The Connection Bridgewater-Somerville Edition Dec 2018/Jan 2019

www.theconnectionsnj.com Thinking about selling your home? Call me for a FREE, no risk, no obligation Market Analysis of your home today! Michael Toscano Sales Associate Lic # 1650459 Cell: 908-337-2463 O0ce: 732-968-0700 Fax: 732-968-7974 929 N. Washington Ave., Green Brook, NJ 08812 1952Washington Valley Road, Martinsville, NJ 08836 Each O0ce is Independently Owned and Operated michaeltoscanorealestate@gmail.com www.era.com/agent/michael.toscano@era.com B oniakowski With my limited time for leisure reading I tend to gravitate to non- fiction. Last spring my wife, who reads more books in a month than I do in a year, recommended The Feather Thief by Kirk Johnson. Suffice it to say, it was a “page turner” for me. While the author was fly fishing in New Mexico, in 2009, his guide told him the true story of an Ameri- can musician and champion fly-tier, Edwin Rist. If you are not familiar with fly fishing, feathers are tied by hand with other materials to make a fishing lure, called a fly. It is intended to simulate an inset that fish will find appetizing. There are thousands of variations, one of which is shown in the picture. Rist, after performing as a flautist in London one evening, robbed the British Natural History Museum at Tring, about 40 miles northwest of the city. Rist stole bird skins and feathers, some col- lected by Darwin’s contemporary, Alfred Wallace, over 150 years ago. He was never prosecuted. The novel chronicles the bizarre crime and Johnson’s relentless pur- suit of justice. It is also a fascinat- ing exploration of obsession, and man’s destructive instinct to har- vest the beauty of nature. Some of it takes place in Somerset, NJ! When I completed the book, I thought my sister, Susie, in Denver might enjoy it (regular readers may recall that she has been in several Random Connection stories). Susie and her family are avid fly fisher- men (and fly fisherwomen). Fur- thermore, she works at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I sent her an email to which she replied with a thanks. Susie has a very busy life, so I really didn’t expect to hear anything further on the subject. A week later I received an email from Susie saying, “I really need to read the book you recommended as I just found out that Kirk John- son, the author, will be speaking at our museum, on November 14th.” While writing this article I did a web search for Kirk Johnson. Seems that another Kirk Johnson, was the Denver Museum’s chief curator and vice president of research and collections from 2006 to 2012. He is now at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. To clarify, should you want to investigate further, The Feather Thief was written by Kirk W. Johnson, who is also of the founder of The List Project, a non- profit organization that helps Iraqi refugees who previously worked for the U.S. government during the Iraq war. GONE FISHING By: Dan Rosenberg APARTMENT • OFFICE • HOUSE CLEANING FREE ESTIMATES • FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING • REFERENCES AVAILABLE I know you are busy… so it is my pleasure to provide you with professional house cleaning service that is RELIABLE, TRUSTWORTHY and THOROUGH at an AFFORDABLE, REASONABLE RATE. CLEANING PERSONAL TOUCH, LLC Sofia 908-342-7921 BRIDGEWATER RESIDENT home & design PAGE 52