Getting at the truth can be dangerous to your health

By Ron Leir It’s a dangerous world out there and nobody knows that better than foreign…

Memories of (pre-casino) Atlantic City 

By Karen Zautyk  What do Louis Armstrong, Conway Twitty, Mr. Peanut and Elsie the Cow have in…

Approaching a corner with an SUV parked at it? Hold on for your life!

By Kevin Canessa The other day, a good friend of mine and I were driving along…

A bit of forgotten baseball history   

By Karen Zautyk Did you know that Cleveland once had a pro-baseball team called the Spiders?…

There’s plenty of help out there for those afflicted by mental illness

By Kevin Canessa For this week’s edition of The Observer, I was fortunate to be able…

Give the Devil a sporting chance

By Karen Zautyk I had an unexpected house guest this weekend — my good friend the…

On Starbucks, Santana & more …

This is one of those weeks where I get to do a column for the second…

Thou shalt not steal

By Karen Zautyk Sometimes I wonder why my parents did not put me up for adoption.…

Remembering Shawn and Robert … 12 years later

Christmas 2005 was different than others from the get-go. For starters, it wasn’t all that cold…

A (belated) Christmas Story

By Karen Zautyk Sometimes I wonder why my parents did not put me up for adoption.…

A free ride is a transitory thing

By Ron Leir Looks like Santa didn’t stock any goodies in his bag for already beleaguered…

On YouTube, winter festivals & more

By Kevin Canessa There is a lot going on so for this week’s column, I thought…

Musings on overseas trends & U.S. military

By Ron Leir Ever stop to think about the types of things that drive you bonkers?…

Thankful this Thanksgiving

By Kevin Canessa It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is already here. Maybe it’s because of the…

The sad end to one brave life

By Karen Zautyk (Note: Last week’s lead story in The Observer dealt with the recent Civil…

In praise of parks, in fear of frats

By Ron Leir This past Sunday, I attended a memorial event for a buddy of mine…

Someone across the Passaic dropped the ball

Having had the honor of sitting down with Kearny police Capts. Scott Macfie and Tim Wagner…

Festivals were fun, as was KFD Open House

By Kevin Canessa So much has happened over the last few weeks locally that I thought…

PBS series recalled turbulent era for U.S.

By Ron Leir Great thanks go to Ken Burns and Lynn Novick for their 10-part, 18-hour…

The hell of 9/11/01 turned to joy on 9/21/01

Sept. 21, 2001, was my 27th birthday. Following the terror attacks just 10 days earlier, it…

‘On Sept. 11, 2001, I was blessed to get out alive’

By James Calautti Special to The Observer NEW YORK CITY — With the anniversary of 9/11…

The mysteries of the universe

By Karen Zautyk Okay, I don’t know if this is fake news or not, but while…

Tracing Kearny statue’s history …

With statues of U.S. historical figures representative of the Civil War prominently in the news these…

How now, brown cow?

By Karen Zautyk Last weekend, we took a ride up to Sussex County, one of the…

Senior jitney ride … a true lesson in history

By Kevin Canessa Jr. As you may have read already, elsewhere in this newspaper, on Tuesday,…

On Game 6 of ’86 & more

By Kevin Canessa Every so often, you sit down, whether it’s at home at the dining…

Think our laws are strict?

By Kevin Canessa Sometimes, we Americans take for granted the laws established in this country. Shockingly,…

The world’s a mess, but there’s baseball!

Well, well, well: the world is in its usual mixed-up muddle of a mess but now,…

We don’t know what we don’t know

By Karen Zautyk Of late, I have come across a bunch of TV shows and news…

June 14 — A day better to forget

By Kevin Canessa Jr. kc@theobserver.com For whatever reason, I woke up at 4 a.m., on Wednesday,…