Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 21, 2014

Is there a connection between living in northern New Jersey and the heart attack?

I predict that @rpmurray’s driveby today will mention Obamacare…

He had to have been responsible for the heart attack, even though he was only about junior-high age at the time.

I grew up in north N.J. (Morristown area) and it turned out our housing tract had been built on a reclaimed illegal dump site, some mention of Mafia included (though maybe someone was just spicing up the story.) But our fathers all died relatively young, lots of cancer in the circle of friends from the neighborhood, and I’ve had some heart issues, though I’ve probably earned them honestly with bad habits. And the neighborhood, of course, was called Countrywood Estates. Isn’t that healthily rural-sounding?

I’m 8th generation on my grandfather’s side & 5th generation on my Grandmother’s side born in Jersey (prior to that it was Ireland for both families). Both are my mom’s folks. We’re from South Jersey. I have told my husband (he’s from South Carolina) that all the jokes made about Jersey are due to the northern part of the state. As a kid I read that at one time there was so much animosity between North & South Jersey that they considered breaking off into 2 separate states. I think I was 11, so the details are sketchy. I know when I visited it as an adult I found it to be quite lovely. My father was sent to Vietnam when my mom was pregnant with me, so she went home to Grandmom. Even though spellcheck says it’s not a word, that was what she was called. Father’s mother was Grandma, & mother’s mother was GrandMOM. As far as I know there are no Irish mobsters in the family, but we are into construction. My Grandfathers on both sides were dead long before I was born. When your the youngest of the youngest it happens. My girls like to say that when we went to Jersey we visited a bunch of old people & dead people (family plots).

Yeah, actually Jersey surprises people who had only the popular pre-conceived image of all factories, refineries, and smoke. I had a friend riding back with me from Ohio once, and he fell asleep in Pennsylvania, and woke up in New Jersey, and he refused to believe we were in New Jersey. Still, I’m glad to be in Oregon.

I’m from North Jersey. Way back when, Dutch era, there was actually a split: East and West, not north/south. The Slackmeyers are probably in the ritzy areas, Upper Saddle River, Franklin Lakes, and so on. Well away from the industrial area. The problem is that people drive through the area that’s always been an NYC-support region (Secaucus, Hoboken) and that’s what they remember.

The Slackmeyers didn’t have to be rich to send Mark to Walden in ‘78. I think this was discussed yesterday..For what it’s worth, my uncle lived most of his life in northern Jersey, and passed away in his early nineties. However, his first wife died of lung cancer 30 years earlier and had never smoked. I ascribed it to radon, but maybe it was pollution….

@AstolatNow, look what you did! You scared rpmurray off.

I worked in NJ. My favorite place there is Ocean Grove on the Jersey Shore. It is filled with Victorian homes and inns.

Trying to post a clip of the funny line re: New Jersey from Sandra Bullock’s movie "Miss Congeniality. Sorry, it wouldn’t paste.

but house prices in NJ are very high. The new house I built in South Texas 11 years ago for $124,000 would have cost $300,000 in NJ. The son of a friend bought a 1500 SF house in northern NJ 7 years ago for 350,000. Last year(2013) he moved to Dallas Texas and bought a 4000 SF house for $275,000

@lavubua mcgintyVictor Melling: Why is New Jersey called “The Garden State”?Gracie Hart: Because it’s too hard to fit “Oil and Petrochemical Refinery State” on a license plate?

@timbob2313Yeah, but it means having to live in Texas.

Sadly, LWP, that is all to true. But we are at least trying to go purple this year. Hard fight but we are trying. Meanwhile, another four years in the red wilderness.

Whenever I have to deal with people from northern NJ, they take a situation that doesn’t need to be a fight, & they turn it into one. My biggest problem with NJ is the fact that it is above sea level.

Huntington-Ashland metropolitan region are not in New Jersey and have highest rate.Smoking and no exercise are closest correlator to heart disease, not chemical industry.