The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Why are young men so ANGRY?

This is not a happy story that I have to tell tonight. Over the weekend, a 16-year old girl was murdered in Randolph, NJ - about 20 minutes from where I live and just a couple of miles from where I used to live in Mendham. The girl, Jennifer Parks, apparently went over to her next-door neighbor's house (Jonathan Zarate, age 18, who is charged with her murder) to watch television in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Zarate supposedly got angry and for some reason beat the girl both with his hands and with a blunt object, then stabbed her multiple times until she was dead. It is believed she was also asphyxiated in some way, but not sexually assaulted. Then, to dispose of her body, he cut off her legs at the knees to stuff her in a steamer trunk. With the help of his younger brother (age 14) and another teenage boy (age 16, I think), Zarate put the steamer trunk in his father's Jeep for a day, and then the three boys attempted to dump the trunk off a bridge over the Passaic River in Secaucus, NJ on Sunday. A policeman saw the car and the... Read more →

Garage Sale: The Grand Finale

HOORAY! We made it! We finished our garage sale, and have lived to tell the tale! As the photo implies - I am dog-tired. And not a moment too soon, either. The weather held but the day was HOT (and it was even more humid today) - what a relief that we had the best 2 days of weather for our sale. Sales were more slow than on Day 1, but I got rid of almost everything big I wanted to sell, except the sofa, microwave, color copier and a small bookcase. Saturday was "reunion" day at our sale. A number of people showed up from my past, which made it a fun and entertaining day all around: A neighbor I didn't even recognize at first, who ended up buying my mattress set for her granddaughter, who needs to furnish a college apartment. The mother of a long-lost male friend from high school (someone I have often wondered about since I lost touch with him over 20 years back). She filled me in on what he and his older brother have been up to since then, and it was great hearing about them both. Secretly, I once wondered if he... Read more →