What is on the 13th Floor?

13 Dirty Drink Recipes: Cocktail Names That Should Not Be Uttered at a Work Conference

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You thought it was embarrassing to have to order your girlfriend a Stoli Raspberry and 7 UP? You wouldn’t want to be caught dead ordering some of these special cocktails in a large crowd. To avoid any confusion, hopefully you can make it clear that you would, in fact, like a mixed drink and not some sort of strange sexual favor from the bar staff. If not, you may end up getting some strange looks at best, or a toss out the door at the worst. Here are 13 cocktails that you should avoid ordering at your next family reunion or work conference.

Mountain Dew Me
2 oz Midori® melon liqueur
1 oz triple sec
4 oz pineapple juice
1 splash 7-Up® soda

Fill highball glass with ice, then add all ingredients. Shake and serve. Garnish with a Lime.

Oh, Mountain Dew. You were a favorite when I was a kid and needed a sugar high, but then I drank a whole 2 litre bottle of you one afternoon when I was 12 and vomitted everywhere. It’s nice to see that there is a drink now named after you – and it might also work as a double entendre when ordering this beverage to an attractive waitress. If the response is not what you are looking for, you can say, “Oh excuse me, I said, ‘Can I have a Mountain Dew please?’”. Then after she brings your soft drink to the table, pour some vodka from your hip flask into it. She didn’t have a sense of humor anyway…

Slippery Bald Beaver
1/2 oz butterscotch schnapps
1 oz Bailey’s® Irish cream
1/2 oz strawberry puree

Pour ingredients into a stainless steel shaker over ice. Shake until ice cold. Pour into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass, and serve.

Definitely not the drink you order when you are out with the guys to watch the Fall Classic. Maybe, just maybe, it is acceptable to get a few shots of these if you run into a cougar, and you are looking for a sexually suggestive drink name that will simultaneously make a woman laugh, and alter the direction of your evening.
Bend Over Shirley
1 1/2 oz raspberry vodka
4 oz Sprite® soda

3/4 oz Rose’s® grenadine syrup

Fill a 12oz. glass with cubed ice. Add 1.5 oz. of Raspberry Vodka. Add Sprite, and top off with Grenadine. Garnish with two Maraschino Cherries.

Not the drink that you order at Grandma’s 80th Birthday. I don’t care if it is open bar at the fancy ballroom that your parents and aunts and uncles rented out for her, and even if there is no one in ear shot. You can’t let anyone in your family find out that you drink beverages named this way. Because you know what will happen – you will get drunk and after a while you’ll start offering up the name of the drink to anyone that will listen… that would just be weird. But then, your uncle Rick might take you to the kitchen go get some water and maybe a coffee. This is his way of telling you that you are acting like an ass, even though he is saying “It’s ok, you just gotta pace yourself buddy.”

Butt Sex
2 oz strong black coffee
1 oz vodka
1 oz triple sec
1/3 oz lemon juice

Fill with whipped cream

Start with the coffee, preferably espresso. Add in the vodka, triple sec and lemon juice (lime juice can be used instead) and stir. Top with the whipped cream.

Butt Sex. See BendOver Shirley.

Suck, Bang & Blow! 
1 oz Jacquin’s® orange flavored gin
1 oz Rumple Minze® peppermint liqueur
2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps
1 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur
3 oz Jose Cuervo® Especial gold tequila
1 oz Hpnotiq® liqueur
1 oz Smirnoff® vodka
1 oz Absolut® Citron vodka
1 oz Aristocrat® triple sec
1 peeled, whole lime
5 oz strawberry daiquiri mix
2 cups cranberry juice
1 cup sugar

Add all ingredients to a blender with ice, and blend until smooth. Pour into a hurricane glass, and serve.

As this name would indicate, this drink is a whole lot of fun. Just look at that ingredients list. This would probably be my last drink if I were on my way to rehab (literally drinking this while driving there), as well as If I were just about to be put down via lethal injection.
Ass
1 oz Absolut® vodka
1 splash DeKuyper® Sour Apple Pucker schnapps

Almost-fill a shot glass with Absolut vodka. Top off with a splash of DeKuyper’s sour apple pucker, and serve.

This is the kind of drink that you can joke with your friends in a innocent pre-party environment. You just don’t want to be caught yelling for ass at the bar later that night.
Sex on My Face
1/2 oz Yukon Jack® Canadian whisky
1/2 oz Malibu® coconut rum
1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur
1/2 oz banana liqueur
1 splash cranberry juice
1 splash pineapple juice
1 splash orange juice
Mix in tall glass w/ice.

