Some of the (already-published) articles and columns written as Kathy Tracey by Kath Slawson


Some feature articles


Arts Alert: Seeking a Safer Media

There are dangers inherent in using the chemicals in the fine arts, from headaches to blurry vision to lead poisoning to complete dysfunction.

Marie, anonymous artist; Jane Cheryl, B.F.A., M.A., teacher of "Introduction to Painting" at Warren County Community College; Michael McCann, PHD, Certified Industrial Hygienist, Executive Director of the Center for Safety in the Arts and author of Health Hazards Manual for Artists and Artists Beware


Trouble in God's Garden?

I visit some of the religious communities in Warren County to learn about them and to discuss their impact on neighborhoods.

World Apostolate of Fatima: The Blue Army Shrine, Washington Township (Catholic);
Siddhachalam: the Mountain of God, Blairstown (Jain);
Labsum Shedrub Ling: Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, Franklin Township


Cow Tails

Life on a dairy farm is different these days.

Joseph Banghart, Sr., Franklin Township; Frank Gibbs, Allamuchy; Ray DiRisio, Jr., Mansfield; Bill Roseberry, Washington Township


Starving Yourself Thin

How safe are those over-the-counter diet powders?

Arthur H. Popkave, MD, cardiologist, Phillipsburg; Carol Francis Jubert, RD, MS, Community Nutrition Coordinator for Morristown Memorial Hospital; Debbie Conrad, RD, Easton Hospital's Chief Clinical Dietician


Welcome to the Country: Rural v. Suburban Concerns

A humorous look at coping with the impact of development on rural areas and the collision of concerns and expectations between old and new residents, including unexpected noises and smells, traffic obstruction and trespassing issues.

Bill Roseberry, farmer; Carl Sigler, farmer; Everett Chamberlain, agricultural agent, Cooperative Extension Service; Donna Rue, Public Health Nurse-Educator; Pat Kaspereen, real estate agent


Simply Beautiful

The lazy way to create and maintain your flower garden.

Joe Gyurian, Horticultural Consultant, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Somerset County; Bob Wedderman, co-owner, Three Brothers Nursery, Mansfield Township


Creating a Caring Community

How the Warren County Task Force on AIDS was formed in reaction to panic-driven events in the Washington Borough school district in 1985.

Anne Heft, member; Mary Ellen LaBrie, RN, executive board chairman; Linda Patak, executive board secretary


Need Reading

The Warren County Coalition of Adult Learning and Literacy (C.A.L.L.) teaches volunteers how to teach reading, matches each tutor with someone who wants to read and provides the materials necessary for the lessons.

Edgar Poyer, client; Lisa Hailey, volunteer tutor; Maria Heaton, literacy coordinator


MADD Grads

A new, fun and much safer approach to graduation parties.

Rikk Streng, student participant, 1991 Warren Hills party; Donna McDonald, senior class advisor, Belvidere High School; Rita Fennell, active in the North Warren Regional High School's party; Carol Walker, Blairstown proponent; Trudy Piatt, president, Warren County Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)


Avoiding Heartache: Because heart disease is not limited to the elderly

What I learned after my (first) heart attack at age 35.

Me, patient; American Heart Association statistics; Nancy Lawson, area communications director, American Heart Association; Pat Mathews, manager of the CPR Training Center, Warren Hospital


My Mother, My Teacher

Home schooling, laws and effects.

Donna Fox, Washington Township, parent; Diana D'Agostino, Independence Township, parent; Barbara LaBrie, Washington Borough, parent; Irene Mott, Blairstown, parent; Jane Keehn, Educational Planner and acting Warren County Superintendent of Schools; Patrick J. O'Malley, Superintendent of Schools, Washington Borough; John Deibert, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools, Lebanon Township


Bug Warfare

How to use and avoid using dangerous pesticides.

Martha Maletta, Horticultural Consultant for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service, Flemington; Dr. Chris Milne, research scientist, the Department of Health's Environmental Health Service


Getting the Cracks Out: Radon and You

Fiscal and physical impact of radon gas. How tests can trick you.

