Down the Shore/Up the Lake

It's summer. Ok, the summer solstice hasn't hit, but anything past Memorial Day is summer here in New Jersey. It's hot, it's humid, the poison ivy is blooming. So, it's time for Jersey Girls to get ready for summer. Pull out the swim suits, beach towels, beach chairs, Coppertone, luminescent pink nail polish, Sun In, and most important, trashy books: tis the season for Janet Evanovich, Martha Grimes, Reginald Hill, Carolyn Hart, Edna Buchanan, Archer Mayor. No serious reading from Memorial Day to what we used to call (before political correctness) Give the Lake Back to the Indians Weekend -- the weekend after Labor Day when the "summer people" went back to The City (New York, but nobody had to say that) and we got Lake Hopatcong back to ourselves. We pretended it was our favorite weekend of the year. We pretended we were happy to see the summer people go. Actually, the summer people were fun, but the traffic wasn't. I kinda miss those days Up the Lake (Like Down the Shore, prepositions are not necessary). Life was simple, full of swimming, softball, Monopoly on rainy days, making ice cream. And books that didn't pertain to school. Well, some things didn't change.

Is Copy Editing a Lost Art?

You can't rely on spell check. It only flags misspellings that create non-words. If you misspell a word and it becomes another word, it's perfectly ok with spell check. As if it weren't bad enough to rely on technology for something a human should be doing, it's just as bad, or worse, to ignore copy editing and proofreading all together. And what is scary, is that newbies to the biz may not realize what they don't know. These are kids who never learned to diagram a sentence. Sure, kids who did learn to diagram thought they would never use the skill, but if you write for a living, it's a good skill to know. When copy was set by a typesetter, there was often another check past the copy desk. The most valuable employee on many newspapers was the typesetter who went to a Roman Catholic elementary school. Nobody new grammar like those nuns. Nuns are far better than spell check.

Professional Organizations

The salient fact is that the dues of professional organizations are tax deductible. People are willing to donate to the animal shelter and the fire department, but not their own professional best interests. Professional organizations protect the rank and file workers. They're like unions with jackets and ties and decent wine. But the members of professional organizations are graying. We need young blood to energize us. We need people at the table who aren't interrupted by their teenagers calling their cell phones to beg for a driving lesson or running off to Florida to make sure their parents aren't driving. Not to mention, the organizations need people who are more at home with the new technology. It could take the entire board of some pro orgs to open a Facebook page. Young professionals: take pity on us and join. You won't regret it.

Wait'll Next Year

On the playground, in first or second grade, kids are supposed to learn how to lose.
The first few times there are tears (mostly from the girls) or tantrums (mostly from the boys). Then kids learn to shrug it off.
There is always another day. Wait'll next year, the Cubs are known for saying.
The Cubs and elementary school children need to teach some grownups the rules for being a good loser.
When the majority votes for something, those who voted against it are supposed to shrug it off. They can work to pass another law -- not too publicly please, nobody wants to see sausage made. But, ranting about socialism, spitting on people (oh, yes, you did, it was on videotape) and making racist comments is childish, counterproductive and stupid. We (thinking Americans) can only hope enough people are disgusted by them to vote them out of office.

Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now

Feminists are not to blame for my having been in a bad marriage. The only reason I'm bringing this up is that Lori Gottlieb wrote a book, Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. She has been, for some time, warning women not to be too picky. She rejects the notion, posited by Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, that a man named Sheldon can be a great dentist, but can't make a great lover. But, having apparently not heeded her own advice, she finds herself that cliched woman who is "tragically alone." No, Lori, it's not feminism's fault you rejected every guy who liked sports or was born in the Bronx, it was your fault. Just as it was my fault I married a guy who was good with cars and looked great in tight blue jeans who turned out to be a lousy husband. Women tend to be too picky or not picky enough and many of us do it alternately for most of our lives. Sometimes we don't know if we are looking for Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now and sometimes the guy doesn't know which he wants to be. Regardless, it's not feminism's fault or the fault of any other political movement. Once again, we did it to ourselves.

More New Jersey embarrassments

I promised more New Jersey embarrassments and here they are: 3) The Highlands Act has a noble purpose in protecting water supplies, but the first priority should have been to make sure farmers would be fairly compensated for their land. Any state that puts any citizens before farmers has its priorities messed up. 4)School funding. We have way too many school districts. The state should force all schools to be regionalized by county and eliminate most administrators. The state should also amend the "least restrictive environment" clause in special education to say "least restrictive environment that doesn't cost more money than the taxpayers can afford. We spend too much money to "educate" people who aren't going to become productive members of society or informed voters. That is another backwards priority. The largest investment must be in those students who will pay society back.

I think that's enough for now.

And Things Not to Be Proud Of. . .

I posted the one thing I am proud of lately about New Jersey, so in the interest of fairness, I feel I should mention some of the things I find embarrassing. 1) The fact the state believes it's residents are too klutzy to pump their own gas. This results in over-enthusiastic pump jockeys reaching for the gas tank before you turn off the engine. They touch the gas cap and your service engine light comes on. Or, they don't tighten the cap and your service light comes on. And, not to be ethnic about it, but you can't ask them to wait or tell them to tighten the cap because they don't speak English. It would be a lot quicker and easier if we could just pump our own gas. 2) New Jersey doesn't have a work exemption for DWI license revocation. That is unconstitutional. It penalizes the co-workers of idiots who drive drunk. Three times in my career, I have felt penalized by the judicial system because I worked with someone who couldn't drive. That is so stupid. There is no logical reason for not allowing them to drive to work like every other state, or at least a lot of states.

I'm not done yet, more NJ embarrassments in a future blog.