The beach is dirty. Sand gets everywhere. This is a drink you may want to be caught yelling for at the bar, especially if the bartender is attractive, humorous and you actually have a chance with her. Most likely though, she’s just flirting with you to get better tips and you’ve just been put in her mental file bin labeled ” creepy guy”.

The Blow Job
1/2 oz anisette
1/2 oz Irish cream

Layer in a shot glass; Irish cream on top, and serve.

Who doesn’t love blow jobs? As emmasculating as this drink sounds and looks when someone is taking one, you can’t deny that they are fun. Maybe it’s just fun to hear girls say “it”.

Screaming Orgasm
1 oz vodka
1 1/2 oz Bailey’s® Irish cream
1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur

Pour first vodka, then Bailey’s, then Kahlua into a cocktail glass over crushed ice. Stir.

Caution: use only high quality vodka. Cheap vodka can cause the Bailey’s to curdle. Test your brand of vodka by mixing 1 Tsp each of vodka and Bailey’s first.

If only mixing a drink would deliver an “O”, right guys? Well, either way… this is a tasty beverage. Reminds me of a White Russian, but with a better name.

The Leg Spreader
1 oz 1800® Tequila
1 oz vodka
1 oz gin
1 oz rum
Mix in glass and enjoy.

The Leg Spreader. Not just a cleaver name. Everyone knows what happens when Tequila is brought into the mix. You just gotta make sure you don’t drink too much or eat that gross worm the Mexicans put in there.

Slippery Nipple
1/2 oz Bailey’s® Irish cream
1/2 oz butterscotch schnapps
Serve as is.

The Slippery Nipple is a fun drink name to say, but once again you gotta be careful when you order this drink. I went toSan Diegoand had some Slippery Nipples with a couple of Asian girls last weekend. That is ok. If I were to go play some Golf with my friends from college, however, I’d probably stick to Light Beer. Maybe a Microbrew.

Blue Balls
1 oz raspberry vodka
1 oz coconut rum
1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
Pour one part of all three ingredients into a shaker, with ice. Mix well and serve as double shots.

I don’t know when I’d ever want blue balls. I think the only time you’d ever get one of these drinks is if your girlfriend comes back to the booth with shots for you and all of your friends, and she gets everyone else a kamikaze except for you. Instead she gets you a Blue Balls. It’s her clever way of telling you that she might be holding out on you later, if you don’t stop making fun of her weird ass family.

Afghanistani Whore
4 oz rum
1 can root beer
4 oz vodka
Just pour to taste and enjoy.

YOU CAN TAKE THE GIRL or GUY OUTTA NJ,
BUT YOU CAN’T TAKE NJ OUTTA THE GIRL or GUY !

I spend my weekends at the mall, my summers down the shore, and
Late nights in a diner with a plate of cheese fries.

I know which exits are which, and that there’s no decent beaches
North of 109.

I spent prom weekend in Seaside, and many a summer on LBI.

I know the mob isn’t just on the Sopranos.

I know better than to drive through Camden, and that there are nice
Areas of Elizabeth.

I know what good pizza & good bagels taste like.

I eat Boardwalk fries, zeppoles, & TAYLOR’S & CASE’s porkroll on a hard roll. (yum!)

I love to feel the wind in my hair, and the sand between my toes.

I know there’s no place on earth quite like New Jersey.

And that no matter where life takes me, this will always be home.

AND YOU KNOW YOU’RE FROM JERSEY WHEN:

You’ve been seriously injured at Action Park ..

You know that the only people who call it “Joisey” are from New York

(usually The Bronx) or Texas .

You don’t think of citrus when people mention “The Oranges.”

You know that it’s called “Great Adventure,” not “Six Flags.”

You’ve ordered a hard roll with butter for breakfast.

You’ve known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.

You’ve eaten at a diner, when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 am.

Whenever you park, there’s a Camaro within three spots of you.

You remember that the “Two Guys” were from Harrison.

You know that the state isn’t one big oil refinery.

You know what a “jug handle” is.

If you were born and raised in New Jersey, it was either North Jersey, Central
Jersey or South Jersey.

You say the words “water”, “coffee”, “dog” and “whatever”,
Like this

“wawder”, “cawfee”, “dawg” and “wadever”.