Joe Norton, owner/manager, Norton Conservation Company (Norcon), Hackettstown; Steve Vollers, managing partner, Western Acres development; Washington Borough; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, Radon Information Line


Town Budgets: How you can help control spiraling taxes

Understanding and responding to your town's proposed budget.

Alan Fisher, Washington Borough Town Manager; Dawn Merante, Franklin Township Finance Officer


Talking Turkey

Avoiding salmonella with safe cooking techniques. Diagnosis and treatment of salmonella.

Howard J. Swidler, M.D, Warren Hospital's Chief of Emergency Medicine; Shawn Padulo, executive chef, Branches Restaurant, North Branch; Ann M. Rhinesmith, extension home economist, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Warren County


Connections: Online in Warren County

What, who, why and how.

Jeff Polachek, Super Software BBS; Skal Loret, Back Lounge of the Tour Bus; Scott Johnson, The War Board; Kath Slawson, The RoundTable BBS


Dune Buggy, The Clown

Tips from and recollections of the Warren County Fair's clown.

Col. Jim Russell, Peanut Circus Shows


From Hobby to Home Business

Three successful Warren County crafters explain how craft-making hobbies became money-making home-businesses.

Sharon Wescoe, Washington Borough; Maureen Wahlers, Blairstown; April Ackerman, Blairstown


Foliage Foraging

Checking out the fall foliage in Warren County on foot, from bicycle, from your car, from the air and from water. Suggested routes and contact people for such tours.


Tax Tribulations

Don't miss any of your possible income tax deductions.

Denise O'Dell, C.P.A., Washington Borough


From the health and medicine columns


Asthma: Am I dying, Mommy?

Managing asthma and small children.

Anonymous parent; Rakesh K. Garg, MD, FCCP


Bee Warned

Determining when a bee sting is an emergency.

Teddy, anonymous child patient; Howard J. Swidler, M.D., F.A.C.E.T., Chief of Emergency Medicine at Warren Hospital


Conquering the Wedding Bell Nerves

You're not nuts. This is real.

Jeff Danco, PSYD., American Institute for Counseling, Hampton and Green Brook


The Bitter Lyme

The diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.

Anonymous child patient and her mother; Marvin Rosenthal, M. D., director, Family Practice Residency Program at Coventry Family Practice, Phillipsburg; Frank J. Gilly, M. D., Washington Clinic Medical Associates, Washington Borough


De-Ticking Tick-niques

How to get the creepy-crawly safely off you.

Frank J. Gilly, M. D., Washington Clinic Medical Associates, Washington Borough


More than Just Tired

Lupus.

Kim, anonymous patient; Pat Johnson, executive director, Lupus Erythematosis Foundation of New Jersey


Feeling SAD

Depression, hunger and the wintertime blues: Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Ronald L. Sultan, Ph.D., Psychologist and Diplomate of the American Board of Psychotherapy


Under the Sun: The Aging Skin Effect

Avoiding unnecessary wrinkles; treatment with Retina A.

Jean Abel Cramer, MD, Assistant Professor at Cornell Medical School, whose dermatology office is in Flemington


Under the Sun: The Cancer Effect

Diagnosis and avoidance of skin cancer.

Dave, the patient; Jean Abel Cramer, MD, Assistant Professor at Cornell Medical School, whose dermatology office is in Flemington


The Sporting Life

Avoidance, diagnosis and treament of sports injuries.

Jerome D. Rosman, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, Hackettstown.


From the Just Poking Around op-ed columns


Just Poking Around...To Leap from a Mountain

Walt Schneider on his Angel Falls, Venezuela, parachute jump


Just Poking Around...At the Capitol

My (jaded and irascible) opinions on some laws under consideration


Just Poking Around...In the Shadow of the Wall

Guess how I feel about those massive, feather-bedding, expensive and inappropriate noise-containment lines of monoliths?


