In your column about Cleveland, you made New Jersey joke. I am so sick and tired of people making fun of New Jersey. New Jersey is NOT just Six Flags and the Turnpike. People from here dont have big accents, we dont call it New Joisey, we dont tawk on the phone, we dont drink cawfee. Youre thinking of Brooklyn. Everyone thinks that its okay to take cheap shots at New Jersey. Its actually a very nice place to live. So there.
–tabouleh–
The Mailbag item being referred to is: What’s the origin of the name Cleveland?
Frankly, my dear, considering how acerbic SDStaff Terey’s wit can be, I think you’d do well not to bother mentioning so light a jab. Also, if you read a few more of the Mailbag items, you’ll find potshots taken at other states as well – we don’t single out New Jersey. Well, not exclusively.
Cleveland, as you notice, was founded by entrepeneur Moses Cleaveland from right here in beautiful Connecticut.
New Jersey was founded in a similar manner by entrepeneurs from New York although, in that case, they sent a cow.
(I actually drove through Jersey on the way to Allentown a couple of times and was amazed at the lack of refineries and toxic waste dumps. I think they put 'em all over by the border to scare off the Yawkers)
JB
Lex Non Favet Delictorum Votis
The shortening of Cleaveland to Cleveland (mentioned in passing by Terey) is generally attributed to a newspaper (I believe the Cleveland Herald and Gazette) dropping the “a” to have room for the entire title on the banner.
This, of course, leads us (well, some of us) to the question of where Grover Cleveland (who only saw the city if he happened to campaign here) lost the first “a” in his name.
Tom~
Isn’t there even a pretty forest in the middle of New Jersey? This is just hearsay.
J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Stendhal
Sorry, I know it was just a light jab as you so eloquently put it but I have been hearing a lot of Jersey jokes lately and that just pushed me over the edge I guess. Anyway…yes there is a forest in the middle of New Jersey, I believe you are referring to the Pine Barrens? New Jersey is actually 2/3 forest according to my brothers social studies book. And the reason you didnt see millions of toxic waste dumps is because thats just a nasty rumor. P.S. Why cant I use apostrophes and quotes in my message? It wont let me.
–tabouleh–
I live in New Jersey, and I laugh at New Jersey jokes myself. For instance, I read a “You know you’re from New Jersey when…” list and one of the items was “you can name the landfill closest to your house.” Since I can, I was laughing for a while after reading that one.
That’s funny, I live in NYC and I can also name the landfill closest to my apartment.
It’s the old chromium slag site over in Jersey City…
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
Which exit?
Ok, ok, I couldn’t resist.
Krish – If you still have that list could you send it to me? I once got a list that said You Know Your A Yankee if… and it was really funny actually because a lot of it was true. Like one of them was, If you can pronounce worcestershire sauce correctly. :o)
–tabouleh–
hey what is that red thing at the end of my last message? (Im new to this) (still havent figured out how to use quotes and apostrophes…)
Julie, yes, the Pine Barrens is the forest I was referring to.
As far as the codes you are talking about, go read about UBB codes.
There is a link to the page that you can see when you’re in the “Reply” form.
J’ai assez vécu pour voir que différence engendre haine.
Stendhal
New Jersey should be made fun of, since it has many odd characteristics. That’s not a put down – I live in Jersey and am fond of it. But I can certainly jab at it’s oddities and foibles.
New Jersey is the most densely populated state. It has the most cars and roads per capita. Yet, it has one of the lowest percentage of urban residencies (17%). And probably the highest percentage of suburban residencies. NJ is the land of suburban sprawl.
Most of New Jersey is the greater metropolitan area of either NYC or Philly. This makes it difficult to have its own unique culture. However, given the status of NYC culture and the vast amount of NYC transplants and NYC greater metropolitan influence, its easy to understand why many people think the NJ accent is the same as the NYC accent (mostly identified with Brooklyn’s accent – the accent of Bugs Bunny.)
NYC and Philly use NJ property for their landfills, oil refineries, and industrial parks (those creeps!). However, NJ has benefitted greatly financially because of that arrangement.
Beyond the suburban sprawl of NYC and Philly, you’ll find beautiful, low mountains (like the Poconos region); the Pine Barrens (a low, flat pine forest kept in pristine condition); and farmland (dairy, vegetable, blueberry, cranberry, corn). NJ was known as the Bread Basket of the original colonies and is still known as The Garden State (every NJ resident is growing or has grown tomatoes – it’s impossible not to grow tomatoes in NJ).
Oh, btw, manhattan, from where I live, the Arthur Kills land fill – the largest in the nation, located in NYC, is closer to me than the chromium dump in NJ. 
Peace.
[[In your column about Cleveland, you made New Jersey joke.]]
OK, I sorry. I no make New Jersey joke no more. I focus on Texas from now on.
There’s a six Flags in Jersey? They’re really movin’ up in the world. Must not have been able to see it through the smog.
krish says: << I live in New Jersey >>
Uh-huh. You call that “living”?
Just called Cleveland MikeWhitetown!;(
Two New Jersey comments from Donald E. Westlake, the brilliant comic crime novelist (born in Brooklyn, lived for some time in the Garden State):
“Murch was moving along under them [in the helicopter], heading for New York at a good clip. They passed over Newark Bay and Jersey City and Upper Bay and then Murch figured out how to steer and he turned left a little and they followed the Hudson north, Manhattan on their right like stalagmites with cavities, New Jersey on their left like uncollected garbage.” – from THE HOT ROCK, 1970
“Well, it was a view, no argument about that. You don’t get to see a sight like this every day, unless you happen to own one of the few remaining tugboats working New York Harbor. On one side, Manhattan, a narrow, crowded aisle of stalagmites that have lost their cavern and been unaccountably exposed to the open air, making for a scene as outlandish as it is spectacular. Look at all those windows! Are there people inside ALL of those? You see all those buildings, you don’t see any people at all, and yet all you’re put in mind of is human beings, and just how many of them there must be for the world to contain a view like this.
So much for Manhattan. On the other side, New Jersey, and so much for New Jersey.” – from DON’T ASK, 1993
Uke
Ike! Anyone who can so blithely quote Donald Westlake is OK in my book!
For the uninitiated, I suggest you start with DANCING AZTECS… don’t read in a place where you’ll be embarrassed if you wet your pants from laughter.
Dex, once again I must bow to your impeccable good taste.
As a special treat for you, and for anyone who’s read this far without barfing, here’s a priceless bit from the aforementioned DANCING AZTECS:
“Greater New York is in some ways like a house. Manhattan is the living room, with the TV and the stereo and the good furniture, where guests are entertained. Brooklyn and Queens are the bedrooms where the family sleeps, and the Bronx is the attic, full of inflammable crap that nobody has any use for. Staten Island is the backyard, and Long Island is the detached garage, so filled up with paint cans, workbenches, and a motorboat that you can’t get the car in it any more. New Jersey is the basement, with the furnace and the freezer and the stacks of old newspapers, and the Jersey meadowlands are the toilet. Westchester is the den, with paneling and a fake kerosene lamp, and Connecticut is the guest room, with starched curtains and landscape prints. The kitchen is way up in Albany, which means the food is always cold by the time it gets to the table, and the formal dining room was torn down by William Zeckendorf and friends back in the early fifties.”
– from DANCING AZTECS, c. 1976