You know that there are no “beaches” in New Jersey – there’s “The Shore,”

And you know that the road to the shore is “The Parkway” not

“The Garden State Highway.”

You know that “Piney” isn’t referring to a tree.

Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs, and, you call it

A “sub” not a “submarine sandwich” or worse yet, a “hoagy” or a “hero.”

You remember the song from the Palisades Park commercials..

You know how to properly negotiate a Circle.

You know that “Acme” is an actual store, not just a
Warner Bros creation.

You know that this is the only “New…” state that doesn’t require

“New” to identify it (like, try …Mexico, ….York,
…Hampshire (doesn’t work, does it?)

You know how to translate this conversation: “Jeet yet?” “No, Jew?”

You only go to New York City for day trips, and you only call it “The City..”

You know that a “White Castle” is the name of BOTH a fast food
Chain AND a fast food sandwich.

You consider a corned beef sandwich with lettuce and Mayo a sacrilege.

You don’t think “What exit” (do you live near?) is very funny.

You know that the real first “strip shopping center” in the country is
Route 22.

You know that people from 609 area code are “a little different.”

You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton – that’s
For out-of-staters.

You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls.

You can see the Manhattan skyline from some part of your town.

You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.

Every year, you had at least one kid in your class named Tony.

You know where every “clip” shown in the Sopranos opening credits is.

You’ve eaten a Boardwalk cheesesteak with vinegar fries.

You have a favorite Atlantic City casino.

You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February.

And finally…

You’ve sure as hell never pumped your own gas.

Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.

Steve Jobs 2005

How much did “too big to fail” cost behind closed doors?

The Federal Reserve bailed out dozens of banks and brokerage firms starting in 2007, from Bank of America to Morgan Stanley as a means of curbing economic collapse. Taxpayer dollars were used to fund several gigantic financial institutions so America wouldn’t go into a depression.

Bloomberg.com obtained loan information through the Freedom of Information Act and is reporting that Morgan Stanley received $107.3 billion as the largest beneficiary and revealed that nearly half of the top 30 institutions that were given funding were based in Europe.

$1.2 trillion to banks

The biggest shock of the report is that the total outstanding balance of the loans hit $1.2 trillion in December 2008.

“We designed our broad-based emergency programs to both effectively stem the crisis and minimize the financial risks to the U.S. taxpayer,” James Clouse, deputy director of the Fed’s division of monetary affairs in Washington told Bloomberg. “Nearly all of our emergency-lending programs have been closed. We have incurred no losses and expect no losses.”

Small businesses betrayed, big banks propped up

“Why in hell does the Federal Reserve seem to be able to find the way to help these entities that are gigantic?” U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, said at a June 1 congressional hearing in Washington on Fed lending disclosure. “They get help when the average businessperson down in eastern North Carolina, and probably across America, they can’t even go to a bank they’ve been banking with for 15 or 20 years and get a loan.”

TARP funds only total $700 billion and are very controversial

Regulators are “not going to go far enough to prevent this from happening again,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and now an economics professor at Harvard University.

To put the funds in perspective, Bloomberg notes that TARP funds only totaled $700 billion, making the $1.2 trillion bank bailout that is just now publicly revealed substantially bigger than the TARP program, substantial for its use and size.

2015 Mindset List

This year’s entering college class of 2015 was born just as the Internet took everyone onto the information highway and as Amazon began its relentless flow of books and everything else into their lives.  Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1993, are the first generation to grow up taking the word “online” for granted and for whom crossing the digital divide has redefined research, original sources and access to information, changing the central experiences and methods in their lives. They have come of age as women assumed command of U.S. Navy ships, altar girls served routinely at Catholic Mass, and when everything from parents analyzing childhood maladies to their breaking up with boyfriends and girlfriends, sometimes quite publicly, have been accomplished on the Internet.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. Mindset List websites at Beloit College and at mindsetmoment.com, the media site webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million hits annually.

Nief and McBride recently applied their popular format to 10 generations of Americans over 150 years in their new book, The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal (Wiley and Sons.).

