The Record, Bergen County, NJ

New On Dvd

REIGN OVER ME (2007, Sony, R, $29) Adam Sandler deserves credit for trying to step outside his comfort zone by playing a dentist grappling with the 9/11 deaths of his wife and three daughters. But his performance doesn't really click until the final reel. Only Don Cheadle, as Sandler's college roommate, manages to make sense of the clichs piled high by writer-director Mike Binder ("The Upside of Anger"). Extras: making-of short and deleted scene. YOU KILL ME (2007, Genius, R, $20) After pas...

Review: Zane's Trace

* ZANE'S TRACE, by Allan Wolf; Candlewick, 208 pages, $16.99 At different points in his life, Allan Wolf has had episodes of hypergraphia, a compulsion to write that takes hold for hours, days or even weeks at a time. It started one day when he was a teenager and felt driven to write on his wall, a practice he kept up for years. Throughout high school he wrote odd phrases like scraps of poetry all over his bedroom walls, ceiling, furniture and mirror; eventually he added objects that he affix...

Review: Interred with Their Bones

INTERRED WITH THEIR BONES, by Jennifer Lee Carrell; Dutton, 405 pages, $25.95 With an obvious nod to "The Da Vinci Code," Jennifer Lee Carrell has written a two-tiered academic action yarn in which the murder mystery rests on a literary question:

The Need for Sex Continues Beyond Middle Age

One of my aunts greeted her first menopausal hot flash by hosting an all-girl party. "I don't have to have sex anymore," she gleefully told the gals. Her husband, my uncle, did not call the guys together. Instead, he took to drinking scotch on the rocks, starting around 4 p.m. every day.

Need New Windows? Measure Carefully

Q. I am thinking of installing replacement windows in my home and want to save money by doing it myself. Is this a difficult project? If care is taken, a do-it-yourself installation can be as good or better than one done by a contractor. In most cases, installations can be done from inside the house, so there is no need to carry windows up a ladder.

'Daddy, Why?': A Boy Reaches a Transition Age

Now that he's 9, my son comes up with questions I have trouble answering. "Daddy, why do people smoke pot?"

The Last Picking of the Season ; Green Tomatoes, Suitable for Frying

My favorite garden spider, leggy, black and yellow, is missing. The web she'd strung from tomato plant to ironweed to tomatillo and back to tomato plant is asymmetrical and misshapen, evidence that the spider, a fastidious housekeeper, is gone. And the grasshoppers, which all summer chewed and clawed their way through my beans and beets, are silent.

A La Carte

This calendar is part of the Food & Drink subcategory of Recreation events on The Big List. Go to thebiglist.northjersey.com to search listings or to submit your event. Events and news also are published on Second Helpings: northjersey.com/foodblog. Quench Fine Wine and Spirits has opened in Fort Lee in the renovated former location of Bobanell's Liquors.

Is Church Attendance Giving in or Deferring to Mom's Wishes?

DEAR ABBY: I could not disagree more with your advice to "Ticked Off in San Diego," whose mother forced her and her siblings to attend a church service before they could celebrate Father's Day. You implied that "Ticked" should acquiesce to her emotional blackmail and just go to church. Not only does that endorse the hateful, overbearing crone ramming her religious beliefs down everyone's throats, but it doesn't take into account the whole point of attending church. People go to church to expr...

Two Heavyweights: A Tale of the Tape

They are the first two entries on Jersey's rock-and-roll rsum: Bruce Springsteen, the 58-year-old poet whose salt-of-the-earth lyrics gave the Garden State some of its rock cachet, and Jon Bon Jovi, the 45-year-old kid who writes rock anthems and love songs with equal aplomb. They will share the spotlight this month, both artists taking their turn on a Jersey stage. Springsteen plays the first of two shows tonight at Continental Arena. Bon Jovi christens the Prudential Center in Newark later ...

Wife Separates, Saying She Likes Living the Single Life

Q. My wife and I have been married for 10 years. She is on active duty in the Army, stationed in another state. We have been separated by distance for 16 months, but we have had happy times and vacations during that time. Over our entire marriage, she has been gone a total of 26 months on deployments and with military schools. When she deployed last year, our 10-year-old son and I moved back to our home state to live with my parents so we could focus on paying off our $70,000-plus debt.

Bracelets

Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing spotted jewelry designer Jessica Kagan Cushman sporting her own bracelets on the streets of Manhattan and signed her up to create her sassy but chic faux-ivory resin bracelets. Finding inspiration from movies, literature and even New York graffiti, Cushman uses the art form scrimshaw to carve cheeky quotes and phrases onto the black and cream bangles (each piece can take up to eight hours to make).

Glass Acts

Quick Fix

Add a touch of color and flavor to your dinner with salsa made with juicy, ripe plums. They're in season through October and give an intriguing sweet and tart taste that is a perfect topping for this 15-minute roast pork dinner. A side dish of hot and spicy roast potatoes cooks with the pork, and both require the same amount of cooking time. To speed up the roasting, the pork and potatoes are placed under the broiler. To find a ripe, juicy plum, lightly press your thumb into the flesh. If it ...

It Takes Two ... ; with Steamy Moves and a Romantic History, Tango Buenos Aires Can Transport the Slyest and Shyest of Its Spectators to the 19th- Century Streets of Argentina with Its Skilled Steps and Musical Repertoire.

8 p.m. Wednesday, Englewood Tell Me More: What better way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month than with a little tango?