According to the Wall Street Journal, from 2000 to 2007, 93% of all new jobs created in the state of New Jersey were government jobs.

Thanks to reader, Gerald, for the link.

Tonight was a THEE-ah-tah night at the Paper Mill Playhouse. We saw Smokey Joe’s Café, a show dedicated to the music of Mike Lieber and Jerry Stoller, two nice Jewish boys in the 1950’s who began writing songs, which became some of the most famous kickass rhythm and blues/rock and roll songs ever, and they are still at it today.

Their songs have been recorded by a collection of artists such as Elvis Presley, the Coasters (I actually go to play drums with the Coasters once, but you probably know that already), Ray Charles, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Bill Haley and the Comets, Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Johhny Mathis, Count Basie, John Mellencamp, Lou Rawls, Tom Jones, Edith Piaf, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Chet Atkins, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, B.B. King, Otis Redding and The Drifters. Check out their discography. Damn!

Some of the tunes in the show were:

Young Blood
Ruby Baby
Dance With Me
Searchin’
Kansas City
Love Me
Don’t
Poison Ivy
On Broadway
Baby, That is Rock & Roll
Yakety Yak
Charlie Brown
Loving You
Treat Me Nice
Hound Dog
Little Egypt
I’m a Woman
There Goes My Baby
Love Potion #9
Jailhouse Rock
Spanish Harlem
I (Who Have Nothing)
Stand by Me

I was really kind of pooped and didn’t feel like going, but I’m glad I did. We’ve had a subscription to the Paper Mill Playhouse for as long as I can remember, but once we do the final move to the House by the Parkway (South), making the trip north would be a bit of a pain in the ass, so this may well be the last performance for us. It’s considerably different than the Paper Mill, but I plan to spend some time doin’ a bit of listening here and and a bit of picking here. Should be fun.

This seems fitting.

Shamelessly swiped from Denny, who wrote his check today.

How could anyone think such a thing?

Yesterday was “Toyota Schmoyota.” Unless Verizon gets its shit together, tomorrow will be “Verizon Schmerizon.”

Suffice it to say that Verizon has managed to mangle and pulverize my very last goddamned nerve.

If anyone from Verizon monitors blogs, including this one, consider yourself warned. I have had just about enough of being jerked around by you assholes.

Update: As you can tell by one of the comments, Verizon does, indeed have people who monitor blogs. I corresponded with the gentleman, who responded by saying that he would follow up on the problem (a land line problem). Initial indications are that the problem has been fixed. I will know for sure tomorrow when I am back in the House by the Parkway (North).

Update No. 2: I am back at the House by the Parkway (North), and I am pleased to say that I picked up the telephone receiver and heard the sweet sound of a dial tone. Props to the commenter from Verizon if he had a hand in making that happen.

Guess whose second car is a 2006 Toyota Avalon Limited.

Guess who, within the last two weeks, spent four hours at the dealership having three, yes, three recalls done.

Guess whose second car now has three separate idiot lights burning brightly on the dashboard.

Guess who’s not buying another Toyota.

I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out the answers.

Do you spend more time than you ought to wondering how the hell the federal government got to be in such a sorry state? I know I do. It is often noted that at the end of the final day of deliberations of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, someone asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

Benjamin Franklin responded, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

One of the requisites of “keeping it” is an informed electorate. I fear that one of the reasons we may in the process of “losing it,” is the sorry state of our primary educational system (the colleges aren’t much better – maybe even worse).

Take a look at an Eighth Grade Civics Test that was given in 1954. How well do you think the average voter would do on the test today? How would you do?

I see that Kenny Hignite, the boy who took the test in 1954 scored 98.5%. I figure that Kenny Hignite must be about 69 years old today. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were to see him at a Tea Party holding a sign.

Thanks to reader, Dick, for the link.

I’ve been rather busy running up and down the Parkway between two houses and trying to remember what stuff is where. As such, I barely have the time or energy for an update, but here ‘tis:

The House by the Parkway (North) will be listed for sale, probably next week. If any of youse are interested in buying what will most certainly become an historic site (“Jimbo blogged here”), please let me know. If you buy the joint, I’ll throw in a selection of excellent booze.

I finally received a quote for the repairs and restoration work to be done on my beloved Gibson dreadnaught. As I expected, the work will cost approximately five or six time what I paid for the guitar back in 1964, but it is money well spent. That guitar and I came together when we were both young, and it has served me well on the many roads we’ve traveled as we’ve grown old together.

My father, also a guitar player and singer, always said to me, “Son, if you can play guitar, you’ll have friends no matter where you go.” Of course, he was right. It turns out that he always was right, even though there were times when I was young and “smart” and believed that he was always wrong. I’m happy to say he lived long enough for me to tell him that I wasn’t so goddamned smart after all, and that he was always right.

Now if I could just get the Gibson peeps to repair and restore my sorry ass.

Behold what was delivered today to the new House by the Parkway, Farther South.

I suppose you can guess what the next project will be. The good news is that we had someone measure the windows to have these babies made, and the same person will hang this veritable shitload of blinds. I want nuttin’ to do with it, as I would screw it up for sure. Blinds hung with duct tape would not be very cool.

To quote a friend, “Living in two houses and not really living in either one can get pretty old.” True, dat.

Nobody captures the essence of the Seaside Heights Boardwalk in photos better than Lynne. All the photos are excellent, but the ones that really knocked me out are those of the carousel animals. Go HERE, then click the link to the boardwalk pics.

Enjoy.

The best part for us Jersey Peeps is that we can recognize damned near exactly where every pic was taken. We grew up “walking the boards” in Seaside Heights.

Lynne brings it all to life, in spades. Looking at the pictures, I can smell the fries with vinegar and the unmistakable aroma of sausage, peppers and onions frying on the bigass griddles up and down the boardwalk.