As for the class of 2015, without any memory whatever of George Herbert Walker Bush as president, they came into existence as Bill Clinton came into the presidency. Their parents, frequently older than one might expect because women have always been able to get pregnant almost regardless of age, have hovered over them with extra care and have agreed with those states that mandated the wearing of bike helmets. Ferris Bueller could be their overly cautious dad, and Jimmy Carter is an elderly smiling public man who appears occasionally on television doing good works. “Dial-up,” Woolworths and the Sears “Big Book” are as antique to them as “talking machines” might have been to their grandparents. Meanwhile, as they’ve wondered why O.J. Simpson has always been suspected of something, they have all “been there, done that, gotten the Tshirt,” shortened boring conversations with “yadda, yadda, yadda,” and recognized LBJ as LeBron James.

For those who cannot comprehend that it has been 18 years since this year’s class was born, they will quickly confirm that the next four years will go even faster and, like the rest of us, they will continue to grow older at increasing speed.

Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.

Their classmates could include Taylor Momsen, Angus Jones, Howard Stern’s daughter Ashley, and the Dilley Sextuplets.

1. There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
2. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
3. States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.
4. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
5. There have always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
6. They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.
7. As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
8. Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
9. “Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?
10. American tax forms have always been available in Spanish.
11. More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe.
12. Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
13. Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you’re talking about LeBron James.
14. All their lives, Whitney Houston has always been declaring “I Will Always Love You.”
15. O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
16. Women have never been too old to have children.
17. Japan has always been importing rice.
18. Jim Carrey has always been bigger than a pet detective.
19. We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.
20. Life has always been like a box of chocolates.
21. They’ve always gone to school with Mohammed and Jesus.
22. John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.
23. There has never been an official Communist Party in Russia.
24. “Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.
25. Video games have always had ratings.
26. Chicken soup has always been soul food.
27. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.
28. Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.
29. Arnold Palmer has always been a drink.
30. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
31. Women have always been kissing women on television.
32. Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.
33. Faux Christmas trees have always outsold real ones.
34. They’ve always been able to dismiss boring old ideas with “been there, done that, gotten the T-shirt.”
35. The bloody conflict between the government and a religious cult has always made Waco sound a little whacko.
36. Unlike their older siblings, they spent bedtime on their backs until they learned to roll over.
37. Music has always been available via free downloads.
38. Grown-ups have always been arguing about health care policy.
39. Moderate amounts of red wine and baby aspirin have always been thought good for the heart.
40. Sears has never sold anything out of a Big Book that could also serve as a doorstop.
41. The United States has always been shedding fur.
42. Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.
43. No longer known for just gambling and quickie divorces, Nevada has always been one of the fastest growing states in the Union.
44. They’re the first generation to grow up hearing about the dangerous overuse of antibiotics.
45. They pressured their parents to take them to Taco Bell or Burger King to get free pogs.
46. Russian courts have always had juries.
47. No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.
48. While they’ve been playing outside, their parents have always worried about nasty new bugs borne by birds and mosquitoes.
49. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.
50. Some of them have been inspired to actually cook by watching the Food Channel.
51. Fidel Castro’s daughter and granddaughter have always lived in the United States.
52. Their parents have always been able to create a will and other legal documents online.
53. Charter schools have always been an alternative.
54. They’ve grown up with George Stephanopoulos as the Dick Clark of political analysts.
55. New kids have always been known as NKOTB.
56. They’ve always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael Who?
57. They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.
58. Their parents sort of remember Woolworths as this store that used to be downtown.59.
59. Kim Jong-il has always been bluffing, but the West has always had to take him seriously.
60. Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.
61. Major League Baseball has never had fewer than three divisions and never lacked a wild card entry in the playoffs.
62. Nurses have always been in short supply.
63. They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.
64. Altar girls have never been a big deal.
65. When they were 3, their parents may have battled other parents in toy stores to buy them a Tickle Me Elmo while they lasted.
66. It seems the United States has always been looking for an acceptable means of capital execution.
67. Folks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have always been able to energize with Pepsi Cola.
68. Andy Warhol is a museum in Pittsburgh.
69. They’ve grown up hearing about suspiciously vanishing frogs.
70. They’ve always had the privilege of talking with a chatterbot.
71. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
72. Women have always been Venusians; men, Martians.
73. McDonalds coffee has always been just a little too hot to handle.
74. “PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.
75. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.

Copyright© 2011 Beloit College
Mindset List is a registered trademark

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Never far away from culture

Yes, New Jersey sometimes plays second fiddle to New York City and Philadelphia. That’s the bad news. The good news is that New Jersey is able to draw on the rich cultural scenes of the nation’s largest and fifth-largest cities.

Wonderful theater, wonderful museums, wonderful history. The Metropolitan Museum, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, Franklin Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Barnes Foundation, Independence Hall, Kimmel Center, National Constitution Center, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty.

