The Gazette of Really Small News

The American flag at the Fletcher Lake Gazebo, Bradley Beach, flies at half-staff Thursday, August 30, as part of a national tribute to longtime U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona, who died in office on August 26.

A mountainous cloud looms over Asbury Park before sunset on Thursday, August 30.

A cloud shaped like a blimp hovers over Ocean Grove before sundown Thursday, August 30.

1886: Sixty people die in an earthquake centered in Charleston, South Carolina. 1886: In London, Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first person to die at the hands of Jack the Ripper. 1986: Eighty-two people die when an Aero Mexico airliner collides with a Piper Cherokee over Cerritos, California. 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.

The Gazette's new trailer, launched this morning, showcases some of the black and white photographs published here during the past year. The pictures were taken around Asbury Park and Ocean Grove. Enjoy!

Bare branches on the Asbury Park side of Wesley Lake as Labor Day weekend approaches are  a reminder that autumns is closer than we might like to think. The lights across the lake denote the site of Founders Park in Ocean Grove. 

Sandals left at the beach shower near the Ocean Grove boardwalk entrance provide comic relief at sunrise. The National Weather Service forecasts more heat and humidity for today. Local thermometers could reach a high of 88 before cooling showers and thunderstorms move in tonight and tomorrow.

1974: Eight people die when leftist extremists bombs the headquarters  of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Tokyo. 2013: Irish poet Seamus Heaney dies. 2015: English-American author and neurologist Oliver Sacks dies.

A sunflower stands with its face to the sun, its petals still full of color despite the  hammering sunlight.

Sunflowers might not know the first thing about heat indices, but they sure do feel the heat. These sunflowers in a private garden in Ocean Grove were all wrung out Wednesday afternoon, when the combined heat and humidity produced a heat index of 104. The National Weather Service expects thunderstorms late Thursday and into Friday will bring cooler temperatures into the region.

The so-called "golden hour" is the hour after the sun rises or before the sun sets, when the light is soft and casts a golden glow. This image was captured during the hour after sunrise Wednesday, August 29.

A pleasure craft heads south off the coast of Ocean Grove while beachfront visitors usurp a lifeguard stand and  the sun burns through the haze. The National Weather Service (NWS) is calling for a high of 89 and high humidity. A Code Orange air quality alert is in effect all day Wednesday. Air pollution concentrations in the region may become unhealthy for children, the elderly, and people with asthma or heart or lung conditions, according to the NWS.

1786: In Massachusetts, Shays' Rebellion begins as Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays leads a revolt purportedly prompted by high taxes and agressive debt collection. 2005: More than 1,800 people die as Hurricane Katrina slams into the Gulf coast between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

What look like wet pages from an old book are really the underside of a mushroom upended in Auditorium Park, Ocean Grove.

We launched the new trailer! Enjoy!

The sun rises over Wesley Lake and the northern bank of Ocean Grove. The Asbury Park steam plant and one of three footbridges linking Ocean Grove and Asbury Park can he seen on the left.

1776: American forces under General George Washington lose the Battle of Long Island--which was fought in what is now Brooklyn, New York--to British forces under General William Howe. 1893: Up to 2,000 people die in a hurricane in and around Savannah, Georgia. 2011: Forty-seen people die when Hurricane Irene strikes the Middle Atlantic coastline of the United States.

Crowds signaled the start of the last week of summer by flocking to the Asbury Park boardwalk before its 9 a.m. opening on Sunday, August 26. Labor Day weekend begins this Friday, August 31.

When is a torch not a torch? When everything comes together in composition. Here a sunset cloud gives this electronic device on the Asbury Park boardwalk the appearance of a flaming torch.

The B-17 Flying Fortress bomber flying over the Ocean Grove beachfront Saturday is one of several vintage World War Two warplanes at Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall Township through Sunday, Aug. 26.  Walk-through tours of the planes are from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Tickets are $15 adults; $5 children 12 and under. The planes, a touring exhibit by the Collings Foundation, also take passengers for 30-minute flights half an hour before and after tour times. For reservations and ticket prices, call 978-562-9182,

Puffy clouds rise above Asbury Park like a sequence of dialog balloons in a graphic novel.

