Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun Have you seen Moonstruck? The film, released in 1987, headlines Cher, Nicolas Cage, and an all‑star cast. I love it because it reflects a family and their NYC lives in the 1980s. But one aspect of the film is hard for me to watch—the recurring vision of the moon over the Twin Towers. I feel a deep ache in my soul whenever I see it. My novels take place in the 1980s, and I sometimes long for that decade. Of course we had problems,...
10 days ago • 2 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun I love reading about discoveries that happened, quite by accident. One very famous; the X-ray. It is one of those everyday miracles we barely think about anymore. The story behind the X-ray is actually pretty entertaining, and I thought I’d share it with you. X‑rays were discovered by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röentgen. In 1895, he was alone in his lab experimenting with electrical currents in vacuum tubes — the kind of...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun The Turtle Story Did you ever have a wildlife encounter that made you wonder, What were they thinking? I had that exact thought last summer after a poolside incident that came rushing back to me this week. I was reading Kendra Coulter’s book; "The Tortoise's Tale". It is an autobiography told by a giant tortoise who observed the lives of the residents of a large estate in California. Writing an entire book from a tortoise’s...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun This week I thought I’d share a tiny adventure from the glamorous world of self-improvement products; specifically, my recent experiment with Plexaderm Rapid Reduction Serum. You’ve probably seen the ads. They make it look like you dab a little potion under your eyes and suddenly you’re ready for the cover of Vogue. A while back, I bought their low‑cost introductory offer, fully intending to test it immediately… and then I did...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun Alan Turing: The Father of the Computer This week, instead of my usual take on timely events, I want to give you something different: historical knowledge about a man whose work touches your life every single day. Most of you never even heard his name. Alan Turing was a British mathematician whose ideas became the foundation of every modern computer. Long before laptops, smartphones, or the internet existed, Turing imagined a...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun When out-of-towners come to New Jersey, they assume the entire state looks like Newark Airport. They don’t know about the open spaces in Sussex County, the wildlife (yes, we have bears), or the corn and tomatoes that could compete with any state in the union. And they have not been to our crown jewel of agricultural achievement, the New Jersey State Fair. The whole thing began in 1919 with the Branchville Riding Club, when cars...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun 🌫️ When the Air Isn’t Clear: A Practical Guide to Wildfire Smoke The haze we’ve been seeing around Sussex County isn’t fog, humidity, or your glasses needing a wipe. It’s wildfire smoke drifting from Canada, or Oregon. And if you’re thinking, I don’t remember this happening when the kids were little, you’re right. These smoke events are new in how often they’re happening and how noticeable they’ve become. There are many reasons...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love Adventure, and Fun ✨ “The Brownie Incident” Every six months, one of my longtime patients walks through the door carrying a homemade baked treat. He’s retired Army — and not just any Army veteran, but an Army chef. My assistant Pat and I always know we’re about to be spoiled. Everything he makes is from scratch, and he prides himself on using less sugar than the recipe calls for. The result is always delicious. Honestly, the extra sugar is...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Joanne's Sunday Perks Dental Tales of Love, Adventure, and Fun We deserve a treat! After most of us suffered through smoke filled apocalyptic skies, were held hostage in our homes because of the air quality and were forced to invent indoor activities (which included closet cleaning for me), I decided this week's perk would be filled with treats. First, photos of my amazing day at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. I did not fully appreciate this escape until I returned to a neighborhood...
2 months ago • 1 min read