Seeking an Uneasy Peace

A few nights ago, I had a dream that I was hearing a song I'd never heard before. Sam Cooke, maybe the smoothest singer of the 20th Century, and a charter inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was singing it. The backing track was definitely in his style. It was like finding buried treasure.

But there's no way this song would have been released as a record, because it was racially motivated. Sam sung of visiting Chinatown, on Addison Road. He dragged out the A on "Addison," not like a New York or Newark accent, but beautifully.

There is no Addison Road in Sam's hometown of Chicago, but there is an Addison Street, on the North Side, and Wrigley Field, home of baseball's Chicago Cubs, is at its intersection with Clark Street. There is a song titled "Allison Road," but that was a hit for The Gin Blossoms, in 1994, 30 years after Sam's life came to a tragic and suspicious end at a "no-tell motel" in Los Angeles.

And Chicago does have a Chinatown, but it's on the South Side. Sam grew up, at 724 E. 36th Street, in a neighborhood known as Bronzeville for having so many black people living there. (A housing project is now on the site, facing Ellis Park.) Chicago's Chinatown is about a mile to the northwest, usually said to be bounded by 18th Street, Clark Street, Cermak Road (formerly 20th Street) and the South Branch of the Chicago River.

In the song, Sam spoke of his "brothers," which I took to mean a group of black men, meeting with the men of Chinatown, and teaming up in an "uneasy peace." I took "Uneasy Peace" to be the title of the song.

To my dismay, I woke up after hearing only the 1st verse. Would such an alliance have worked? Would they have moved on to a team-up with Latinos, of which Chicago already had many? There was a rise in Native American activism by the end of the 1960s, and even in 1965, Johnny Cash had an album of songs about "Indians," called Bitter Tears, so maybe they could have been added to the "uneasy peace."

I wanted to hear what happened next. Now, I never will. But I know this: If the song were real, Sam couldn't have released it. If the musical South Pacific (on stage in 1949 and in film in 1958) had to use Polynesian people as a stand-in for black people, and the musical West Side Story (on stage in 1957 and in film in 1961) had to use Puerto Ricans as an analogue for blacks, and the people backing those stories needed to use allegories to get their point of "bigotry is bad" across, there's no way the white establishment would have let Sam use a song about African-Americans and Asian-Americans teaming up, for a fight with a white gang, or simply to stand up for their rights to the white establishment.

Given that he was killed 5 months after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a little over a year after the March On Washington and the Birmingham Church Bombing, a year and a half after the assassination of Medgar Evers, 3 months before Bloody Sunday in Selma, and 8 months before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed and the Watts riot broke out not far from where he was killed, there's no way even someone with Sam's clout would have gotten away with it.

No way. Radio networks would have told their disc jockey not to play it. Sponsors of those networks would have stepped in to tell them, "Don't play it," even before the networks could tell their DJs. The people who bankrolled newspapers wouldn't have allowed print ads for the record.

Forget TV. Sam was signed to RCA Victor Records, which gave him a good deal of leeway, but not that much, and RCA also owned NBC, so Sam wasn't going to be singing that song on The Tonight Show or in a "spectacular." (By the end of the 1960s, they were being called "specials.") Ed Sullivan liked Sam, gave him his national TV debut in 1957, and had no problem with putting black people "here, on this great stage" on his "really big shew," from the beginning to the end; but CBS chairman Bill Paley and his lawyers would have put the kibosh on having Sam sing such a song. Even Sam's unintentional farewell song, the powerful but hardly offensive "A Change Is Gonna Come," might not have been allowed on the air.

Would the song have helped to widen the dialogue on race relations? Would it have helped Asians as well as blacks? Would it have helped to forge, if nothing else, an "uneasy peace" between both groups and white people? Or would it have angered white people to the point of making things worse?

I'd like to think the 2nd and 3rd verses of the song would have had a theme of, "Listen to us. Listen to your black, brown, yellow and red brothers and sisters. Your national creed says, 'All men are created equal.' That includes us. We're not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment. Give us the same chances you give each other."

It would have been a powerful message in 1965. It would be a powerful message in 2026, with Donald Trump sending men with Nazi-style tactics to round people up in Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon -- and, apparently, to murder people in cold blood in Minneapolis.

When I heard Bruce Springsteen's rush-written, but superbly-written, new song "The Streets of Minneapolis" -- a very different song from his epic "The Streets of Philadelphia" -- and then an even angrier song on the subject by British singer Billy Bragg, I wrote this online:

Bruce Springsteen is 76. Billy Bragg is 68.

Beyoncé is 44. Bruno Mars is 40. Lady Gaga is 39. Kendrick Lamar is 38. Taylor Swift is 36. Morgan Wallen and Ariana Grande are 32. Megan Thee Stallion and Post Malone are 30. Sabrina Carpenter is 26.

What are they doing?

The implication being that these are performers in their prime, who reach more music fans than anybody else, and thus should be doing what these old men are doing, but aren't.

Less than 24 hours after I posted it, Lady Gaga released a cover of Mr. Rogers' theme song, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" A lot of people said it was just what we need at this time. It doesn't directly address the subject at hand, any more than did Elvis Presley's "If I Can Dream," which closed his 1968 "Comeback Special." But, like that song, it seems to send a message of hope and brotherhood. So Gaga is off the hook: She rose to the occasion.

The rest of them, they're "on the clock." Time for them to step up. Taylor talks a good game, but she really doesn't back it up well. Megan is great on personal empowerment, but she hasn't tried to do a rally-the-people song. Kendrick has, but "Not Like Us" isn't on the same level as what Bruce just did.

One of these people needs to step up, the way Bruce did, before other old men like Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon do so. Sam Cooke would be 95 if he had lived, so he'd almost certainly be out of the picture, anyway.

But we need the great performers of this time to stand up and make themselves heard on the great issues of the day, as has happened before. Bruce must be feeling like the old women at protests holding up signs referring to their previous activism.

At this point, an "uneasy peace" would be preferable to the "cold civil war" that Trump launched in 2015, and, from then until June 2020, and against from November 2024 until this week, seemed to be winning.

Now, the outcome is again in doubt. It's time for the great artists to launch "D-Day."

I don't know if there will be a "Hiroshima," but there must be a "Battleship Missouri Surrender."

Maybe Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back

I was all set to write the season-ender posts. Not just the recap of the game on which the Yankees, were eliminated from the American League Division Series by those pesky Toronto Blue Jays, but also the "You Can't Blame" posts.

You know. The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Aaron Judge for the Yankees Losing. The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Aaron Boone for the Yankees Losing. The Top 5 Reasons Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Is a Fat Pig. (Reason Number 1: His real hero isn't his father, it's David Ortiz.) The annual "These guys were a bunch of gutless wonders" post. The annual "Brian Cashman has got to go" post.

It was all going to happen, and it was all going to be necessary.

Because Carlos Rodón had nothing last night. Guerrero hit another no-doubt-about-er off him in the 1st inning, putting him in a 2-0 hole. The Yankees pulled a run back in the bottom of the 1st, but a double, an intentional walk to Guerrero, a lineout, and 3 straight singles meant a 6-1 Toronto lead. This thing was headed for another blowout, to forge an ugly elimination game.

Then the Yankees did something that I didn't expect, something few people expected: They came from behind to win. They scored 2 in the bottom of the 3rd, on an Aaron Judge double and a Giancarlo Stanton sacrifice fly.

In the 4th, Austin Wells reached on an error, Trent Grisham drew a walk, and Judge hit one down the left-field line. Some of us thought of Carlton Fisk's World Series homer, 50 years to the month earlier (I sure did), and some of us may even have copied him by waving our arms to keep it fair (I didn't). As with Fisk's homer, it hit the foul pole. Unlike Fisk's homer, which broke a 6-6 tie to win the game, this one made a 6-6 tie.

Jazz Chisholm put the Yankees on top in the 5th, with a homer deep into the right-center Bleachers. This was followed by an Amed Rosario double and a Wells single. Ben Rice hit a sacrifice fly in the 6th, to make it 9-6.

The bullpen made that hold up: Over the last 6 2/3rds innings, Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, Tim Hill (credited as the winning pitcher), Devin Williams and David Bednar allowed no runs on 3 hits and no walks. Williams, arguably the most damaging Yankee player of the season, actually got Vlad to fly out. If he can't get a hit off Devin Williams, how great can he be? And Bednar got Vlad to ground to 3rd for the last out.

From the 1st to the 5th inning, the Yankees' scoreline was 10232. That ZIP Code is not in use, but if it were, it would be in Manhattan.

Last night, the Blue Jays came in as birds of prey. They left as clay pigeons. Or, to put it another way, to paraphrase Yankee Fan Bruce Springsteen: They blew up the chicken men in The Bronx last night.

Tonight, at 7:00, weather permitting, Game 4 will be played at Yankee Stadium II. Cam Schlittler will start against Louis Varland. Varland has appeared in 77 games this season, making exactly 1 start. It looks like the Jays are going with a "bullpen game." Hopefully, we can get to them early and often.  Hopefully, they can do it again tonight, and then go back over the border, get a good Game 5 from Max Fried, and not only blow up the chicken men in Toronto that night, but blow up their house, too.

Metaphorically speaking, of course, although that is one ugly stadium that the Jays play in.

As Bruce said: "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact. But maybe everything that dies someday comes back."

August 25, 1975: Bruce Springsteen Releases "Born to Run"

August 25, 1975, 50 years ago: Born to Run is released, the 3rd album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. It launches "The Boss" and his boys from "cult band" status to superstardom. Within 2 months, Bruce will be on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines in the same week, a rare feat for someone not a politician.

Born in Long Beach, New Jersey, and raised across Monmouth County in the Borough of Freehold, Springsteen had felt as though he never fit in anywhere, until he saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. As he went through his teenage years, he was in bands named The Rogues, The Castiles, Earth (not to be confused with Rare Earth, or with Earth, Wind and Fire), Child, and Steel Mill.

With him in Steel Mill were guitarists Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson, bass guitarist Vinnie Roslin, keyboard player Danny Federici, and drummer Vini Lopez. Although the Jersey Shore, especially Asbury Park, was their home base, they got gigs from coast to coast.

Bruce continued to fine-tune his band, forming Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom, the Sundance Blues Band, and the Bruce Springsteen Band. On bass guitar, Roslin was out, Garry Tallent was in. On keyboards, Federici was out, and David Sancious was in. As Bruce would later sing on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "A change was made in time, and the Big Man joined the band." The Big Man was saxophone player Clarence Clemons, making the band racially integrated.

