In Jersey Anything's Legal...

...as long as you don't get caught.* I spent the weekend visiting one of my William Smith friends who is living in Princeton, has a big-girl job, and an adorable kitten named Minerva. The link between Jersey and Brooklyn seems to have been cemented this past week with the money laundering (and illegal kidney trafficking, bribe-taking, etc.) scandal surrounding 3 New Jersey mayors, a bunch of public officials, and some Brooklyn Rabbis. And I found this gem on the BBC: "Correspondents say the number of people arrested is large even by New Jersey standards, where more than 130 public officials have either admitted to corruption or been found guilty of it since 2001."

I still had a nice time, despite the prevalence of strip-malls and crazy driving (my friend suggested I close my eyes so I wouldn't witness her merging). There was a Wegmans, for one thing, which I made us go to so I could absorb the Holy Air, and they even had wine from Anthony Road (Anthony Road being a winery near Geneva, and one of the many, many things I will miss about being there). We also found Toni Morrison's house in downtown Princeton and wandered around the campus.

It's raining in Brooklyn and intermittently thundering, but it's nice to be back. There were quite a few things I missed. Case in point: on the subway on Friday while on my way to Penn Station, 2 men got on with 2 massive bongo drums and small stools, and they sat in the middle of the car and played. Some people just turned their iPods up, but the rest of us turned off our music or stopped reading and listened. One woman stood up and said, "I think you could use a dancer," and she proceeded to sway back and forth with her baby balanced on her hip. They stopped, we clapped, and they got off. I don't know many places where things like that happen.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the Brooklyn Bridge from a walk on the Manhattan Bridge (I like the playground in the foreground.)
*This is from an awesome song called "Tweeter and the Monkey Man." We used to listen to the Traveling Wilburys all. the. time. on cross-NY road-trips, and my sister and I could probably still sing this whole song. I know I could!