Pool Panic & Mermaid Mayhem
Plus slamming art ops, Beatles karaoke & more
Hey there. How are ya? How’s the family? Now, lots to say, so let’s get to it. But first, a nearby installation celebrating our famous Hudson River mermaids, which we call our Mer-kin.*
🚢 Weehawken Boy Sails Into Windsor Castle To Collect His Treasure
David Mearns, pictured at center, has located 29 shipwrecks in his 35-year long career and he’s looking to go for numero 30. He helped find a Vasco de Gama ship sunk in 1503, found WWII destroyers that were destroyed, and holds the world record for deepest shipwreck ever found. Last week Mearns earned an audience with the Prince of Wales to collect his OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) which is a great honor that comes with a shiny medal. In fact, he’d already received the Medal of the Order of Australia, so this was just one more to pin on his lapel. Why do we care? Simple: because Mearns was raised in Weehawken and graduated from Weehawken High School in 1976 before moving on to Fairleigh Dickinson University. And fun fact: he didn’t even start his underwater finding-historical-stuff biz until the 90s.
The Instagram post linked above has a great overview of his career highlights, and there’s also an article here: Deep-sea shipwreck explorer looking for anchor of HMT Empire Windrush honoured
Will he ever navigate his way back to our shores and drop ⚓? Dunno but we hope so. Maybe he can help divers locate the thousands of NYC slot machines that were dumped nearby in the 1930s and 40s.
Pool Membership Mania?
It’s less than 100 days until Memorial Day weekend and registration for Weehawken pool memberships for the 2025 season are now open. Info about cost, dates, day passes, etc — is all here: weehawken-nj.us/recreation/weehawken-pool
The signup link in the email from the town was a bit dodgy though, causing a 404 error for some, but we had luck cutting off the back half of the link they sent, so here’s what we used to register in case it helps:
weehawken.recdesk.com/ ← and click or tap on “pool memberships”
The first email about this was sent out by the township of Weehawken on February 13th, and the news spread like chlorinated wildfire.
A Hoboken parent group on Facebook with more than 10 thousand members shared the news before it hit the Weehawken parent group; the one who posted it wrote, “Happy Valentine’s Day! Weehawken Pool registration is a love language.”
Then Hoboken councilperson Emily Jabbour shared the news. Finally, writing in Hoboken Patch on Valentine’s Day, Caren Lissner fanned the flames of pool passion with a headline grabber: Weehawken Pool Taking Registrations From Hoboken, Rest Of NJ, and added, “…but they filled up last year, so don't wait."
So yes. They will fill up, and we want our most excellent readers to not miss out. So get to it. But also? Don’t panic. And don’t worry about the drama that will ensue. Yes, the pool will be overrun on the first few hot days, but then people peel off to the shore, and many more will decide they can’t be bothered to drag the kids and try to stuff their pricey stroller wagons into the tiny locker room — that’s when it becomes manageable.
Friendly reminder that you can’t just swim from Chart House and then expect to be allowed into the pool. Story here:
🎨 A Gutt Deal For Local Artists
If you are a local artist who seeks space to create, plus a few bucks and a bit of visibility, Gutenberg Arts has a really cool program called Space & Time Artist Residencies to give you just that. Note the deadline to apply is February 28: guttenbergarts.org/apply
What and where is Guttenberg Arts? It’s located less than two miles from northern Weehawken in what is called Bulls Ferry Studios. You can check out the drool-worthy photos of their space here: guttenbergarts.org/facility — and know that they have tons of workshops, movie nights, art openings and more.
🎤 Beatles Karaoke Friday 2/21 at 8PM
See our recent interview with the creator of single artist karaoke and show up this Friday at the Weehawken Elks for this format’s next installment — a night devoted solely to Beatles tunes. Doors open at 7P, singing at 8P. Who knows, maybe Sir Paul will make another surprise appearance? Even if not, there’s a friendly chill vibe on tap, no cover, cash bar & drinks are crazy cheap. Speaking of cheap…
Cheap Thrills
Inflation is ticking up and eggs are eggstremely hard to find — so here’s a couple of notes on three things that are delightful and massive bargains.
Linda’s Place — this adorable deli in upcliff Weehawken is just a stone’s throw from the high school. Known for fresh affordable sandwiches and owners who know your usual by the sound of your voice. If you order a sandwich, don’t forget to ask for the Linda’s Place card, on which you collect stamps and get your 7th meal free. Rated 5 stars on Google and if there were more stars we’d give them. Menu: lindasplacemenu.com
El Unico de Elena — We haven’t been yet and we really have no excuse since everyone swears by it and apparently it’s been right there on Park Avenue since… 1976? In an email to our Weehawken Gazette tip line Monica M. kindly recommended it by saying, “delicious Cuban food for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!” Extra points to El Unico for their robust Instagram account. Race ya there.
Hoopla and Libby — As if you needed another reason to have a library card, Hoopla and Libby are apps that massively expand your borrowing power, giving you access to a bajillion free ebooks and audiobooks. Opening Libby, there’s also access to 5 thousand magazines. Opening Hoopla, we see there’s a massive selection of kids comics titles to keep them busy, and incidentally, they even have the book and audiobook of The Shipwreck Hunter by David Mearns (the dude we mentioned up top). If you were burned by the early days when checking out an ebook was mind-numbingly complex, do try again. Get the app, input your library card info — and done.
*The Legend Of Mer-kin Among Us 🧜♀️
Why are we so pool obsessed? Is it because some of us are descended from mermaids? Basically, legend has it that 500 years ago a few Atlantic mermaids led Italian explorers to the mouth of the Hudson. They were about to crash the sailor’s ships on the rocks of the Palisades — because young mermaids are totally mean girls and crashing big ships is way more fun than just overturning a native’s canoe — when they smelled the delicious food being made onboard. A romance between a crew member and a mermaid ensued and BADA BING BADA BOOM — our excellent Italian food and love of living right on the water was born. We call the mer people living in Weehawken and Hoboken Merken and/or Mer-kin. Both are equally correct.
This legend can be traced all the way back to 2024, when we made it up from whole cloth. Anyway, feel free to spread the rumor because a legend is just a popular myth, and this one isn’t too popular yet. And look for this story to be a major motion picture someday soon — where soon = not really very soon and maybe never.
Update after publish: since no one asked, NJ mermaids are called Jermaids, because of course they are.
Where Did We Go Right?
Welcome to all the new subscribers who have come onboard in 2025. Not sure how you found this here excellent newsletter but you did and we’re glad for it. This newsletter is free to read and subscribe to, but we’re all for freebies and/or money too, which we will always disclose. We also love hearing your ideas.
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Susie Felber
Weehawken Gazette
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Weehawken, NJ 07086
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Tah for now nice nabes!
Susie
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