New Brunswick (was Re: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Replies from Digest Number 103)

[Jen Faulkner]

On Fri, 6 Apr 2001, Amanda Lewanski wrote:

> Angela Boyko wrote:
> > Here is another pet peeve of mine since going online: the assumption
> > that I am from New Brunswick, New Jersey. My sigs used to say just New
> > Brunswick, and I would get lots of e-mail telling me how great N.J.
> > is.
> 
> Well, I had no idea there was any other New Brunswick than the Canadian.
> But Texans don't much bother with the geography of states that are
> smaller than Houston, anyway.

*horrified gasp*  You've never heard of New Brunswick, NJ?  For
shame, Amanda, for shame! :)

I kid, of course.  Unless one is in the health business, or from NJ,
it's completely understandable not to have heard of NB.  It's the city
where Johnson&Johnson has their headquarters, and there's a bunch of
other health insurance and manufacturers in and around NB; it's also
where the main campus of Rutgers (State Univ. of NJ and all that) is
located, so it has all the attendant features of a large research
university: art museum, excellent libraries, ghost stories, and so on.

Having gone to school there for four years, I love NB...  but I'm in a
minority there; most Rutgers students would be just as happy were the
campus in, say, Princeton instead.  They object to the ghetto-like
nature of parts of NB -- can't figure why... Just 'cause they had to
shut down the red Picken' Chicken (down the street from Douglass' campus
and the green Picken' Chicken) because of drugs being sold out of it...
But NB also has the State Theater, several hospitals, lots o' skanky
(and one or two nice) bars, several good restaurants, and a Starbucks,
which I *don't* consider a redeeming feature...  there are some nice
coffee houses in surrounding areas though, and a few other restaurants
worth going to.

But NB really is, as one of my friends put it during college,
*gritty*.  Just depends whether one thinks that's a good thing.  After
all, isn't shopping at the dollar store one of life's little joys? :)

So who from the NY crowd now wants to meet in NB instead, after
hearing my encomium to it? *g*

--jen, who actually does like NJ a lot, but has never, ever gotten an
email from anyone else to that effect... :)

* * * * * * 
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