Tag: Jerseyana

I have lived in New Jersey for going on 40 years. I live here now by choice and bristle at some of the dumber jokes made at the state’s expense (and laugh when the jokes are funny). So I can sympathize with the folks who have kicked off this campaign to combat the stereotypes.

And yet, I am flummoxed that its slogan is “Jersey Doesn’t Stink.” First, some areas do, but that comes with the territory (farms and industry) and is true for most states. More importantly, it is a dopey slogan, a negative that has nothing positive to say and that plays to, rather than against, the stereotypes. The campaign would have done better with one of those silly songs that made the rounds several years ago — “I Like Jersey Best” — or a billboard with famous Jerseyans (Springsteen, Sinatra, DeVito, Nicholson, Robert Pinsky, William Carlos Williams, Rick Barry, Franco Harris, etc.).

Now, that doesn’t stink, right?

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

I always find these hall-of-fame things a bit subjective and not very relevant, aside from those focusing on sports. Sports like baseball and basketball have statistics that allow for measurement of impact, though there are significant variables that have to be considered.

New Jersey kicked off its Hall of Fame last year with an interesting class that included Bruce Springsteen and Toni Morrison. This year’s class includes Walt Whitman, Paul Robeson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Carlos Williams.

The Fitzgerald induction seems odd, given his short tenure in the state — and given that Philip Roth who, in the end, may be the more important writer and who certainly is a Jersey boy.

My own list of great New Jersey writers would include Whitman, Williams, Stephen Crane, Roth, Robert Pinsky, Amiri Baraka, C.K. Williams and Gerald Stern and Allen Ginsberg. Fitzgerald, Morrison and Yusel Komanyakaa, who spent time in Princeton, all deserve mention, as well, as do Tom Perotta and Junot Diaz.

Sports figures must start with Yogi and the Scooter, but also include Al Leiter, Rick Barry, Shaq, Deron Cherry, Eddie Jordan, Pete Carrill, Kelly Tripucka, Mike O’Koren, the Hurley family, Eric Young, Roy Hinson, Jason Kidd — and there are a number of others. I don’t have the hockey background, so I know I’m missing Devils players. And Althea Gibson and Carl Lewis, of course.

This list could go on — Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Jack Nicholson, John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Bruce and the E Street Band, Bon Jovi, the Smithereens, the Feelies, Debbie Harry, Southside Johnny, Patti Smith, Frankie Valli — the list seems endless.