Wrapping My Head Around Christmas Bows

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: December 1, 2010

Wrapping My Head Around Christmas Bows
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
I’ll never forget how quickly it happened. I was staring at the machine at Hallmark’s Visitors Center in Kansas City and before I knew it, in a few swift movements, the machine had created a perfect no-knot bow. I was 11 then and I am [...]

Carving Out the Truth: Are Turkey Hats for Real?

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: November 1, 2010

Carving Out the Truth: Are Turkey Hats for Real?
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
You see them in store windows and on classroom walls. You’ve probably seen them for so long, you don’t notice them. Turkeys are everywhere for Thanksgiving. But did you ever notice the curious Pilgrim hats with buckles on top of their heads?
Pilgrims [...]

Cabbage Night to You, Mischief Night to Me

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: October 1, 2010

By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
Does it happen to you? Does your hair stand straight up on your neck on the night of October 30? Call it what you want: Cabbage Night, Mischief Night, Goosey Night, it’s all the same. Expect to see some toilet-papered trees and egged windows.
My first experience with Mischief Night, as [...]

How To Get Model’s Legs

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: August 31, 2010

How to get model’s legs
By Veronica MacDonald
An Accidental Anthropologist
Most people fantasize about running away with the circus. But when it comes down to it, there are very few circus jobs that are really desirable. It’s not the clown that hurls through the ring of fire at top speeds. Nor the trapeze artist that flies without [...]

Can you Spit 68+ Feet?

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: July 30, 2010

By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
Okay, so it’s August now. Most children have had at least two months to practice a favorite summer pastime -watermelon seed spitting. Time for the real competitions to begin!
At my childhood residence, our competitions were nothing much to talk about. My brother always shot the farthest. But he spent a [...]

Sandcastles Have Lots of Substance, Or Do They?

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: May 30, 2010

Sandcastles Have Lots of Substance, Or Do They?
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
Summer is here and sandcastles are on my mind. It seems natural to want to make something out of the immense stretches of sand down south. It’s like a huge sandbox! Put a pile of it in front of a baby and he/she [...]

The Fun of Kindergarten

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: April 30, 2010

The Fun of Kindergarten
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist

May is the month most college students run screaming from the hills that they are off for the summer. High school seniors have serious cases of Senioritis by now. And Kindergarteners, well, do they know what summer is yet?
It only recently occurred to me that all [...]

Zoning Out

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: April 1, 2010

Zoning Out
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
I truly get bitten by the daydreaming bug as soon as the weather gets warmer. Really it’s the sun that entrances me: the way the spring light dances and lingers during the day. And the smell of the thawing, melting earth – I just love it!
If I’m indoors, I [...]

Be Good Doc Gooden

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: March 25, 2010

Suspected of driving under the influence, Gooden was arrested after leaving the scene of a two-car crash on Old Mill Road in Franklin Lakes. The FLOW area is no stranger to DUI arrests, but Gooden’s celebrity stature brought national attention as it revived his reputation for substance abuse.
Franklin Lakes has it’s [...]

March Daffodils

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: February 28, 2010

“Then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils…” - William Wordsworth
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
Daffodils are truly one of the first signs of spring. Their bright and sunny heads pop out of the ground all at once, just when you think winter will last longer than Punxsutawney Phil says. And what [...]

Putting Your Best Face Forward

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: January 29, 2010

Putting Your Best Face Forward
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
I see it happen so many times on the road. People cross a street and never look back to see if, by chance, a car is turning onto the street they are crossing. This is not a comment on pedestrians or drivers really, but rather a [...]

Kooky Cookies

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: December 27, 2009

Kooky Cookies
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
The Holidays have passed but there is still one food that keeps on hanging around if you’re lucky – cookies. Or maybe the cookies are now hanging on your hips (admit it – isn’t that your new year’s resolution!?). Either way, they’ve made their annual appearance.
I’m guessing here, but [...]

Tinsel

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: November 30, 2009

My favorite part of the holidays is when we dim the lights at night and let the soft lights of the Christmas tree glow…

Putting a Little Fright into Autumn

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: October 31, 2009

Ah, it is fall again. The leaves have changed color and there is the sweet, wet smell of rotting leaves. Yards are decorated with corn, pumpkins, bales of hay, and…..scarecrows…

A Lesson from Squirrels

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: September 30, 2009

Native Americans turned acorns into acorn meal for breads, cakes, and dumplings in soups. Seminoles used the little nuts in stew. Other tribes such as the Apache just made straight…

I Feel Like a Rock Star

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: August 1, 2009

The history of sunglasses and how New Jersey played a part in making them Cool!

Moths to a Flame

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: July 1, 2009

On a summer night, there is a little ritual I like to do when I come home called, “How do I get through the door without inviting a thousand moths into the house?”

Have Your Cake and Eat You Too

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: May 31, 2009

What’s an occasion if it isn’t celebrated with fluffy cake?

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