In the Summer of 1972, with only his own name on it, Bruce released his 1st album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., recorded 82 miles north of that city, at 914 Sound Studios, named for its Area Code, in Blauvelt, Rockland County, New York.

It was released by Columbia Records on January 5, 1973, and while the critics were kind, the sales weren't much. The leadoff song was "Blinded by the Light," which, even then, sounded like Bruce thought that the secret to Bob Dylan's songwriting success was to cram as many syllables and rhymes as he could into every line. The song would hit Number 1 -- not for Bruce, but in a cover version by Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1977, which was ironic, because Bruce had led a band named Earth.

Having renamed his group The E Street Band, after a little dead-end street in Freehold, they spent the Summer of '73 recording The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. It was received a little better, but still didn't sell much.

So it was back on the road. Now, the band was Springsteen, Van Zandt, Tallent, Federici, Clemons, Roy Bittan on keyboards, and new drummer Max Weinberg. In May 1974, they began recording the album that would become Born to Run. The title track basically sounded like if you took the 1st 20 years of rock and roll, put it in a blender, and put some espresso in it, and used it to wash down your "Jersey Breakfast": Pork roll, egg and cheese on a kaiser roll.

The E Street Band, 1975. Left to right:

Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Danny Federici, Bruce Springsteen,

Clarence Clemons, Roy Bittan, Garry Tallent.

Bruce wasn't kidding about "Highway 9" being a "death trap": Before U.S. Route 9 was widened in the early 1980s, there was a stretch of it from Howell to Lakewood that was just 1 lane in each direction. It was so dangerous (How dangerous was it?), someone bought a billboard identifying the road as "The New Jersey Death Highway." For all we know, that someone might not have even heard "Born to Run" the song.

Somehow, a disc jockey in Cleveland got hold of a copy of "Born to Run" the song, and kept playing it. And when the E Street Band played Cleveland, they noticed that the entire audience seemed to be singing along with a song that they hadn't released yet. That's when they knew they were going to make it.

Bruce got smart: Instead of trying to copy Dylan's polysyllabic style and rapid-fire delivery, and dropping multiple references to places in New Jersey, he seemed more to copy Harry Chapin, telling stories and writing what he felt. But with a full rock background, including horns.

Or, in his own words, "I wanted words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector, but, most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now, everybody knows that nobody sings like Roy Orbison." But, as a contemporary, Marvin Lee Aday, a.k.a. Meat Loaf, put it, "Don't be sad, 'cause two out of three ain't bad."

The results produced 39 minutes and 23 seconds of rock and roll that sold 6 million copies, and has consistently ranked high on lists of the top albums of all time:

Side One: "Thunder Road," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Night," "Backstreets."

Side Two: "Born to Run," "She's the One," "Meeting Across the River," and "Jungleland," 9 1/2 minutes of the life and death of a guy called the Magic Rat.

(In 1996, a rock radio station, at 95.9 FM, based in the Jersey Shore town of Lake Como, 4 miles from the Stone Pony, Bruce's old stomping grounds in Asbury Park, took on the call letters WRAT. It doesn't officially have anything to do with "Jungleland," but the logo is a rat with shades and a leather jacket, so, you tell me.)

Bruce mentioned "a runaway American Dream" in the opening line of "Born to Run." The album was recorded during Watergate, and released a year later, as the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam War hangover was joined by a nasty recession.

Like the sad stories of Chapin and Billy Joel, whose Piano Man was released on November 9, 1973, Born to Run seemed to follow new President Gerald Ford's line, "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over" with a question: "Well, now, we've woken up, and what do we do now?" After all, as Bruce said, "Everybody's out on the run tonight, but there's no place left to hide."

In hindsight, one can look at a scene in the film Watchmen, taking place in an alternate-history 1977, 2 years after the song's official release in our world. One superhero, Nite Owl (played by Patrick Wilson), sees a riot in the streets of Manhattan, and says to another, The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), "What the hell happened to us? Whatever happened to the American Dream?" And The Comedian responds, "It came true! You're lookin' at it!"

Melissa Etheridge has been called "the female Bruce Springsteen." Hopefully, for her talent and her passion, and not for her nose. She once said, "When Bruce Springsteen does those wordless wails, like at the end of 'Jungleland,' that's the definition of rock and roll to me. He uses his whole body when he sings, and he puts out this enormous amount of force and emotion and passion."

I'm from East Brunswick, New Jersey, 14 miles from Springsteen's Freehold, and 69 miles from Joel's Hicksville, Long Island, New York. Hicksville is 27 miles from Times Square, and Freehold is 48 miles away. Both men were born in 1949: Billy on May 9, and Bruce on September 23. They don't play the same instruments, and their writing styles are a little different. But they were the great rock poets of the Northeast in the 1970s and '80s.

One big difference: Bruce is still at it, having released an album as recently as November 11, 2022, Only the Strong Survive; while Billy hasn't released an album since River of Dreams on August 10, 1993, and has only played old songs since. He released a single on February 11, 2024, "Turn the Lights Back On." It only hit Number 62.

Danny died in 2008, Clarence in 2011. Co-producers Mike Appel and Jon Landau are 82 and 78 years old, respectively. Roy is 77. Bruce will be 77 in a few days. Garry will be 77 a few days after that. "Little Steven" and "Mighty Max" are 74.

It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

Springsteen and De Niro On Trump

Bruce Springsteen, at age 75, is back on tour, in Europe. The native of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, isn't letting up, telling people what he thinks of Donald Trump.

On May 17, at a show in Manchester, England, he told the crowd, "My home, America, the America I've written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration."

He added, "There's some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now."

As a result, online, we are seeing people saying they are fans of Bruce, but that he should leave politics out of it.

They are not fans of his. If they were, they would know that politics has been part of who he is and what he's written and sung about from the first time he sang about how hard it was to get a job -- or that having a job and working hard at it didn't necessarily mean you were making a living.

These people are idiots. They heard his song "Born in the U.S.A." and presumed it was about loving your country, when it's about how your country doesn't love you back.

These are the same people who went to the movies the next year, and cheered Sylvester Stallone playing John Rambo and killing Commies, but they didn't listen when he said that he wanted what every surviving Vietnam veteran wanted: "For our country to love us as much as we love it!"

If I make it to age 75, I hope I'll still have enough left in me to say, "I still love this country, but (whoever it is at the time) is messing it up, and I'm calling them out!"

*

Bruce isn't the only old local guy speaking out against Trump. Robert De Niro, 81 and from Manhattan, first came to our attention with the films Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets in 1973, the same year that Bruce and his E Street Band released their 1st 2 albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.

Trump, who has committed tax fraud, among other kinds of fraud, compared himself to Al Capone, the 1920s Chicago gangster who went to federal prison after being convicted of tax fraud. He has also pardoned lots of people guilty of tax fraud, like himself. And sexual assault, like himself.

De Niro played Capone in the 1987 film version of The Untouchables. He's an actor who has always made sure to study his role, especially if it's a real person, as in the case of Capone. He released a statement about Trump on October 15, 2023, at the Stop Trump Summit, hosted by The New Republic, at the Cooper Union in New York, where Abraham Lincoln gave a famous speech during the 1860 Presidential campaign. It has been recirculating in the wake of Springsteen's remarks:

I've spent a lot of time studying bad people. I've studied their characteristics, their mannerisms, the absolute banality of their cruelty.

However, there's something different about Donald Trump. When I look at him, I don't see a bad person -- I see evil.

I've met gangsters sometimes. This guy tries to be one of them, but he can't be one. There's such a thing as a "thief's honor." Yes, even criminals usually have honor.

Whether they do the right thing or not is another story, but they do have a moral code, however distorted it may be.

But Donald Trump doesn’t have that. He's a thief with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No respect for anyone but himself -- not for the people he leads and is supposed to protect, not for the people he does business with, not for the people who follow him blindly and loyally, even for the people who consider themselves his "friends." He despises them all.

We New Yorkers have come to know him over the years as he has poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego. We knew firsthand that this was someone who should never be considered a leader. We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The fallout from his tumultuous presidency has divided America.

Make no mistake: Evil thrives in the shadow of ridicule, and we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously.

So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke -- right here in the beating heart of New York -- to the rest of America:

This is our last chance.

*

As usual, when a celebrity speaks out, the cry from the right wing is, "Stick to (whatever it is that you usually do), leave politics out of it." Or, "Shut up and sing." (Which, of course, is a very stupid contradiction.)

Nobody ever says that when they agree with your politics. They say it to Springsteen, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, just as they said it to The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) in 2003. They don't say it to Ted Nugent and Kid Rock. They say it to De Niro. They don't say it to his contemporary Jon Voight or his former co-star James Woods.

These people are idiots. Trump only became a candidate with a chance at the Presidency because he was a celebrity.

Let me give you an example. Like Trump, Doug Clark is a real estate investor. Unlike Trump, he actually is worth a lot of money. Like Trump, he's had some legal issues as a result of his business. Unlike Trump, he's never been convicted of a crime. Like Trump, he's been on reality-TV shows. Unlike Trump, he's much younger, admits he's bald, flies his own plane, and is an actual tough guy. Like Trump, reality TV made him famous beyond his hometown. Unlike Trump, he's never given any indication that he wants to run for office.

Clark was already somewhat famous in 2015. If he had run for President then, he would have gotten some attention. But he would have been quickly dismissed as a business bro who wouldn't know how to govern if he actually won.

Trump was already considerably more famous, and famous for being rich, strong and smart -- none of which he actually was, or is, but image, perception, optics, was everything to him, and to his fans.

And all those conservatives who ran in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries? Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and all the rest? Not one of them told him, "Shut up and go back to your real estate. Nobody wants to hear a celebrity's opinion. Not one of them told him, "Stick to real estate, leave politics out of it."

If one of them had, would it have made a difference? Maybe. We'll never know, because, as usual, conservatives are like a badly cooked hamburger: Tough and hard on the outside; cold, soft and unhealthy on the inside. They took his insults, and folded, never calling the fat bastard's bluff.

Now, calling the fat bastard's bluff, like Springsteen and De Niro are doing, may be too late.

February 25, 2000: The Murderers of Amadou Diallo Are Acquitted

February 25, 2000, 25 years ago: Four New York police officers are acquitted of the charge of second-degree murder.

It was a disgraceful miscarriage of justice.

In 1996, Amadou Diallo, a native of the African nation of Liberia, came to America, and settled in New York City. On February 4, 1999, at about 12:40 AM, he was standing outside his apartment building on Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx, when an unmarked police car pulled up.