Just Poking Around...Lights in the Sky

Anonymous Borough resident describes her and her son's meeting with a UFO in Mansfield


Just Poking Around...On the [Unemployment] Line

Man's insensitivity to man.


Just Poking Around...In Candlelight, Ribbons and Memories

Trudy Piatt, Mothers against Drunk Driving


Just Poking Around...In a Small Town

Why I like it here.


Just Poking Around...Civic Tantrums

I rant about taxes, local laws, schools and agency rudeness.


Just Poking Around...By the Lake

Checking out the Merrill Creek Reservoir


Just Poking Around...In the Schoolyard

Anti-teachers' strike diatribe with avoidance suggestions


Just Poking Around...Of Set Points and Such

Why it is impossible to hit it really big, or keep it if you do


Just Poking Around...On Trivial Pursuits

In support thereof.


Just Poking Around...Without Water

About contaminated water supplies and emergency responses


Just Poking Around...In Rabies Facts

Donna Rue, Public Health Educator, alerts the public


Just Poking Around...Cummings and Goings

Cummings [Jake] Piatt, former Assistant Commissioner of the (N.J.) Department of Education, discusses education today


Just Poking Around...When Disaster Strikes

Washington's Emergency Disaster Plan. Such as it was.


Just Poking Around...In the Indians's Fields

At a powwow


Just Poking Around...In Glass, Carefully

Jack Miller, glass cutter and car restorer


Just Poking Around...With a Young Hero

Lenny Duane, Jr., who rescued a drowning friend


Just Poking Around...At a Special Summer Camp

A summer camp with special needs in mind

Steve Froemel, Camp Warren, The Association of Retarded Citizens


Just Poking Around...Alpaugh's Art

Duane Alpaugh, painter


Just Poking Around...On Bicycles

Franklin Beaty, long distance rider


Just Poking Around...To Be A Star

Jennifer Dante, beauty pageant contestant


Just Poking Around...For the Kids

Ann O'Malley, Big Brothers/Big Sisters


Just Poking Around...The First Time

In which, despite some panic, I donate blood.


Just Poking Around...For the Lady

Sister Mary Francis, Blue Army Shrine


Just Poking Around...Where the Computer Nuts Are

My beloved computer shows


Just Poking Around...Where the Kids Could Be

Ken Snover, Central Warren Youth Association


About the DAR

Gladys Shires, Daughters of the American Revolution


Just Poking Around...In Garbage

Alan Fisher, Borough Manager, on garbage/recycling developments


Just Poking Around...In Garbage (Again)

Alan Fisher, Borough Manager, more on garbage/recycling developments or lack thereof


Just Poking Around...Down at the Grange

Ruth Toretta, Warren Grange #110


Just Poking Around...At Guy's Getty

Three generations of Burds, mostly named Guy


Just Poking Around...Where the Kids Do Their Part

Diane Friedman, whose 5th grade class recycles


Just Poking Around...On Teen Suicide

Henry Scala advises parents and teens


Just Poking Around...In Creative School Finances

Warren schools try to save taxpayers $$ while providing good educational value


Just Poking Around...On a Different Canvas

Lenny Duane Sr, tattooist


Just Poking Around...In Property Tax Problems

Town manager Alan Fisher explains why we have them and what we can do about them


Just Poking Around...Property Taxes: Good News, Bad News

The state budget trashes local plans


Just Poking Around...At the Trump Run

Professional bicyclists roll through Warren County


Just Poking Around...In the New Township School System

Washington Township Superintendent of Schools Barry Dornich discusses the very positive impact of putting all kids in the same grade in one building.


Just Poking Around...The Gift of Time

Bob Richards, on volunteers and baseball


Just Poking Around...In Cool Water

About that totally rad spring in Liberty Township on Route 46


See? I told you I was a writer.

Back to Kath Words.

Email slawson@nac.net.

All text is copyright (c) 1996 by Kathy Tracey Slawson. All rights reserved.