A New Jersey Rant: The Accent

One of the greatest stereotypes of Jersey is the “Accent”. Nobody can ever ignore the Accent. It’s the basic all-in-one, take-no-prisoners Jersey stereotype besides the pollution and driving.

But the truth is, the Accent is hardly as prevalent in NJ as people think. Take it from one who’s been born and raised in Jersey all his life—besides some Jerseyans who might have the occasional hint of it in such words like “gone” and “on”, the Accent is a pretty rare in Jersey.

As far as I know, I don’t have much of the Accent (see my video entries in case you want some voice samples) and hardly any of my Jersey friends have the Accent. How and when this stereotype began to apply to all Jerseyans completely eludes me.

Maybe somewhere in Jersey there are specific regions where the Accent is more present, but I hardly ever run across them at all.

So why do some people still cling to this Jersey stereotype like grim death? Two words—spite and ignorance. That’s usually the case with nearly all stereotypes (or at least a majority of them). But that’s just me.

What say you out there?

A New Jersey Rant: Florida Drivers…In Jersey?

This is something that was lingering in my mind for quite a while, but here it is: why are there so many Florida plates in New Jersey? For nearly all the years that I’ve been on the road in my home state, I keep seeing at least several of them a week, driving slow as heck all over the place.

Pennsylvania, New York, and even Connecticut plates, I can understand, but Florida? Are these people here on vacation? What would possibly possess a person from Florida to want to come to New Jersey?

Maybe it’s just my area of NJ that happens to have these Florida drivers (coming to visit their kids over and over again or something like that). Maybe it’s some weird coincidence that I keep running into the occasional Florida driver in NJ (I’ve been cursed by some mysterious force to run into them). But there must be a reason why all these Floridians find their way to the Garden State. But it’s not occurring to me.

What say you all out there?