Inside the car were Officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy. They were looking for a serial rapist. They saw Diallo. Since they were white New York cops, and he was a young black male, they fell back on their prejudices, and assumed he was the man they were looking for.

They ordered Diallo to show his hands. He reached into his pocket to show his wallet, with his identification. All 4 officers assumed he was reaching for a gun, and pulled theirs, and opened fire.

They fired 41 shots, 19 of which hit Diallo. He never had a chance. He was dead at age 23. Sherrie Elliott, a witness, said that they continued to shoot after Diallo was down. When the body was searched, it was found to have nothing that could have been defined as a weapon.

The officers were not punished by the New York Police Department: An investigation ruled that they had acted within policy, based on what "a reasonable police officer would have done." On March 25, a Bronx grand jury disagreed, and indicted all 4 officers on the charges of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.

In hindsight, the charge of criminally negligent homicide might have been easier to prove. On December 16, a court ordered a change of venue for the trial, thinking that the officers could not get a fair trial within the City of New York. The trial was moved to the State capital, Albany.

On February 25, 2000, after 3 days of deliberation, a jury -- 4 black people and 8 white people -- found the officers Not Guilty on all charges.

It had been just 8 years since the acquittal of 4 police officers for the brutal beating of a suspect in Los Angeles had led to some of the worst race rioting in American history. I was sure there would be a riot in New York. There was not.

Within days, Diallo's parents filed a $61 million lawsuit against the City, and the individual officers, charging gross negligence, wrongful death and racial profiling. In 2004, they accepted a $3 million settlement.

In 2001, McMellon and Murphy switched from the NYPD to the Fire Department of New York. They both served 10 years, and retired. Carroll left the NYPD in 2005. Boss remained, and was actually promoted to Sergeant, before retiring in 2019.

None of them was ever punished. Think about it: They fired 41 shots at an unarmed man, hitting him 19 times. That means they missed 23 times, an average of 6 misses per officer. They didn't get prison time for being too good at shooting; they didn't even get fired for being too bad at it.

Songs about the killing abound. Oddly, the most famous isn't by a black rapper, it's by a white rocker who was already 50 years old at the time: "American Skin" by Bruce Springsteen. The chorus of "41 shots" permeates the song. Some cops said they would refuse to provide security for Springsteen when he performed in the City.

Forty-one shots.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang.

Except the song sees the story from their perspective as well: "Is it a gun? Is it a knife? Is it a wallet? This is your life." For both cops and suspects, Bruce sang, "You can get killed just livin' in your American skin."

Not for the first time, nor for the last, white conservative men had ignorantly misinterpreted a Springsteen song.

A person sympathetic to the police would say that these four men have to live with what they did for the rest of their lives, and that this should be punishment enough. A person who accepts that each officer fired at least one bullet that, all by itself, would have killed Amadou Diallo knows that they got away with, at the least, criminally negligent homicide; and, at the most, murder.

Police brutality in America has gotten worse since. And, as we have seen, the race of the cop matters less than the race of the suspect.

Black Lives Matter.

Blue Lives Matter.

All Lives Matter.

Even the lives of people who believe that some of those lives don't.

"Cheers" is the 1980s in a Nutshell

Top row, left to right: Ted Danson as Sam Malone,

John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin and George Wendt as Norm Peterson.

Bottom row, left to right: Nicholas Colasanto as Ernie Pantusso, a.k.a. "Coach";

Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, and Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli

September 30, 1982, 40 years ago: The situation comedy Cheers premieres on NBC. It was about Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson), a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, who ruined his career by excessive drinking, and now ran a bar in Boston.

This would seem to have been a bad idea, given his affliction, but he was good at it. The show was also about the bar itself, and the characters who were regular visitors.

Cheers is the 1980s in a nutshell. Here are the Top 10 Reasons:

1. Sam represents the excesses of the time, managing to skate through everything -- until he can't anymore. He wasn't quite "Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll" personified, but he was a womanizer, a substance abuser (in his case, alcohol), and a lover of fast cars (to the end of the show, he drove a cherry-red 1964 Chrevolet Corvette).

After almost, but not quite, going through with his marriage ceremony to Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), he sees Diane accept a job across the country, and she says she'll be back in 6 months. Sam doesn't buy it, and he turns out to be right. He sells the bar, and buys a boat, which he handles badly, and it sinks on its maiden voyage. That was his "Crash of '87," although the story happened to him before it happened to Wall Street.

He goes back to work at the bar, but he's just a bartender, no longer the owner, and tries to scheme his way back into ownership. At first, it doesn't work. This represents the Eighties' "bill coming due" after the Wall Street Crash of '87, although, in real life, the economy didn't fall all at once. The Savings & Loan Scandal of 1989 had more to do with the recession of 1990-93 than the Crash did. Sam did get the bar back, but it took 3 years.

2. Diane represents mental illness, and President Ronald Reagan letting so many mentally ill people out on the street. She did annoy everyone, but she was clearly impaired. And she was not properly treated. The character of Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) was introduced at the start of Season 3 as her therapist, but before his introductory episode was out, we found out he was also sleeping with her, which was a massive violation of medical ethics. The relationship didn't last much longer, since she went back to Sam after he went back on the wagon.

3. Coach represents the old ways that have seemingly been lost. Emblematic of this is that, aside from the Red Sox, the only time we find out which team once employed Ernie Pantusso, a.k.a. "Coach" (Nicolas Colasanto), was when he said he played for the St. Louis Browns' organization. The Browns moved to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, after winning just 1 Pennant and no World Series in more than half a century. So, by this point, any mention of them was as a hopeless relic.

4. Cliff represents Reagan Era paranoia. Mail carrier Cliff Clavin was a dedicated employee of the U.S. Postal Service. He was also a self-styled know-it-all, whose bluster wouldn't have lasted two minutes in the Internet era, when his "little known facts" would have been quickly exposed.

He was also one of the most politically conservative characters on TV, saying after George H.W. Bush became President in 1989, "Ever since Reagan left office, this country's gone to heck in a handcart." He was played by John Ratzenberger, and, as Cliff, he wasn't acting: He's like that in real life.

5. Norm represents the working class, who were told they would have it better now, but they really don't. On September 23, 1982, 7 days before the show premiered, Billy Joel released his album The Nylon Curtain, including the working man's lament "Allentown." On September 30, hours before the show premiered, Bruce Springsteen released his album Nebraska, including "Atlantic City." The American Dream wasn't coming true anymore, and keeping a job -- and, if not, getting a new one -- proved hard, even for a white-collar man like accountant Norm Peterson (George Wendt).

"Bars can be sad places," Norm once said. "Some people spend their whole lives in a bar. Yesterday, some guy came in, and sat down next to me for 11 hours." Cheers was his refuge from an uncaring world. Cheers was where people still cared about him. Like the theme song, written and sung by Gary Portnoy, said: "Sometimes, you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came."

6. Frasier represents the ruling class, suddenly realizing that they don't rule as much as they thought they did. Like a similarly stuffy and bald medical man from Boston, Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers on M*A*S*H), Frasier frequently reminded people that he graduated from Harvard University.

The fact that the spinoff series Frasier retconned him as actually being from Seattle doesn't change the perception that he fit in better in Boston. That show also changed his background: While his mother was a brilliant scientist, his father was a working-class cop. But viewers wouldn't know that until 1993, and watched Cheers thinking that Frasier was a Boston Brahmin like Charles.

7. Carla represents women, trying to have it every which way, and facing the consequences more than the men do. Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) started the series with a nasty, cheating, no-good 1st husband and 5 kids. She ended it with one cheating ex-husband alive, another dead (not killed by her, although she was certainly capable of it), and 8 kids (1 with neither of them). No one on the show struggled more than Carla. Why? Was it because she was a woman?

Maybe not: Diane struggled less, and so did Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), who managed the bar from Seasons 6 to 9, and then was assistant manager under Sam the rest of the way.) But Carla was the show's only married woman. (Despite a close call in the Season 5 finale, and another when she returned for the series finale, Diane and Sam never did marry each other.)

8. Woody represents the Rubes out in the Hinterlands, who just like having Reagan tell them all those nice stories about how wonderful things were, could be again, and eventually were again, except they were only words. Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) was brought in as a bartender after Colasanto died of cancer during Season 3. There he was in the big city, telling everybody how great life was on the farm in Indiana.

But this was no Radar O'Reilly on M*A*S*H: Unlike the Iowa-tied company clerk, Woody was even dumber than Coach. How dumb was he? Dumb enough to fall for a lot of Cliff's "little known facts." At least he meant well.

9. Rebecca represents all the good white people who bought into Reagan's myth, and were gradually betrayed by it. She went after one rich boss, played by Tom Skerritt; then another who bought him out, played by Roger Rees. Skerritt's character wouldn't even think about romancing her, while Rees' character did, but only when he could gain advantage from it.

She resisted all of Sam's smarmy advances... until after Sam bought the bar back (for 87 cents). Then, she went all in for the handsome, athletic guy with the great hair. (Of course, Reagan wasn't an alcoholic. His father and his brother were, though.)

10. The show ended in 1993, four months into Bill Clinton's first term, when we finally began to clean up the mess of the Reagan Years. The last scene shows Norm telling Sam he knew he wouldn't go off with Diane, because, "You always come back to your one true love." In Sam's case, for all his fooling around, his one true love wasn't a woman. It was the bar. Where he could be in charge, but he never lorded it over his friends. People like Carla, Norm, Cliff, Woody, even Frasier (at least until he moved back to Seattle).

In his Inaugural Address, Clinton said, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." Sam figured out the bar was where he could balance freedom and responsibility, duty and friendship. He had found his calling. It wasn't baseball, or drinking, or fast cars, or women, and it certainly wasn't either Diane or Rebecca. It was being first among equals, in the place where everybody knew his name.

Uncle Mike vs. Bon Jovi

March 2, 1962, 60 years ago: John Francis Bongiovi Jr. is born in Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, New Jersey. It was the same day that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game. For a stage name, he shortened it to "Jon Bon Jovi," and named his band "Bon Jovi."

He's nearly 8 years older than I am. He grew up across the Raritan River from Perth Amboy, in Sayreville. So we didn't quite come from the same place and time. The cultural references are a little off.

Sayreville borders my hometown of East Brunswick. South River is jammed in between. The Borough of South River and the Borough of Sayreville are separated by the South River, a tributary of the Raritan. The bridge over the South River, connecting South River and Sayreville, is officially the Veterans Memorial Bridge, but is called the Polish Connector.

