Tag Archives: Fair Haven

Focus: Rumson-Raised ‘Punk Rock Queen of the Jews’ Rossi’s Homecoming

Who says you can’t go home again?

Oh, it’s been said, but clearly not by anyone who ever knew the RFH grad and famed raging skillet full of chef, author, playwright and punk rock queen of the Jews known as Rossi. Yes, that’s a mouthful of matzo ball soup with a little “L’Chaim!” on the side.

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In Memoriam: Fair Havenite, NOAA Research Biologist, Author, Clyde MacKenzie Jr., 92

“I have tried to unveil what Teddy Roosevelt said, “No words can unveil the mystery of the wilderness” by conducting numerous field observations, that have included many underwater via scuba, in estuaries/bays and in the Atlantic Ocean.” ~ Clyde MacKenzie Jr.

Fair Havenite Clyde MacKenzie Jr. passed away peacefully on April 29. He was 92.

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Living the Dream: Staying Authentic with Another Memoir from RFH Grad Rossi

Does the world really need another memoir?

It’s a question with which famed New York City caterer, author and playwright of The Raging Skillet known as Rossi — we’ll get to her real name later — grappled. Originally, the wild child and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) graduate of a different kind figured the answer was a hard “Yes.” After all, when it’s all about how a gay Jewish punk rock queen plucked the jewels out of her own crown, who could resist?

After ingesting too many opinions like a bad bowl of matzo ball soup — as if there could be such a thing — it was Rossi’s healing try at third-person fiction writing of her story that opened a buried crown-induced wound leading to a full-on bleed-out. It was when she doused the wound in hydrogen peroxide’s purifying sting that its authenticity got an air-out healing in what became her second memoir — The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews.

After all, she figured, the world could really use a good dose of what it takes to pull those jewels out of the crown of a 1981 Crown Heights experience as a not-so-good Jewish girl. Who couldn’t use a story of endurance and hope simmering under a heap of authenticity?

So, the second Rossi memoir, sans recipes and the more silly, albeit unbelievable, misadventures, was launched last week with a reading in New York. Now Rossi is coming home again to the Rumson-Fair Haven area with a reading, signing and gathering of hometown friends and townies at River Road Books in Fair Haven on Thursday, May 2, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m..

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Retro Little Tykes’ River Time

Fair Haven river dwellers of the Drake family
Photo/courtesy of Robin Drake Fitch

Quality river time. It’s a rite of passage for any Rumson-Fair Haven area kid.

When the spring air hits, the banks of the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers call to kids like mythological Sirens. And they burrow themselves in the sand and tides like hermit crabs.

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Retro RFH Rainy Day Clowns in a Clown Car

RFH cheerleader guys and a VW bug circa 1977
Photo/George Day

Sometimes you just find yourself up a puddle without a paddle. And sometimes the way around it, or through it, is by spilling out of a VW bug like a bunch of RFH clowns in a clown car.

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Scene Around: Ann Dupree’s Fair Haven Farewell

Flanked on Sunday by friends, neighbors and fellow Fair Haven Fire Department (FHFD) volunteers, seemingly forever Fair Havenite Ann Dupree bade goodbye before leaving her River Road home of more than half a century.

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