You have a point, my friend. I’ll admit that I wouldn’t have a problem with NJ if I wasn’t forced to live there for what seemed an eternity. People in NJ seem to like NJ. (I have realtives there that like it). I don’t want to go back to Delaware but I’d move there before I moved to Jersey though.
BTW, is it that much trouble to pump your own gas?
…and I love the Simpsons references, the problem is, a lot of the kids I meant while I was there couldn’t read or write. I’m not talking ghetto kids either, even though thats not an excuse.
But I’ll give NJ some props for this…they took care of their roads and parks.
One might consider 3% “not inconsiderable”. What is it for other states?
Delaware is a cuckoo state. I’ve previously been employed by two companies that were incorporated in Delaware. I mean, no one in either company had any connection whatsoever with Delaware.
My wife used to sell Jewelry for a big company and on some big purchases, they would have the piece sent to Delaware so the person wouldn’t have to pay sales tax.
Only place I’ve ever been pulled over on the East Coast was Delaware.
I just try not to pay them much regard. Until recently. This traffic thing has completely ruined the day of numerous people I know. I can’t believe no one else around the Dope has been stuck in one of these yet.
I know highway work is necessary. Hopefully it gets fixed. It does look like they’ve tried to jam it in between Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, so it was probably actually sensible. But still. Delaware. Shuh.
I brought up food because of your first post in this thread:
Bolding mine.
I was drawing a parallel between your remark about good service in restaurants and my comments about having to someone else pump your gas. IOW, I equate having to let someone else pump my gas with having someone else cut my food. Both show a higher level of service on the behalf of the provider, but both are equally unnecessary in most real life situations.
You don’t really think New Jersey made pumping your own gas illegal to increase the level of customer service, do you? If creating good customer service is the reason behind that law in NJ, why not legislate other quasi-dangerous activities like cutting your food? Because service has nothing to do with it, that’s why. Someone, somewhere is making a profit somehow.
I think roundabouts and jug handles are stupid in any state, but New Jersey just happens to infested with them. What Exit? don’t get me wrong, New Jersey is a great place to visit but I just wouldn’t want to live there. Delaware on the other hand isn’t even a great place to visit, unless you want to buy something without sales tax.
My point exactly, more power to you. The only place I would possibly trade NJ for would be NYC itself, but not with school aged kids. We each have reasons to love our states. I could not live in states like Kansas, Oklahoma and most of the mountain time zone states, but I do not make fun of people who do live there or think they are nuts. NJ is crazy, but it is has so much to offer. It is like a miniature California, everything is here, but much closer.
No, I have lived out of state and driven in a large portion of the country. I actually do not mind pumping gas. I still appreciate the fact that included in my gas price is the service of the pumping. We still had stations cleaning windshields until a few years ago.
I am surprised you found an out of the normal number of kids. NJ overall is toward the top of national averages in education. Considering we spend more than most states, we should be.
Of course I have no problem with Delaware, I like Maryland quite a bit and I will probably retire to either the Carolinas or West Virginia. That will be quite an adjustment when the time comes.
Madd Maxx: Actually the real reasons old 1937 law requiring gas be pumped and no free giveaways at stations is lost to time. The official reason was safety, but no one takes this seriously. The law is retained strictly for convenience and service. NJ polls have demonstrated that most residents like have their gas pumped and do not want the legislature or the governor screwing with this.
Hey man, the only thing I can say is this, I have a few issues with NJ, just as you might with DE or any other state. But in the end, we’re all Americans there. Despite our gripings about what state sucks the most I think we could all sit down with a beer at Seaside Heights or Dewey Beach and laugh about it.
He’s also wrong with several facts in that rant, such as his claim that Delaware has no gasoline tax.
I must admit I have got some comedy riffs off Delaware, such as claiming “it’s just a hoax, there’s no such state, have you ever met anyone from there?”.
Thanks to What Exit? for providing us all with the history involved.