South River is a small town that prides itself on small-town values. The Township of East Brunswick is a sprawling community, and if anybody wants to call it "the suburbiest suburb that ever suburbed," I won't dispute it. Sayreville -- Irish 1st, Polish 2nd, Italian 3rd -- wants it both ways: They demand the blue-collar credibility and the home and job growth, and they lose credibility on both counts.

And it's got nasty hills, bad bus service, and despite a railroad that splits into 3 branches, no passenger rail station. It's also home to the Middlesex County Sewerage Authority, and my father called it Sewerville, and the name fits. I hate that town.

Bon Jovi seemed to be one of those guys in the 1980s who thought the reason Bruce Springsteen, 13 years older and from 5 towns down U.S. Route 9 in Freehold, succeeded was because he wore denim jackets and sang blue-collar songs in a gravelly voice; and thought the reason Led Zeppelin succeeded was stupidly long hair, open shirts, and screeching your lyrics. He thought he could combine the two and it would work. It was the 1980s, so it did.

I hated his music, and I hated him, with that hate that only a 16-year-old kid with more anxiety than money can understand. The kind of hate that can only be understood by a 16-year-old boy who sees better-looking guys get all the cool girls in school, and finds that the only females who want him to stay late with them are his teachers, and they aren't interested in him other than boosting his grades, and most of them aren't attractive, anyway.

The prettiest teacher in my junior year at East Brunswick High School was a Spanish teacher whose class I was in. (I'll maintain her privacy, and not mention her name.) She was very nice, and she was able to reach her students. Being not that much older than we were probably helped. But not only was she married, she missed the last 2 months of the schoolyear on maternity leave. It's just as well. The religious difference was too much. She was a Mets-odist, and I was an Orthodox Yankee Fan -- certainly, not a Reformed one.

This was 1986. In that Summer, between my junior and senior years, Bon Jovi released the album that turned Jon from rising star to superstar, Slippery When Wet. A few weeks into that senior year, the year the Mets won the World Series -- their last to date.

Bon Jovi was what we in E.B. called a ginker. If you're not familiar with that term, think of Michael Kelso (played by Ashton Kutcher) on That '70s Show, or John Bender (Judd Nelson) in The Breakfast Club. The kind of guy whose parents told him, "If you do drugs, your kids will be messed up," and was eventually surprised to find his kids copying early Eminem -- or, if girls, early Avril Lavigne.

There was a really funny moment on an episode of Who's the Boss? (Which, of course, had nothing to do with Springsteen.) Angela Bower, a middle-aged and divorced, but still very attractive, woman (Judith Light) is sitting next to a teenage girl, who is wearing headphones and chewing gum. The girl takes off her headphones, and turns to Angela, and says, "Don't you just love Bon Jovi?" Not knowing what Bon Jovi is, Angela decides to bluff, and makes a very bad guess: "Oh, yes, I think it's a wonderful fragrance."

A few minutes later, the other protagonist of the series, former baseball player Tony Micelli (Tony Danza), sits next to the same girl. She takes off her headphones, and turns to Tony, and says, "Don't you just love Bon Jovi?" He knows who Bon Jovi is -- maybe it's an Italian thing -- but says, "Actually, I'm more into the Beastie Boys." And, having a common frame of reference, he starts talking to this girl who's the same age as his daughter Samantha (Alyssa Milano). Don't worry, it's all innocent. Tony was never that kind of guy.

Eventually, with Jon, I got to see (though have never met) the real guy behind the image. He's done very good things with his fame and his fortune. I now respect him. But I still can't stand his music.

There is one moment where Jon has the advantage over Bruce, and that's in their respective greatest anthems. In "Born to Run," recorded in 1974 but not released until 1975, Bruce tells Wendy, "Someday, girl, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place we really wanna go, and we'll walk in the Sun," but he doesn't seem to believe it, preceding it with, "There's no place left to hide." But in "Livin' On a Prayer," recorded in 1986 and a Number 1 hit in 1987, Tommy tells Gina, "Doesn't really matter if we make it or not," but also seems to promise, "We'll make it, I swear."

Note: Mutual respect, non-rebellious hair, and their shirts closed.

It is the difference between the Nixon Seventies and the more optimistic Reagan Eighties? Given that both Bruce and Jon are Democrats, it might not seem like it. But you could say that they each understood their audience in their respective times.

Bruce Springsteen was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999; Bruce's E Street Band, collectively, in 2014; Bon Jovi, collectively as a band, including Jon Bon Jovi himself, were elected in 2018.

Dates Mentioned In Songs

Happy New Year's Day.

What songs mention dates?

January 1: "New Year's Day," U2.

March 18, 1846: "Greenland Whale Fisheries," The Pogues.

April 4, 1968: "Pride In the Name of Love," U2 again.

May 1: "First of May," Jonathan Coulton. Also, "First of May," The Bee Gees.

May 5: "I Married Isis On the Fifth Day of May," Bob Dylan. Also, "Cinco de Mayo," Liz Phair. Dylan mentioned "Eastertime" in "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," but got no more specific than that, and Easter is on a different day every year.

May 10, 1865: "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," The Band.

May 12: "Pinball Song," Slobberbone.

May 19: "I've Known No War," The Who. It's guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend's birthday.

June 3: "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry: "It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day."

June 6: "Convoy," C.W. McCall: "It was the dark of the Moon on the 6th of June... "

June 16: "Breathe," U2 again. June 16 is an important day in Irish culture, because it's the date in 1904 on which James Joyce's novel Ulysses is set, because that's the day Joyce met his wife, Nora Barnacle.

July 4: A bunch of songs. "Jack Straw," The Grateful Dead. "Saturday In the Park," Chicago. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," Bruce Springsteen. "4th of July," X.

July 13: "Yell Help," Elton John.

July 15: "St. Swithin's Day," Billy Bragg.

August 1: "On the First Day in August," Carole King.

September 3: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," The Temptations: "It was the 3rd of September, that day I'll always remember, yes, I will. 'Cause that was the day that my daddy died."

September 21: "September," Earth, Wind & Fire: "Do you remember the 21st day of September?"

October 31: Lots of songs mention Halloween, including "Spooky" by The Classics IV, but Dusty Springfield's great cover doesn't. Also "Halloween" by Dream Syndicate; "Everyday Is Halloween" by Ministry"; and "The New Style," Beastie Boys.

November 5: "Remember," John Lennon, invoking the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

November 22, 1963: "The Day John Kennedy Died" by Lou Reed, and "Life In a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy. Although his song "We Didn't Start the Fire" doesn't mention any specific dates, Billy Joel alludes to several events, including the JFK Assassination.

Thanksgiving falls on a different day every year, between November 22 and 28. Not many songs mention it. By far the best-known one is "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie.

December 8, 1980: Not quite, but Paul Simon cites the murder of John Lennon "On a cold December evening," in "The Late Great Johnny Ace," which also mentions the deaths of JFK and the R&B singer Johnny Ace, which happened on Christmas Day, December 25, 1954.

December 21: "How to Make Gravy," Paul Kelly, an Australian singer. I had never heard of him before soliciting ideas for this post. Great song. His fans call the date "Gravy Day."

December 25: Probably the best-known song not specifically a Christmas song to mention "Christmas Day" is "Levon" by Elton John.

December 26: "St. Stephen's Day Murders," The Chieftains, with guest lead vocal by Elvis Costello.

December 31: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Margaret Whiting.

Can you think of any others? Let me know in the comments.

July 2, 1981: The Meadowlands Arena Opens

July 2, 1981, 40 years ago: The arena planned for the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey opens. It is named the Brendan Byrne Arena, for the outgoing Governor who got it built.

It is 7.7 miles west of Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City -- like its football neighbor, Giants Stadium, roughly the same distance as Yankee Stadium in The Bronx and Shea Stadium in Queens, but across a State Line, so there is, however subtle, a culture shift.

The Complex is off Exit 16W of the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike, at the intersection of New Jersey Route 3. New Jersey Route 120 -- at the time, Route 20 -- bisects the complex: The Stadium and the Racetrack are to the west, the Arena to the east. For most of the arena's existence, its address has been 50 Route 120.

The 1st event was a concert by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Bruce, a native of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, began a 6-night stand there. Other notable acts to perform there during their heyday include the Rolling Stones in 1981, Queen in 1982, Rush and New Jersey natives Bon Jovi in 1986, Michael Jackson in 1988, and The Dave Matthews Band in 1999.

On December 7 and 8, 2003, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played the Arena during their Old Friends Reunion Tour. The opening act was one without whom they never would have made it: The Everly Brothers.

The intended main tenant for the building was the NBA's New Jersey Nets, who had spent the previous 4 seasons at the 9,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center after moving from Long Island as the New York Nets. Their 1st game was on October 30, 1981, and they lost to their neighbors (they were rarely "rivals"), the New York Knicks, 103-99.

The Nets made the Playoffs in their 1st 5 seasons in the building, and in 15 of their 29 overall seasons there. They won the NBA Eastern Conference title in 2002 and 2003. They won the Atlantic Division in 2002, '03, '04 and '06. Sounds decent.

But they had as many horrible seasons as good ones. They went 19-63 in 1987-88, 17-65 in 1989-90, 16-34 in 1999, and 26-56 4 times. They were 12-70 in their last season in the building, 2009-10. And when they finally got into the NBA Finals, they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002, and lost in 6 games to the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.

Finally, on March 24, 2004, Bruce Ratner bought the team, and announced the intention to move them to a new arena he was planning for Brooklyn. It didn't open until the start of the 2012-13 season, leaving the Nets as a lame duck franchise for a whopping 8 years, the last 2 (2010-11 and 2011-12) at the Prudential Center in Newark.

From 1985 to 2007, Seton Hall University, in nearby South Orange, Essex County, used the Arena for games too big for their 1,655-seat on-campus Walsh Gymnasium. They reached the NCAA Final in 1989, losing to the University of Michigan in overtime. In the 2010-11 season, after every other tenant had left, Fordham University in The Bronx used it as home court for 4 games.

In 1996, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament held its Final Four at the Arena, and this remains the only time it's been held in the New York Tri-State Area since 1951. On March 30, the Semifinals were held: The University of Kentucky beat the University of Massachusetts, 81-74; and Syracuse University beat Mississippi State University, 77-69. In the Final on April 1, Kentucky beat Syracuse, 76-67.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which oversees the Meadowlands Complex, also wanted to bring an NHL team to the Arena. On May 27, 1982, they got one: The New Jersey Devils. The franchise had begun play in 1974, as the Kansas City Scouts. After 2 terrible seasons, they were sold to a group that moved them to Denver, Colorado, and renamed them the Colorado Rockies, a name that would later be given to Denver's Major League Baseball team.

