Ten Things I Want You To Know About New Jersey.

[camwyn]

I've had about as much of the news as I can take. Here. Have some unrelated content.

Ten Things I Want You To Know About New Jersey.
In No Particular Order.

1. We don't actually have that accent. In the big cities, yeah, it's common, but it's really difficult to tell people from most NJ counties apart from residents of, say, Pennsylvania or Ohio by accent alone.

2. We have whales. I know the state is regionally famous for the beaches of the Jersey Shore, but not that many people know there are whale watch tours out of the southern end of the state. (Unfortunately, some people found out about this because a Boy Scout troop on one of these tours lost a kid who was doing the 'king of the world' routine at a watch-boat's prow this past May.) I myself have seen finback whales in the waters off Cape May, and numerous bottlenose dolphins, including several babies born in the state's territorial waters.

3. The view of the state that you get from the Garden State Parkway is much nicer, and probably more representative of the state as a whole, than the view you get from the New Jersey Turnpike.

4. Unfortunately, we're big believers in highway revenue coming from toll booths. I'm really sorry about that. If you come to visit the state, bring a bunch of quarters and dollar bills with you, because we charge people to use the Turnpike and the Parkway, we charge people to leave at the major border crossings, and so on.

5. We are not actually part of New York. We're across the Hudson River from a lot (but not all) of the state of New York, definitely across the river from New York City, and while our economy is tightly tied up with theirs, we are not part of them.

6. It is possible to live in this state for twenty consecutive years and never once meet someone who is discernibly part of any kind of organized crime. No, seriously.

7. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County, NJ, is an amazingly beautiful place and would probably make entomologists who want to study things that prey on mosquitoes very happy indeed. Students of the order Odonata- dragonflies and damselflies- would be very happy there. The Swamp also has coyotes, fishers, and at least one American chestnut tree, though the tree is not producing nuts and may in fact be blighted. Nevertheless, it's a lovely place to visit.

8. We ratified the Bill of Rights first. We were also the third state to ratify the Constitution.

9. The original 'cure' for tuberculosis- before drug resistant strains started cropping up and stuff- was streptomycin. Streptomycin was first isolated from a soil fungus found in New Jersey. Say what you like about our creepy water supply but dammit, our soil fungi rock the house.

10. You can get a seriously kickin' gyro from the Acropolis lunch truck that periodically makes a circuit of downtown locations in Newark, NJ. I mean, those guys make the best damn gyro I've ever had outside of Astoria, NY- and Astoria has a Greek population to rival that of Athens.

Comments

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Right on, sister.

And we have some lovely mountains, and some lovely forests, and the beaches are fun.

And we don't have to pump our own gas.

[camwyn]

True dat. I heard tell of a woman once who was in Florida on vacation and didn't know how to operate the gas pump; when the attendant approached her and saw the confusion the equipment was causing, he asked, "Ma'am, is your husband at home, or are you just from New Jersey?"

No self service gas anywhere in the state.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Oregon's the same way -- well, you know that, but it's still bizarre.

-- Lorrie

[janewt.livejournal.com]

My husband was baffled and astonished by the self-service islands at gas stations.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

"some lovely mountains, and some lovely forests"

To say nothing of the Great Falls of the Passaic.

[taimatsu]

That use of 'gyro' really confuses me - I think of it as something involving little metal things that spin about and don't fall down/stop. It's some sort of sandwich, isn't it?

[camwyn]

A Greek gyro is named that because of spinning involved in the preparation. Basically, if you take minced lamb/beef and smoosh it up with some breadcrumbs and lots of Greek spices, then instead of making a proper meatloaf shape it into a column and wrap it around a, a.... it's not like a rotissier, it's vertical, but basically wrap it around an axis and set it to turning slowly in front of cooking elements (or over an open fire in the original form), that's where the 'gyro' part comes from. The stuff is served by carving off strips and putting them into pita bread with certain sauces and maybe onions and lettuce and tomatoes.

[jjloa.livejournal.com]

and oh man are they delicious ...

*contemplates stopping at one of the stands on the way home just cause now reading that description has made me crave one*

[mephron]

Amusingly, in the online game City of Heroes, one of the fastfood places you pass is, in fact, 'City of Gyros'.

THere is also "Up 'N' Away" (which uses a parody of the In'N'Out hamburger chain logo) and Upfront Steakhouse.