1814: During the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the Library of Congress, the treasury, and other government buildings in Washington, D.C. 1933: Nine thousand people die in an earthquake in Sichuan, China. 1984: American novelist Truman Capote dies. 2009: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy dies. 2012: American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, dies. 2018: U.S. Senator John McCain dies.

79: In Italy, countless thousands die as Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying  Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other nearby towns in up to 20 feet of pumice and volcanic ash. 410: The Visigoths' sack of Rome begins.

Reflections in a broken window of the Asbury Park steam plant suggest part of a face rendered in the Expressionist style of the early 20th century. The steam plant was built in 1930 and according to local historians supplied power for buildings on the Asbury Park boardwalk.

Sunset reflected in a window of the Asbury Park steam plant on the boardwalk at the end of Wesley Lake. The plant was built in 1930, and the reflection suggests a face painted in the Art Deco style of the period.

A system of veins makes this sunflower leaf look like a verdant part of the world seen from thousands of feet above the ground.

1485: England's King Richard III dies during the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry Tudor becomes King Henry VII. Richard's grave will eventually become the site of a 21st-century parking lot. His remains will be discovered in 2012, identified, and formally buried in Leicester Cathedral on March 26, 2015. 1642: The First English Civil War begins. 2012: In Kenya, more than 50 people die in a dispute over cattle grazing in the Tana River District.

1986: In Cameroon, up to 1,800 people when carbon dioxide  erupts from Lake Nyos, a volcanic lake. 1988: Up to 1,500 people die in an earthquake along the border between Nepal and India.

The Ocean Grove beaches are open for swimming, but the yellow flag signifies rough surf and potentially hazardous conditions. Swim with caution and pay attention to the lifeguards.

1852: More than 150 people die in the collision and sinking of the steamboat Atlantic and another vessel on Lake Erie. 1910: The Great Fire of 1910, also referred to as "The Big Blowup," destroys an estimated 3 million acres of forest in Idaho, Washington, and Montana. 1989: In London, 59 people die when the pleasure boat Marchioness sinks following a collision on the Thames. 2014: In Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, 72 people die in landslides caused by torrential rains.

In Neptune Township, Davis Avenue to Route 33 westbound  will be closed for paving Monday, Aug. 20, officials said. It was not immediately known how long the road will remain closed. Commuters are urged to prepare other routes and to expect delays around detours.

The sign isn't there to stop people from entering a lane of tents across from Ocean Grove's Great Auditorium. The sign is actually at a corner across the street. 

1642: Italian artist Guido Reni dies. 1850: French novelist Honore de Balzac dies. 1891:  Seven hundred people die when a hurricane strikes the island of Martinique. 2018: Former  United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan dies.

This little fellow has a table in Auditorium Square Park, Ocean Grove, all to himself.

1668: Eight thousand people die in an earthquake in what is now Turkey. 1999: More than 17,000 people die in an earthquake in northwestern Turkey. 2017: In Barcelona, 17 people die when a van is driven into a pedestrian walkway.

Parts of a house can be seen in droplets hanging from the stem of a sunflower plant in Ocean Grove following torrential downpours on August 13.

What looks like a bunny en silhouette is really the shadow of a clump of strategically placed flowers in this garden in Ocean Grove.

1610: War begins between the indigenous Powhatan people and settlers in the English Colony of Virginia. 1969: In Los Angeles, actress Sharon Tate and five other people are murdered by members of the Manson Family.

The National Weather Service  Mount Holly website said current conditions in Ocean Grove were "fair" with a 30-percent chance of thunderstorms tonight. This was the scene over Firemen's Park on Main Avenue around 7 p.m.

Clouds obscure the sun as it rises behind the old steam plant on the Asbury Park boardwalk August 7.

1970: In Marin County, California, Superior Court Judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his own courtroom by people calling for activist George Jackson to be released from police custody, and then killed when the hostage-takers try to escape. 1998: More than 200 people die in bombings at American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.