The Devils played their 1st regular-season game on October 5, 1982, a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins. For 5 years, they were terrible, enduring such slights as a 13-4 loss away to the Edmonton Oilers in 1983, after which Wayne Gretzky called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse operation"; a snow-ridden game in 1987 that attracted only 334 fans; and games against nearby teams like the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins that seemed like home games for the visitors.

Finally, in the 1987-88 season, the Devils made the Playoffs, and got to within 1 game of the Stanley Cup Finals. They did so again in 1993-94, but lost a Game 7 to the Rangers in double overtime at Madison Square Garden, after blowing Game 6 at home.

They became more successful than the Nets ever have, winning the Stanley Cup at home on June 24, 1995, beating the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2, to complete a 4-game sweep. They won the Cup on the road in Dallas in 2000, and at home again in 2003 against Anaheim. The Devils appeared in 1 other Finals, in 2001, losing at home in Game 6 and in Denver in Game 7.

Scott Stevens lifts the Stanley Cup at the Brendan Byrne Arena,

June 24, 1995. One of the greatest nights of my life.

In the Spring of 2003, the Arena hosted both the NBA and the NHL Finals, something only done by 4 other arenas, ever: The Boston Garden in 1957, '58 and '74; Madison Square Garden in 1972 and '94; The Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1980; and the Chicago Stadium in 1992. (None has ever won both, with some John Starks bricks preventing the closest call in 1994.) The Arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1982, and the NHL All-Star Game in 1984.

In 1996, a Republican-controlled State legislature, angry at Byrne for signing the State's income tax into law, vengefully took his name off the building, and put, of course, a corporation's name on it, that of Continental Airlines, based at Newark International Airport. Byrne said, "I was immortal for 15 years." Byrne lived until 2018, outliving the usefulness of the arena named for him, if not the building itself. Byrne also outlived Continental Airlines: They were bought out by United Airlines in 2012.

Building a sports complex in East Rutherford, just off the New Jersey Turnpike, close to the Lincoln Tunnel and to New York City, seemed like a great idea in the 1970s. But after Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack opened in 1976, the drawbacks kicked in.

There was plenty of parking, but it was poorly managed. Getting in and out took forever. Taking public transportation was no good: You couldn't do it from most of New Jersey, as the Meadowlands Rail Line didn't open until 2009 (in time for the football teams to move next-door to what's now MetLife Stadium), and the buses from New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal got stuck in traffic on Routes 495 and 3.

And the smell wasn't too good, even before all that exhaust settled over the area, and combined with the natural swamp air to form what Jerry Seinfeld might have called "some sort of mutant funk."

The arena that opened in 1981, known as the Izod Center from 2007 until the building's official closing in 2015 -- didn't improve things. One level of concourse for two levels of seats simply doesn't work if there's more than 12,000 people in the building. Then again, until the Nets got good in the 2001-02 season, that was rarely a problem for them. It wasn't a problem all that often after that, either. And it wasn't often a problem for the Devils, either.

The arena was drafty, especially in the upper deck. The sight lines weren't great: The older Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum both had better ones. The sound didn't carry well, even though the sound system was always too loud -- perhaps to cover up for the fact that crowds generally weren't big, unless championship teams with marquee players were in.

The Nets and the Devils both had to get out of that arena. Both did: The Devils opened the Prudential Center in downtown Newark in 2007, the Nets moved there in 2010, and finally the Barclays Center in Brooklyn opened in 2012, and the Nets moved there.

Surrounded by the American Dream Meadowlands retail complex

The Meadowlands Arena, all naming rights having lapsed, was closed in 2015, and was targeted for demolition. But not so fast: It has found a second life, converted into a TV and film studio, for productions such as the new version of The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, who, under her original name of Dana Owens, was an All-State basketball player at nearby Irvington High School in Essex County.

Not what we expected the Arena to be on its 40th Anniversary -- but at least it got to have one. Some stadiums and arenas with better histories don't last that long.

New Jersey Glossary: Volume 4, P to S

I hope, at least, that I'm a better speller than you.

Palisades: A line of steep cliffs along the west side of the Hudson River, running from Nyack, Rockland County, New York to Jersey City. They have given their name to the Borough of Palisades Park, the amusement park that once stood there, Palisades Interstate Park, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway.

Palisades Amusement Park: An amusement park that operated from 1898 to 1971. Although it was often called "Palisades Park" for short, it was not in the nearby town of that name. Instead, it straddled the line between the Boroughs of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee.

The site was chosen because it was near a ferry that once operated out of West 130th Street in Manhattan. There is a ferry near the site now, running from Edgewater to West 42nd Street. The opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931 made access from New York City easier.

In 1935, Irving and Jack Rosenthal bought the park, and began staging concerts there. first Big Bands, and then, in the late 1950s, rock and roll. Some of these concerts would be simulcast on New York radio station WABC, hosted by Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, wearing a leopard-skin tuxedo. In 1962, Freddy Cannon had a hit song set at the place, "Palisades Park."

A radio ad, written by Irving's wife, Gladys Shelley, told people, "Come on over!" They did, averaging 6 million strong every year. In 1969, they got 10 million visitors.

But it became a victim of its own success: There was not enough parking, not enough restroom facilities, overworked rides led to accidents, and Cliffside Park and Fort Lee residents began to complain about the traffic, and the litter that visitors left behind.

To make matters worse, Irving and Gladys had no children. Nor did Jack, who died in 1967. With no heirs, and Irving being in his 70s, he was worn down by developers who wanted to built apartment towers with views of Manhattan. He finally caved in, and the Park closed on September 12, 1971. Irving died 2 years later. The Winston Towers, Carlyle Towers and Buckingham Towers condos were built on the site. Turnpike Exit 18E, or Parkway Exit 157.

Palisades Interstate Parkway: A 38-mile highway whose southern terminus is at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, and runs along the Hudson River, crossing the New York State Line, until it reaches the Bear Mountain Bridge in Bear Mountain, Orange County, New York.

The PIP, or "Palisades Parkway" (with "Interstate" dropped) opened in 1958, and is designated, but not signed, as New Jersey Route 445 and New York Route 987C.

Paramus: A Borough in Bergen County, home to 26,000 people, and home to shopping centers that generate over $6 billion in revenue every year, making 07652 the highest-generating ZIP Code in America.

New Jersey does not levy a sales tax on clothes or shoes, and the State sales tax is just 7 percent, compared to 8.875 percent in New York City. However, since the opening of Garden State Plaza in 1957, this has been offset by the County's "blue law," closing all stores on Sundays. Given the confluence of the Parkway (Exit 159) and New Jersey Routes 4 and 17, this makes Paramus a traffic nightmare at times, no more so than on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Garden State Plaza, the mall that most New Jerseyans and New Yorkers are talking about when they say, "Paramus," opened in 1957 at the intersection of Routes 4 and 17. The Bergen Mall opened the same year, further up Route 4. In 1963, Paramus Place opened across Route 4 from the Bergen Mall. Other shopping centers have opened since.

Parkway, The: Short for the Garden State Parkway, which runs along the Atlantic Coast before turning inland and going through urban and suburban areas of Central and North Jersey. The idea was to take traffic off U.S. Route 9, especially in Summer for trips down the Shore.

Parkway exits are numbered by milepost, 0 (yes, Cape May is "Exit 0") to 172. Exits 0 through 91 are in South Jersey, 98 through 132 in North Jersey, and 135 through 172 are in North Jersey.

Pascack Valley Line: A commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit, on tracks formerly owned by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, which merged with the Erie Railroad to become the Erie-Lackawanna Railway.

It starts in Hudson County, at the Hoboken Terminal, and also serves Secaucus Junction. It crosses into Bergen County, and stops at Carlstadt, Wood-Ridge, Teterboro in Hasbrouck Heights, Essex Street and Anderson Street in Hackensack, New Bridge Landing and River Edge in River Edge, Oradell, Emerson, Westwood, Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge and Montvale.

It then crosses the State Line, and, with cooperation from Metro-North Commuter Railroad, stops at the Rockland County, New York stations of Pearl River in Orangetown, Nanuet in Clarkstown, and Spring Valley.

PATCO Speedline: A subway line run by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), a subsidiary of the Delaware River Port Authority. It is South Jersey's and Philadelphia's version of North Jersey's and New York's PATH system, although it is considerably newer, opening in 1936 as the Bridge Line. PATCO took over in 1969.

It begins at a station just off Rittenhouse Square in Center City Philadelphia, at a station labeled 15-16th & Locust, and part of a Center City subway loop that was planned, but never finished. It moves east to 12-13th & Locust, where it links with the Philadelphia subway's Broad Street Line; then to 9-10th & Locust.

It then turns north to 8th & Market, where it links to the Philadelphia subway's Market-Frankford Line and its Broad Street Spur, and to SEPTA's Jefferson Station (formerly Market East Station). It then turns east again. The Franklin Square station, closed since 1979, is being rehabilitated, and is expected to open in late 2022.

It then emerges above ground, and goes over the Ben Franklin Bridge, into New Jersey, Camden County, and the City of Camden. In downtown Camden, it stops at City Hall, and then at Broadway, where it connects to the Walter Rand Transportation Center, the River Line, and buses all over South Jersey. It makes 1 more stop in Camden City, at Ferry Avenue.

It continues southeast into Camden County, to Collingswood, Westmont in Haddon Township, Haddonfield, Woodcrest in Cherry Hill, Ashland in Voorhees, and terminates at Lindenwold, where transfers can be made to New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line.

The fare depends on the distance. Within Philadelphia, or from Philadelphia to Broadway or City Hall in Camden (or vice versa), it's $1.40. Between any 2 stations in New Jersey, it's $1.60. To or from Philadelphia from Ferry Avenue is $2.25; Collingswood, Westmont and Haddonfield, $2.60; Woodcrest, Ashland and Lindenwold, $3.00

See also "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Paterson: The seat of Passaic County, with a population of about 150,000. Named for early Governor and Senator William Paterson, it became known as the Silk City for its textile mills, long since gone. The decline of industry plunged the already working-class city into poverty, and, like Trenton and Camden, it seems like the advances of American cities at the end of the 20th Century have passed it by.

PATH: A subway system run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, short for Port Authority Trans-Hudson. It began operations on February 25, 1908 as the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, a.k.a. the H&M or the Hudson Tubes. The stations were Hoboken in New Jersey; and, in Manhattan, Christopher Street, 9th Street, 14th Street and 19th Street. 23rd Street was added the following June 15.

