclear fission and neutrinos and their role in cosmic events).  Pontecorvo is more popularly known for his defection to the USSR in 1950 and his possible role as an atomic spy.  I also read Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel, Flight Behavior, which uses global warming as its theme.  I also read Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel’s comic novel, Lunatics.  In my spare time I wrote a few Blogs for my bloggerelof site.  It is nice to read in the parlor or sit on the porch and read.  It is also nice to sample a different cook for each meal. Two are assigned each day.  Nedra and I prepared chicken Jerusalem for our culinary contribution.