[condotierre.livejournal.com]

Also for unrelated content: If I can find a copy of the current Heritage Asia magazine, do you want it? It has the origins of Conrad's Lord Jim, the -real- Lord Jim, a sunken Arab ship in the Indonesian straits carrying a ton of magnificent Chinese pottery, Nyonya Baba origins and articles and recipes, and some other articles I don't remember. The pottery reminded me of VMA.

And of course I thought of you after I looked at those articles.

[camwyn]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Yes,please.

[redplasticglass.livejournal.com]

People tend to badmouth NJ, I notice. (if it's not swampland, then it's some else horrible)Even people who have lived there for 10-20 years say "I'm from NY." rather than saying they're from NJ.

:X I can't tell you how many times people from out of state have asked me, "AHa! So you're from New Joisey!"

And I'm like... Do I talk like that? I don't think I've ever heard _anyone_ talk like that here, and I've lived here literally my whole life! I fact, I think I've heard more twangy southern accents than I have that fabled Jersey one. Though, I hear that there's a rise in population of skater-cross-californian-surfer voices which I'm guilty of. At least I don't sound like an airhead chick... though, I don't think they're only from NJ as I'ev come across them elsewhere...


*laugh*

[camwyn]

But I like the swampland... oh well.

As for the accent thing- I once had a Manhattanite stare at me when I said I was from NJ but was born/raised in Queens. He asked me why I didn't sound like Fran Drescher.

I nearly kicked him, and I was wearing in-line skates at the time.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Here in South Jersey we have a tendency towards a flattening of our words, and I think it is the Philadelphia influence. Herry instead of hurry, and watter instead of water. And there are those who say 'youse guys', which has always made me cringe.

But yes, the whole 'joisey' thing is exaggerated.

[janewt.livejournal.com]

My husband is a New Jersey boy (Teaneck, represent!) and we lived there for most of a year. I wasn't very happy with where we were living, but I have a very fond memory of driving down the length of the state. We started in suburbia, went through hideous-toxic-sprawl, and ended up in farmland during the height of peach-blossom season. Acres and acres of pink.

[mephron]

That sounds like the Parkway, yeah.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

1. We don't actually have that accent. In the big cities, yeah, it's common, but it's really difficult to tell people from most NJ counties apart from residents of, say, Pennsylvania or Ohio by accent alone.

Hey now -- the bits of Ohio that used to be Connecticut^* have a fairly neutral accent, it's true, but once you're south of Akron, in the bits that used to be part of Virginia^*, you'll get a more Appalachian-flavoured tone the closer you get to the Ohio ("Ah-high-ah") river.

-- Lorrie

^* For those who aren't up on this oddment of history: English land grants, gotta love 'em. You got your paper from the King, it said "you get from here north to here south, to the Atlantic in the east, but otherwise it's Unto the Western Sea, baby." This was irrelevant when everything west of the Appalachians was fit for only furriers and Frenchmen, but after the American Revolution, Pennsylvania, Connecticut (extend the N and S borders and this makes sense), and Virginia (just across the Ohio River, West Virginia not having been invented yet) all wanted a piece of that action. Connecticut got a big chunk of what's now Northeast Ohio (the Western Reserve, which may be a familiar term to some of you), Virginia got much of the southern half of the state. The Ohio Territory meant that Connecticut and Virginia lost all their extra land, and Pennsylvania mostly kept theirs. This survives in town/ship planning (Western Reserve towns have New English town squares), the accent, and similar. Yes, this footnote is longer than the comment. 8-P

[akawil]

Current Music: John Gorka, "I'm From New Jersey"

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

6. It is possible to live in this state for twenty consecutive years and never once meet someone who is discernibly part of any kind of organized crime. No, seriously.

But if you move to Milwaukee for a year, you will end up renting from the Mob. Seriously. Well, at least, that's what happened to me. The Mob makes for a good landlord, though.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have had the mob then -some- landlords. At least the mob allegedly has a code of honor

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

5. We are not actually part of New York. We're across the Hudson River from the state of New York, and while our economy is tightly tied up with theirs, we are not part of them.

Part of NY is actually on the same side of the Hudson as NJ 'cause the Hudson goes south before it goes east.

It's really confusing when you have "East New York" (in Brooklyn) and "West New York" (in NJ across from Manhattan).

[camwyn]

*hastily edits*

[amaresu]

I just found it funny the one time I was there that I could get in for free but had to pay two dollars to leave.

[camwyn]

Yeah, we joke about that from time to time. "Quick! Don't let them leave!"

[lasa.livejournal.com]

Born and raised in Southern New Jersey, although I'm now in Virginia.

I must mention that south Jersey has the best tomatoes I've ever had anywhere.