In Jersey City, Hudson Terminal, Exchange Place (site of the Pennsylvania Railroad's pre-Penn Station ferry between Jersey City and Manhattan) and Pavonia/Newport (just "Newport" since 2011) opened. Grove Street in Jersey City, and 28th Street and 33rd Street in Manhattan, opened in 1910. Manhattan Transfer in Kearny and Park Place in Newark (on the current site of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center) were added in 1911.

Summit Avenue (renamed Journal Square in 1975) in Jersey City was added in 1922. With the building of Newark Penn Station, in 1937 the Manhattan Transfer and Park Place stations were eliminated, and the Harrison and Newark stations opened. 28th Street was closed in 1939, 19th Street in 1954, and Hudson Terminal in 1971 when World Trade Center station opened. WTC was closed for 2 years after the 9/11 attacks.

The Port Authority bought out the bankrupt H&M in 1962. They recently built a new Harrison Station, across Rodgers Boulevard from the old one, for easier use by sports fans going to Red Bull Arena; and are now working on an extension to Newark Airport. See also "State Line." See also "New York, Crossings Into."

Penn Central: See "Pennsylvania Railroad."

Penn State: Best known for its football program, the Pennsylvania State University, under longtime head coach Joe Paterno (1966-2011), poached many a New Jersey high school gridiron star, making it a natural arch-rival for Rutgers. But the rivalry has been incredibly one-sided: Rutgers won the 1st game between the teams, in 1918; and another game in 1988. That's it: Penn State leads the rivalry 27-2. (It has not been played every season.)

Penn State's successes, and Rutgers' failures, have meant that big chunks of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex Counties prefer Penn State to Rutgers. (Some parts of Bergen even have Notre Dame ahead.) The Southern half of the State, the part that tilts toward Philadelphia, and even towns near the Delaware River in the Counties of Warren, Hunterdon and Mercer, 200 miles from Beaver Stadium, also prefer Penn State. The bastards.

Penn Station: See "Pennsylvania Railroad."

Pennsyltucky: Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia. As political operative James Carville says, having observed the State when he got Bob Casey Sr. elected Governor in 1986, "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between." He is right. It certainly explains their obsession with football.

The New Jersey Counties of Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon could be called "West Jersey," but often seem closer in feel and tone to adjoining Pennsylvania, especially the Lehigh Valley region that includes Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, than they do to New York and its North and Central Jersey suburbs. Especially since they seem to favor Penn State in college football over Rutgers. So they could be called "East Pennsyltucky."

In particular, the Warren County town of Phillipsburg, and its neighbor across the Delaware River, Easton, have been called "One city, divided by a river and a State Line." This could also be said of Lambertville, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and New Hope, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Every year, on Thanksgiving Day, the football teams of Phillipsburg High School and Easton Area High School play each other at Lehigh University, one of the few Interstate high school rivalries in the country.

Pennsylvania, Crossings Into: The following are road crossings of the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, and vice versa, going from north to south:

* Milford-Montague Toll Bridge, which opened in 1953, and carries U.S. Route 206, between Montague, Sussex County, and Milford, Pike County. Toll: $1.00.

* Dingman's Ferry Bridge, 1900, County Route 560 (which becomes PA Route 739), between Sandyston, Sussex County and Delaware Township, Pike County. $1.00.

* Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge, 1953, Interstate 80, between Hardwick, Warren County and Delaware Water Gap, Monroe County. $1.00.

* Portland-Columbia Pedestrian Bridge, 1958, pedestrian only, between Knowlton, Warren County and Upper Mount Bethel, Northampton County. No toll.

* Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge, 1953, U.S. Route 46 and N.J. Route 94, between Knowlton and Portland, Northampton County. $1.00.

* Riverton-Belvidere Bridge, 1904, County Route 620, between Belvidere, Warren County and Riverton, Northampton County. No toll.

* Easton-Phillipsburg Toll Bridge, 1938, U.S. Route 22, between Phillipsburg, Warren County and Easton, Northampton County. $1.00.

* Northampton Street Bridge, 1896, no highway, between Phillipsburg and Easton. No toll, and so, to distinguish it from the preceding, it is known as the Free Bridge.

* Interstate 78 Toll Bridge, 1989, Interstate 78, between Phillipsburg and Easton.

Not nearly as impressive as the preceding two

* Riegelsville Bridge, 1904, no highway, between Pohatcong, Warren County and Riegelsville, Bucks County. No toll.

* Upper Black Eddy-Milford Bridge, 1933, no highway, between Milford, Hunterdon County and Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County. No toll.

* Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge, 1931, N.J. Route 12, between Frenchtown, Hunterdon County and Tinicum, Bucks County. No toll.

* Lumberville-Raven Rock Bridge, 1947, pedestrian only, between Delaware Township, Hunterdon County and Solebury, Bucks County. No toll. The New Jersey side of it is in Bull's Island Recreation Area. Hurricane Diane destroyed the nearby 1892-built Point Pleasant-Byram Bridge in 1955. (Pennsylvania's Point Pleasant is a part of Tinicum Township, as is the aforementioned Uhlerstown.)

* Centre Bridge-Stockton Bridge, 1927, County Route 523, between Stockton, Hunterdon County and Solebury, Bucks County. No toll. That part of Solebury is called Centre Bridge, hence the bridge's odd name.

* New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridge, 1971, U.S. Route 202, between Delaware Township, Hunterdon County and Solebury, Bucks County. $1.00. To the north of the small towns for which it's named.

* New Hope-Lambertville Free Bridge, 1904, N.J./PA Route 179, between Lambertville, Hudson County and New Hope, Bucks County. No toll.

* Washington Crossing Bridge, 1955, no highway, between Hopewell, Mercer County and Upper Makefield, Bucks County. No toll. This is the 4th bridge on roughly the site where George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River on December 25, 1776.

* Scudder Falls Bridge, 2019, Interstate 295, between Ewing, Mercer County and Lower Makefield, Bucks County. This is the newest NJ/PA crossing. The previous bridge, built in 1961, was built to replace the Yardley-Wilburtha Bridge, which was destroyed by Hurricane Diane in 1955.

* Calhoun Street Bridge, 1884, no highway, between Trenton, Mercer County and Morrisville, Bucks County. No toll.

* Lower Trenton Bridge, 1928, U.S. Route 1 Business, between Trenton and Morrisville. No toll. Replaced an 1806 bridge. Also known as the Trenton Makes Bridge, because of the neon sign on each side, advertising the city's industry: TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES.

* Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge, 1952, U.S. Route 1, between Trenton and Morrisville. $1.00.

Alongside its railroad parallel

* Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge, 1956, Interstate 95 (New Jersey Turnpike Pennsylvania Extension/Pennsylvania Turnpike), between Burlington, Burlington County and Bristol, Bucks County. $7.20.

* Burlington-Bristol Bridge, 1931, N.J./PA Route 413, between Burlington, Burlington County and Bristol, Bucks County. $4.00. Still an openable drawbridge.

* Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, 1929, N.J./PA Route 73, between Palmyra, Burlington County and Philadelphia. Philadelphia County (the City and the County are contiguous). $4.00.

* Betsy Ross Bridge, 1976, N.J. Route 90, between Pennsauken, Camden County and Philadelphia. $5.00.

* Benjamin Franklin Bridge, 1926, Interstate 676 and U.S. Route 30 (and the PATCO Speedline), between Camden, Camden County and Philadelphia. $5.00. Campbell's Field, the home of minor-league baseball's Camden Riversharks, stood beneath the Camden end from 2001 to 2019. (UPDATE: Special effects showed this bridge to have collapsed in the 2023 film Shazam! Fury of the Gods; but, in real life, it's still operational. Campbell's Field, on the other hand, has been demolished.)

* Walt Whitman Bridge, 1957. Interstate 76, between Gloucester City, Camden County, and Philadelphia. $5.00. Near the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

* Commodore Barry Bridge, 1974, U.S. Route 322 and County Route 536, between Logan Township, Gloucester County and Chester, Delaware County. $5.00. Named for John Barry, a hero of the War of the American Revolution, the home of Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, currently named Talen Energy Stadium, is next to the Pennsylvania side of this bridge.

See also "State Line."

Pennsylvania Railroad: Founded in Philadelphia in 1846, "the Pennsy" was once the most-used railroad in the U.S., running a north-south line from New York to Washington, and an east-west line from Philadelphia to Chicago known as the Broadway Limited.

This included several stations named "Pennsylvania Station," or "Penn Station" for short. In 1910, one opened in Manhattan, between 31st and 33rd Streets, and between 7th and 8th Avenues. It was hailed as the greatest train station ever built, and eliminated the need for trans-Hudson ferries.

Penn Station I, New York, 1910-1963

In 1935, another Pennsylvania Station opened in downtown Newark, replacing an earlier station on the site, just off Market Street. It remains New Jersey's largest transportation hub, sending Amtrak and commuter rail to New York City, the Raritan Valley, Central Jersey and the Jersey Shore; PATH trains to Harrison, Jersey City, Hoboken and Lower Manhattan; and buses all over North Jersey.

Penn Station, Newark, 1935

The growth of highways and the auto industry ruined passenger rail travel in America. In 1963, New York's Penn Station was a dirty relic, and hardly resembled the great temple of transit that people who hate its replacement want to think of it as. The upper structure was demolished, and service continued below ground until 1968, when the new Penn Station opened, with Madison Square Garden above.

Penn Station II, New York, 1968

By 1968, both the Pennsylvania and its great rival, the New York Central Railroad, were bankrupt. They merged, forming the Penn Central Transportation Company. It didn't work: They filed for bankruptcy in 1970, their regional service was taken over by the newly-formed Amtrak in 1971, and Conrail took over their local service in 1976. In 1983, New Jersey Transit took over.

Today, riders on New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak may disagree on politics, sports and food choices, but most agree that they hate the new Penn Station, its cramping, its delays, and its overall ambience. They eagerly await another replacement. They may have to wait years more.

The Penn Central -- created by the merger of the Northeast's 3 biggest railroads, the Pennsylvania, the New York Central, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford -- couldn't pay for the repairs, and many lines still have not been replaced by their successors: New Jersey Transit, SEPTA and Metro-North.

Pineapple On Pizza: See "Pizza."

Pine Barrens: One of the last remaining undeveloped (or underdeveloped) regions of New Jersey. It includes portions of western and southern Ocean County, southern Burlington County, southern Gloucester County, eastern Cumberland County and northern Cape May County. Turnpike Exits 5 and 7, or Parkway Exits 37 through 89.