I knew referendums had come up a few times in the past about self pumping and I knew it had been defeated soundly every single time, but I never knew the exact origins. I’m sure the Conspiracy Nuts on 101.5 would say how it destroys America, along with Floride in the water, but I’m rather proud that its one job Corporate America & Big Oil can’t out-source. (At least not in NJ)
Many of the Independent stations near where I work are owned and operated by families …the same way some convenience stores are owned and operated by families. The family members work in shifts and never take a day off. As for the guys who pump gas strictly as hourly employees, it doesn’t threaten me that they are trying to earn a living. Some have lost jobs and need money while they’re interviewing. Some are trying to pay for tuition and books. To some, its a second job right before Christmas. Some might even just be trying to get by the only way they know how. But each and every one of them works hard and knows the cold and the ache of holding that nozzle during the winter months.
I know that this sticks in the craw of some people in other states, but its a free country, and there are other places for those folks to reside. If they are so opposed to someone earning a living pumping gas and if they should happen to find themselves in NJ, I think they’ll find that if they do the speed limit, the gate at the EZ-Pass in PA might not even hit them in the ass on their way out.
I got caught in that traffic this weekend. A four hour trip southbound on Friday included a 5-mile stretch that took 25 minutes. However, that was a picnic compared to yesterday- a seven hour return trip, including approximately 50 miles of sub-20 mph driving approaching the two closed lanes. Silver Spring to the Del-Mem bridge took four hours.
That sucked. Consequently I’m too tired to work up enough bile for a suitable rant. So, grrrrrrr.
Actually, it’s kinda funny…on the way back from the Philly suburbs (yawn to the PA turnpike), we went down I-95 and ended up missing the toll since we went to Iron Hill in Newark and then following the signs to I-95 into Maryland. So, beer saved us toll money.
I commute several times a week into Wilmington, and I access the turnpike right at 896; this morning it took me 30 minutes to go about a mile because of the merging and the two sliproads accessing the interstate at 896. This was at about 6.30; I like to leave early to beat the morning rush.
Actually you’d go around by getting off in Elkton, MD, then nip back around through Newark to pick it up on 896. There’s a cop who sits on one of the main roads on this route just to catch the truckers who do this. Even though I live in Newark, I use the Elkton exit all the time to avoid the toll.
By the way, the Stone Balloon is gone (I don’t know when you were last home.) They knocked it down while I was away in August, so there’s a whacking great gap there until they build. The State was lovely, as was the little deli nestled next to it. Iron Hill Museum still exists.
I should nip around to the 273 exit in the mornings.
I always tell people I have been to every state on the East Coast. That is true except for one notable exception that you can all guess.
I guess I can understand the reason behind it. Some states didn’t want to ratify the Constitution because the Senate gave each state exactly the same number of seats. Maryland and New Jersey were about to squash the whole deal when George Washington himself came up with the idea of “Delaware”. It was declared a no man’s land between Maryland and New Jersey but not part of either of them sort of like the idea behind Washington D.C. They each get one extra Senator and split the Representatives as well and the extra ones are named according to this territory which is kept largely uninhabited. Keeping it uninhabited isn’t a problem because the “land” is really just rocky shoals and coastal wetlands. It is an extremely important migratory bird habitat and this was one of the big successes of the 18th environmentalist movement.
The name Delaware of course is a play on words that should be obvious to any bilingual person or anybody at all in Texas or California. It is a combination of the Spanish word Del (“Of the”) and the English word “Aware”. “Of the Aware” gives away the whole thing but few seem to notice. Political corruption led to other uses through the years. Fictitious corporate headquarters are only the tip of the iceberg.
Strangely enough your fictional story has some truth to it. Delaware is made up of the three colonies that were disputed between NY and Maryland back in the late 1600’s. At the time of the revolution it was administered by Pennsylvania but declared itself independent and became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution on December 7, 1787.
I’d say 75% of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware.(Just off the top of my head and because I’m too lazy to look it up) As was stated earlier, Delaware has very lenient corporate laws. But most of them don’t have any what my Civ Pro prof referred to as “brick and mortar” buildings actually located in Delaware. It’s so when they’re sued, a company can claim Delaware jurisdiction and have the trial in a business-friendly courthouse. In my Civ Pro class, literally half the jurisdictional cases involved Delaware companies.
Delaware on the other hand isn’t even a great place to visit, unless you want to buy something without sales tax.
