Garden State native Anthony Bourdain once said, "There are two types of people in America: those who are from New
Jersey and admit it, and those originally from New Jersey who don't." Even though I fled its rather constricting embrace twenty years ago, I have always been a proud Jersey girl. I love the Boss and now I love my home state even more—the Supreme Court there ruled in favor of recognizing same-sex unions and affording them the same rights, privileges and protections that we boring breeder couples get!!!! Yay!!!
And might I say, it's about fucking time already. New Jersey, you are officially forgiven for making my teen years hell.
yay!!!!! i didn't know what had happened. thanks for posting here. too bad i can't take advantage of this at this point.
Posted by: kc | October 25, 2006 at 07:39 PM
Hey, if Jon keeps it up, ya never know!!!!
Posted by: Judy's Not So Sure! | October 25, 2006 at 07:46 PM
jerzey. i never looked back after 1984. and i have to admit, i still have a soft spot for Bruce. i'll even go as far as saying that it wasn't that long ago that maybe i got a little nostalgic when i heard the opening chords to thunder road. ok, i'll just come right out and say it: Sometimes any song from the Born To Run album can give me chills. And that's coming from someone who goes out of his way to steer clear of classic rock. My problem with Jersey wasn't the state itself, but the mostly constipated conservative people that make up the suburbs from which i hail.
Bruce, Anthony, Patti Smith, Judy McGuire...
the list goes on.
Posted by: m | October 25, 2006 at 07:48 PM
I've noticed the Brooklyn flipside to fab Tony B.'s New Jersey comment: everybody wants to claim the City of Churches as their own--which is nice, I guess, but somewhat disconcerting when dealing with someone who didn't leave Des Moines until they were 22 wearing a "Defend Brooklyn" T-shirt.
Posted by: Four more days to Halloween--Silver Shamrock! | October 26, 2006 at 11:49 AM
i loathe those g.d. "defend brooklyn" t-shirts. must have been 2000, maybe 1999, when those idiots started selling them on bedford ave. i'm not a big fan of guns, much less submachine guns featured on t-shirts, and then there was the gentrification subtext. defend brooklyn from whom? the immigrants? the polish people? i asked one of the vendors what the hell the shirts were supposed to mean, and she giggled a 14-year-old's annoying giggle and said, "it's like, y'know, explosive!" teeheeeheeeeeee!
and judy, that's for darn skippy!
Posted by: kc | October 26, 2006 at 02:47 PM
Damn straight. Jersey has redeemed itself in my eyes. (And I say that as a former Fort Le resident who had to suffer through eight months of the worst driving I've ever seen.)
Great blog. Most definitely going in the feed reader.
Posted by: The Zero Boss | October 26, 2006 at 04:58 PM
Oh, and FWIW - I found you because we both show up in this search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22RACHEL%20KRAMER%20BUSSEL%22%20%22my%20asshole%22
Small world, huh?
Posted by: The Zero Boss | October 26, 2006 at 05:01 PM
i'm with ya, mcguire. whenever my fellow seattleites say, "you're from new york, aren't you?" i proudly correct them: "no, jersey." i miss jersey culture baaaaaaad. so in honor of the gay marriage ruling, i think i'll wear hot pink leggings, tease my hair, and blast bon jovi from the mall parking lot tomorrow. [footnote: when i lived in CA and revealed i was from the garden state, people invariably would say, 'oh, joisey?' happily seattleites are far too passive/afraid of offending to go there.]
Posted by: michelle | October 28, 2006 at 11:25 PM
Jersey isn't all bad, and doesn't totally deserve the bad rap that it often gets.
Posted by: NJ Girl | November 19, 2008 at 04:21 PM