If you go there, expecting to find locations from The Sopranos episode "The Pine Barrens," don't bother: Those scenes were filmed at Harriman State Park in New York State.

Pineys: Natives of the Pine Barrens. Jersey's own rednecks. Not to be confused with "Piners," the sports teams of Lakewood High School, although Lakewood is at the northeastern edge of the Pine Barrens.

Pizza: Always tastes better Down the Shore. This is also true of Fries and Hot Dogs.

Manco & Manco, Boardwalk, Ocean City.

Formerly named Mack & Manco. No Apostrophe-S.

My choice for the Best Pizza in New Jersey.

In Trenton and environs, they tend to pay more attention to the sauce than the crust or the toppings, and thus locals tend to call it a "tomato pie." However, contrary to popular belief, "pizza" is not Italian for "pie." Rather, the word was originally "pitta," because the bread resembled a pita. Brooklynites who moved to Jersey tend to call it "apizza" (a term also common to Connecticut) or "apizz."

Never, ever ask for pineapple as a pizza topping. If you disagree, get DeFuque outta heah.

And speaking of debates that never seem to end...

Pork Roll: A pork-based processed meat, invented in 1888 in Trenton by John Taylor, who ran the Taylor Provision Company. In 1906, the passage of the Pure Food & Drug Act set legal definitions of various meat products, and Taylor's product no longer fit the legal definition of "ham." Therefore, he changed it to "Taylor's Pork Roll." Taylor Provision is still in business, and sells more of the product than anyone, with that name, including in supermarkets.

A sandwich of pork roll, egg and cheese -- say it with me, in a Jersey accent, as one proper word: "Pawkrolleggncheese" -- especially on a Kaiser roll with ketchup, salt and pepper, is also known as the Jersey Breakfast and the Triple Bypass (which is the kind of heart surgery you might need if you eat it regularly).

People in Central Jersey and South Jersey call it "pork roll," but people in North Jersey call it "Taylor Ham." I looked up menus from delis, to determine the "border." It's called "Taylor Ham" in the North Jersey Counties of Sussex, Morris, Passaic, Essex, Bergen and Hudson, and in all of Union County except Rahway. It's called "Pork Roll" in Warren County, Rahway, and in all of Central and South Jersey.

When I was born, my parents were living in Bloomfield, next-door to their hometown of Newark, in Essex County, which is Taylor Ham country. But we moved to East Brunswick, Middlesex County, right before my 3rd birthday. So it makes sense that I call it "pork roll." On the other hand, so many people from E.B. are, or their parents were, from Brooklyn. So what do people from New York City call the stuff? I'm not sure they even sell it there.

I never asked my father about it, but when I said, "pork roll," he clearly knew what I was talking about. I asked my mother, and she said she never even heard of the stuff until she moved to E.B. So maybe it was just a localized Trenton/Philly thing until then.

People in Chicago don't debate the name of their pizza: It's "deep dish pizza." People in Detroit don't debate the name of their chili cheese dog: It's a "coney." People in Philadelphia love to debate who has the best cheesesteak sandwich (it's Pat's, not Geno's, Tony Luke's, or anybody else's), but they don't debate what's it called: It's a "cheesesteak." But in New Jersey, the debate of whether to call it "pork roll" or "Taylor Ham" goes on.

Let's end the debate right now: 

Tolja. (See entry.)

Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge: See "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Port Jervis Line: See "Bergen County Line."

Princeton: A small municipality in Mercer County that includes Princeton University and the Governor's Mansion.

Princeton is also the mailing address for many businesses along U.S. Route 1 in Mercer and southwestern Middlesex Counties. Do not be fooled by this: At no time does Route 1 go through the Borough of Princeton.

Palmer Square Kiosk, Princeton

Nor does the Northeast Corridor rail line, but, at Princeton Junction station in West Windsor, you can transfer to the Princeton Branch, a 2-car train known as "The Dinky," which takes you to the southern edge of the Princeton University campus in 6 or 7 minutes. Turnpike Exit 8.

Prudential Center: An arena in Newark, home of the New Jersey Devils hockey team and Seton Hall University basketball since its opening in 2007. It was also home to the NBA's New Jersey Nets in their last 2 seasons before moving to Brooklyn, 2010 to 2012. Although it has fewer seats than the Meadowlands Arena, it is a huge improvement in just about every other way. It should not be confused with the nearby Prudential Building.

Because the symbol of Prudential Insurance, a stylization of the Rock of Gibraltar, the arena is known as The Rock. (Dwayne Johnson couldn't be reached for comment.) Turnpike Exit 14, or Parkway Exit 142.

PSE&G: Public Service Electric and Gas, New Jersey's largest electricity provider. It is now a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group (or PSEG, no ampersand).

Sometimes known as just "Public Service," it was founded in 1928 as a subsidiary of the Public Service Corporation, which ran buses in North Jersey, with the slogan, "Skip the bother, skip the fuss, take the Public Service bus." New Jersey Transit was founded in 1979, and bought out the bus service, making Public Service just an energy company.

Pulaski Skyway: A ghastly iron causeway (most often painted black, hence my nickname for the thing, "the Black Beast") that connects Newark and Jersey City, over both the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers. Opening in 1932, then part of the Lincoln Highway system, it carries U.S. Routes 1 and 9.

It was named for Casimir Pulaski, the Polish count who came to America during the War of the American Revolution, and became known as the Father of the American Cavalry. He was killed in the Siege of Savannah in 1779.

The bridge is narrower than it should be, and thus its 4 lanes are narrower than they should be. It was long in bad shape, and underwent a major renovation from 2014 to 2018, which may have saved it for some time to come.

When the Turnpike was built in the 1950s, a bid decision had to be made. Building it under the Skyway would have left little room for ships to go through, but building it over the Skyway would have cost much more time and money. They decided to build under, and it doesn't seem to have hurt shipping. Turnpike Exit 15W, or Parkway Exit 14.

Pump Your Own Gas: Here in New Jersey, this phrase would make us use the tagline of Dr. Temperance Brennan on the TV show Bones: "I don't know what that means." New Jersey and Oregon are the only States in the Union where it is illegal to pump your own gasoline at a gas station. (We never call one a "filling station.") In the other 48 States, you pretty much have to.

Upon traveling to another State, New Jerseyans have been known to say, "Whattaya mean, I gotta pump my own gas? What kinda crazy place is this? You pump my gas, or else what am I payin' ya for?" Or, sometimes, just, "DeFuque?"

Rahway: A City in Union County, with approximately 27,000 people, not including the residents of East Jersey State Prison, formerly known as Rahway State Prison. The name was changed in 1988, because the people of Rahway were tired of being connected with the infamous domed correctional facility, especially since it isn't actually in Rahway, or even in Union County. It is in the adjoining Avenel section of Woodbridge, in Middlesex County.

Rahway is, however, where New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line and North Jersey Coast Line split, or merge if you're going toward New York, much as U.S. Routes 1 and 9 do in neighboring Woodbridge, as do the Turnpike and the Parkway.

Rahway Station

Rangers Suck: A chant heard multiple times a night at New Jersey Devils home games, borrowed from fans of the New York Islanders, who have hated the New York Rangers 10 years longer than we have (1972, as opposed to 1982).

Like Islander fans before us, Devils fans will start a whistle, and punctuate it with the entire crowd (except for those rooting for the visiting team -- and, depending on the team, sometimes even them, as the Rangers are not admired around the NHL) yelling, "Rangers suck!"

What we add to the old Islander chant is a reminder that "suck" used to mean not, "They are very bad," but, "They perform perverted sex acts": "Rangers suck! Flyers swallow!" A lot of people bring children to the games, and I don't want to have to be the one to explain that chant.

This chant will usually start from the East Stand Balcony, from Section 232, home of the 232 Crazies.

Raritan Valley Line: A New Jersey Transit commuter rail line that starts at Newark Penn Station, rather than at New York's station of the same name, on tracks formerly operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

In Union County, it stops at Union (Township of Union), Roselle Park, Cranford, Garwood, Westfield, Fanwood (serving Scotch Plains), and Netherwood and Plainfield in Plainfield. In Middlesex County, it serves Dunellen and Middlesex (Borough of Middlesex).

In Somerset County, it stops at Bound Brook, Bridgewater (formerly Calco, and serving the Somerset Patriots' TD Bank Ballpark.), Somerville, Raritan, and North Branch in Branchburg. In Hunterdon County, it serves White House in Readington, Lebanon, Annandale in Clinton, and terminates in High Bridge.

It had continued on to Phillipsburg in Warren County until 1983. There has been talk of restoring service there, with intermediate stations at Glen Gardner, Hampton and Bloomsbury, and even across the Delaware River to Easton, Bethlehem or even Allentown, Pennsylvania. However, it has not yet gotten approved.

Riegelsville Bridge: "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Ripper: A deep-fried hot dog. Invented at Rutt's Hut in Clifton, Passaic County, which is still in business.

River Line: Light rail service along the Delaware River, connecting Trenton and Camden, which began operating in 2004. Even if riding its entire length, the fare is $1.60 as one zone. It starts at the Trenton Transit Center, with links to New Jersey Transit's and SEPTA's rail systems, and Amtrak. It heads south, and stops at Hamilton Avenue and Cass Street in Trenton, before crossing into Burlington County.

It then stops at Bordentown, Roebling and Florence in Florence, Burlington Towne Centre and Burlington South in Burlington, Beverly/Edgewater Park in Beverly, Delanco, Riverside, Cinnaminson, Riverton and Palmyra.

It then enters Camden County, where it stops in Pennsauken at Pennsauken-Route 73, Pennsauken Transit Center (where a transfer is available to NJT's Atlantic City Line) and 36th Street. It stops in Camden at the Walter Rand Transportation Center (where it links with PATCO and many South Jersey-based bus lines), Cooper Street-Rutgers University, Aquarium and Entertainment Center.

River Line train in Camden, in front of the Ben Franklin Bridge

Riverton-Belvidere Bridge: See "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Roth, Philip: Born Philip Milton Roth on March 19, 1933 in Newark, he wrote many stories set in his old neighborhood, Weequahic on the South Side of Newark, then a largely Jewish neighborhood. He became famous with his 1959 novel Goodbye, Columbus, which was made into a major film. So were his books Portnoy's Complaint and The Human Stain.

Roth died on May 22, 2018, having proved that a man can grow up both in Newark, and in the Jewish faith with all the guilt that this implies, and still manage to have enough of a libido (one might even say, enough of a dirty mind) to turn it into profitable work.

Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey. The school was originally named Queens College, and King George III of Great Britain gave the school its royal charter in 1766. Rutgers is a State school, and is one of a few that are nicknamed "Public Ives."

Old Queens, the administration building

Queens College was chartered by the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1825, the year Old Queens was completed, the school had run out of money and had to close. At the time, they thought it might be permanent. Enter Colonel Henry Rutgers, a high-ranking member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Manhattan. A graduate of Kings College (now Columbia University), Knowing of New Brunswick's role in slowing the British down, making the Continental Army's retreat, its regrouping in Pennsylvania, and its subsequent victories at Trenton and Princeton possible, he donated $5,000 (about $116,000 in today's money). In gratitude, the regents renamed the school Rutgers College.

Rutgers became New Jersey's only land-grant college under the Morrill Act of 1862, and, following the consolidation with Cook and Douglass, the State University in 1956. The University of Newark was incorporated into the RU system in 1945, and the College of South Jersey was added in 1950. These schools are now known as Rutgers University-Newark and Rutgers University-Camden, respectively. Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden have separate athletic programs, operating in NCAA Division III,.

Douglass College, founded in 1918 as the New Jersey College for Women, was added in 1955. Cook College has always been a part of the Queens/Rutgers system. The main part of the campus, along College Avenue in New Brunswick, is still officially "Rutgers College." The Livingston and Busch campuses were added in 1969. (By a macabre coincidence Douglass founder Mabel Smith Douglass and Henry Rutgers are buried in the same cemetery, Green-Wood in Brooklyn.)

No one has ever seriously suggested changing the name to "the University of New Jersey" or "New Jersey State University" or even "Jersey State." It might have been better if they had: What's a better chant? "UNJ! UNJ! UNJ!" or "R... U... R... U... "

The school's teams were originally known as the Scarlet for the color and the Queensmen in reference to the school's founding name. In 1925, the mascot was changed to the Chanticleer, a fighting rooster. But people objected, not because cockfighting is brutal, but because the teams were being called "chicken." In 1955, a student vote chose "Scarlet Knights."

The 1994 version of Rutgers Stadium, officially named SHI Stadium

Aside from being the host of "the first college football game" in 1869, RU is known for its scientific and medical breakthroughs, including the isolation of Streptomycin by Selman Waksman in 1943.

Sandy Hook: A land barrier extending from the Monmouth County Township of Middletown, part of Gateway National Recreation Area. Always a target for hurricanes, Hurricane Sandy apparently had no honor in the name, and did some damage to it. Parkway Exit 117.

Scudders Falls Bridge: See "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Scum, The: See "Penn State" and "Rangers Suck."

Seaside Heights: A Borough on the Ocean County sandbar that runs from Point Pleasant Beach down to Island Beach State Park. Although it has less than 3,000 year-round residents, it grows to about 20 times that during the Summer. The boardwalk that opened there in 1913 has made Seaside (the "Heights" is frequently dropped) the quintessential Jersey Shore town.

So much so that the MTV show Jersey Shore taped there, and was broadcast from 2009 to 2012. Most of the "stars" of the show were not from New Jersey, however. Most were from New York State, including the City, and were classic "Bennys" or "Guidos." Their antics were familiar to natives, who had seen their boardwalk, whose midway had a big video board like Times Square, and it often felt sleazy enough to be considered Times Square South.

There was a fire on June 9, 1955, destroying 85 buildings. Hurricane Sandy wrecked the boardwalk on October 29, 2012. On September 12, 2013, there was another fire, and it was stopped by pulling up the newly-laid replacement boardwalk. Jack & Bill's Bar and the Kohr's frozen custard stand were destroyed in both fires, and rebuilt each time.

Parkway Exit 82. Between Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend, New Jersey Transit extends its Bus 67 to Seaside. The town is connected with the mainland over Barnegat Bay via New Jersey Route 37. The Thomas A. Mathis Bridge replaced a wooden bridge in 1950, and now carries eastbound traffic. Westbound traffic is carried by the J. Stanley Tunney Bridge, built in 1972.

Secaucus Junction: A train station that finally gave the New Jersey Transit lines that terminate at Penn Station in New York and those that terminate at Hoboken Terminal a better transfer point than taking a bus between Newark's Penn and Broad Street Stations. Named the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station at Secaucus Junction, after the U.S. Senator (who served from 1982 until his death in 2013) whose work got it built, opening in 2003.

Located in Secaucus, near Exit 16E on the Turnpike, a new exit was built for it, Exit 15X. Apartment towers have been built near it -- the idea of "If you lived here, you'd be home now," which is also on a sign at Linden Towers next to the Linden train station.

SEPTA: See "Pennsylvania, Crossings Into."

Sewerville: Nickname of Sayreville. This is not just a joke about how much the place "stinks": The Middlesex County Sewerage Authority has its headquarters there.

The people there like to have it both ways. They want to be seen as a tough, ethnic (in their case, mostly Irish and Polish) blue-collar small town, like South River to the west and South Amboy to the east. But they also want to be seen as a growing, sprawling suburb, like East Brunswick to the west, Old Bridge to the south, and Edison and Woodbridge to the north.

The thing is, they like to look down their noses at all of these towns, and, as a result, everybody hates them. As someone who grew up in East Brunswick, if I put aside my bias against Old Bridge, which is totally a product of high school sports, I'd have to admit that even Old Bridge is preferable to "Sewerville." Parkway Exits 123, 124 and 125.

Shoobie: The South Jersey equivalent of North Jersey's "Benny," and equally disliked by locals in Shore towns. Supposedly, Philly day-trippers, seeking a Summer weekend break from their lives of working-class stress, would board the train and bring their lunch in a shoe box. Hence, "shoobie."

Shore: See "Down the Shore."

Shortie: Not a short person, a newcomer, or a girlfriend. Those would normally be spelled "Shorty." See "Wawa."

Silk City: See "Paterson."

Sinatra, Frank: Born Francis Albert Sinatra on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, Hudson County, his music career took off in 1940, and he became one of the biggest music and movie stars ever. Due to the length and breadth of his career, lasting until his death on May 14, 1998, he was, beyond much doubt, the Entertainer of the Century.

He had a lot of nicknames, including Frankie Boy, King of the Bobby-Soxers, The Voice, and, as he got older, The Chairman of the Board and Ol' Blue Eyes. He certainly was no saint, but he was a huge star, and he was New Jersey's own.

Six Flags: See "Great Adventure."

Sloppy Joe: A ham, cheese and cole slaw sandwich, with Russian dressing, on rye bread. In pretty much every other State in the Union, a Sloppy Joe is loose ground beef and tomato sauce on a hamburger bun.

Smith, Kevin: Born Kevin Patrick Smith on August 2, 1970 in Red Bank, Monmouth County, he grew up in nearby Highlands. He hosts a podcast about comic books and their derivative media, titling it Fatman On Batman. He tends to smoke a lot of marijuana. I understand he also writes and directs movies.

At least he's a Devils fan.

UPDATE: A heart attack led him to get his life in order, and he lost a lot of weight. He now calls his podcast Fatman Beyond.

Somerset Patriots: See "Trenton Thunder."

Sopranos, The: An unrealistic TV show about organized crime figures in North Jersey, running on HBO from 1999 to 2007. Why do I say it was unrealistic? Because any real Mob figure who had Tony Soprano's issues wouldn't have lasted long enough to get his own show.

South Jersey: In terms of geography, the Counties of Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May. In terms of population, Interstate 195 is a convenient divider, although that places part of Ocean in Central Jersey; and parts of Mercer and Monmouth in South Jersey.

Other convenient, but hardly definitive, determinants are Area Codes and ZIP Codes. If your Area Code is 609, 640 or 856, chances are, you live in South Jersey, although 609 extends a little into Central Jersey. And if your ZIP Code starts with 08, you could live in South Jersey.

People here root for the Philadelphia sports teams: The Phillies, the Eagles, the 76ers, the Flyers and the Union. In college football, you tend to get as many Penn State fans as Rutgers fans. Unless they're Catholic, in which case they could be Notre Dame fans in football, and fans of St. Joseph's or Villanova from Philly's "Big 5" basketball teams. (Not nearly as many are fans of also-Catholic La Salle, or secular Temple, or Ivy League Penn.)

If you have to fly, chances are, you do so out of Philadelphia International Airport, unless you need an international flight, in which case you might use Newark. You also might be more likely to call a submarine sandwich a "hoagie," especially if you are a devotee of Wawa. (See entry.)

Spaghetti Junction: See "Woodbridge."

Springsteen, Bruce: Born Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen on September 23, 1949 in Long Branch, and raised across Monmouth County in Freehold Borough (which is surrounded by Freehold Township), he is the patron saint of New Jersey people who aren't rich assholes.

It should be noted that Bruce, a.k.a. The Boss, has been rich for quite some time, but the only people who think he's an asshole are Republicans.

Starbucks: A high-rent Wawa whose tables can be occupied by laptop-using coffee-slurpers for hours on end.

State Line: When traveling home from out of State, no matter how much further you still have to go, you always feel better when you get back into the State, whether it's by bridge or by tunnel, from New York, Pennsylvania or Delaware. Even if you live an hour away from said crossing, getting back into Jersey still makes you feel like, "I'm home."

Staten Island: Also known as Richmond County, with 475,000 people, this is the smallest Borough of New York City. Geographically, it looks like it could be "the 22nd County of New Jersey," and is accessible from New Jersey via the Bayonne Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing -- but not by any public transportation, rail or bus.

But New York can keep it. It is also, by far, the whitest Borough, and thus easily the most conservative. While Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton 88 percent to 9 in The Bronx, 86 to 9 in Manhattan, 79 to 17 in Brooklyn, and 75 to 22 in Queens where he grew up, he won Staten Island 56 to 41. For comparison's sake, he only topped that percentage in 4 of New Jersey's Counties: 64-31 in Ocean, 62-32 in Sussex, 59-34 in Warren and 57-37 in Cape May.

Staten Island also has a reputation as fertile territory for organized crime. Mobsters have been known to live there, and to dump bodies in the former Fresh Kills Landfill. The house that stood in for the Corleone mansion in the original Godfather film was on Staten Island. Although still standing, the current owner has been trying to sell it for years, but wants such a high price that even diehard fans of the film won't buy it. Turnpike Exit 13.

Statue of Liberty: See "Liberty State Park."

Sussex County Miners: See "Trenton Thunder."

Sussex Skyhawks: See "Trenton Thunder."

Volume 5 follows.