People come from all over the world to sample what we have at our doorstep every day.

Some of the nicest suburbs in the nation.

Looking for charming, leafy neighborhoods, where you can take a bike into town or hop on a train to get to work, New Jersey has plenty of them: Rumson, Summit, Madison, Berkeley Heights, Westfield, Ridgefield, Rutherford, Bedminster, Chatham, Blairstown, Moorestown, Toms River, Cape May, Mountain Lakes, West Orange, Millburn, Princeton, Hopewell, Lambertville, Colts Neck, Barnegat Light, Cranford.

High standard of living

Yes, New Jersey has a high cost of living, but it also has a high standard of living, thanks to its proximity to high-paying jobs here and in the New York and Philadelphia job markets. According to the 2010 Census, it had the second-highest median income, $64,918 — just pocket change behind No. 1 New Hampshire.

It has the third highest percentage of millionaires, behind Hawaii and Maryland, and by the close of the decade, New Jersey is anticipated to have the highest density of millionaires, at 24.6 percent, according to a Deloitte Center for Financial Services study. (The estimates of household wealth are based both on financial assets such as stocks and bonds, and nonfinancial assets like primary residences and business ownership.)

New Jersey residents also have the highest average amount in savings accounts — $7,477 — according to a May survey by Pitney Bowes Business Solutions.

Innovates

Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor in history, is a fitting symbol for the genius and creativity that have made New Jersey one of the nation’s, and world’s major incubators of progress.

Edison, who was awarded 1,368 patents during his lifetime, gave us the phonograph, motion pictures, a commercially viable incandescent light bulb and hundreds of other lesser-known inventions, including the stock ticker and the electrical vote recorder.

Edison died in 1931, but his legacy has continued throughout the years in the research labs of universities and corporations. Since 1977, when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began tracking state-by-state data, residents and companies based in New Jersey have acquired more than 115,000 patents, more than all but three states — California, Texas and New York.

Among the state’s creative output: TV dinners, transistors, Band-Aids, bubble wrap, tetracycline, air conditioning, LCDs (liquid crystal displays), condensed, Teflon, condensed soup, anti-theft tags, bar codes, chlorination devices, drive-in movies, anti-bacterial cream, flight simulators and Valium.

Strong public schools

You can talk all you want about how the U.S. trails other nations in science and math, but the best schools are the equal to any, and the best public schools are here in New Jersey, despite the deficiencies cited on a regular basis by the Christie administration.

No question, the poor performance in many New Jersey schools are nothing short of a disgrace, and something that needs to be addressed. But the good things taking place in many, if not most, of our public schools should not be easily dismissed.

Don’t believe the NJEA’s ads touting how wonderful New Jersey schools are? Believe this: New Jersey had the highest SAT scores in the country last year. Education Week magazine’s annual “Quality Counts 2011” survey, which ranks the states on key education indicators, including achievement results, school finance, and other factors critical to student success, had New Jersey leading the pack nationally.

Mild climate

Sure, New Jersey gets some intensely hot, humid days during the summer, and some major snowstorms from time to time. But compared to most other parts of the country, the climate is generally moderate and not given to extremes.

New Jersey has less frigid weather than the northern states, and less heat and humidity than the south. It has fewer tornadoes than the Midwest and Far West, and fewer hurricanes than the Gulf Coast.

Most of the year, each of the four seasons — something many parts of the U.S. lack — offer their own pleasures; during the periods that are less pleasant, you can rest assured that the won’t last.

Sandy beaches and mountains within an hour’s drive.

We aren’t the only state with white, sandy beaches and nice mountains, but there aren’t too many that have access to both.

For long-time residents, it may be easy to take the state’s 130-mile coastline, which stretches from Sandy Hook to Cape May, for granted. But there are millions of Americans who are a plane ride or uncomfortably long car ride from the sun and the surf. And the mountains.

New Jersey has the Kittatinny, Watchung, Ramapo, Highlands, Sourlands ranges. More than 70 miles of the Appalachian Trail cuts through the northwest corner of the state. If that isn’t enough, the Poconos in Pennsylvania and the Catskills and Adirondacks are within easy driving distance.

For those who enjoy the beach culture, New Jersey has the boardwalk named the tops in the nation, Atlantic City, by National Geographic. The Wildwoods boardwalk, called “one of the kitschiest” in the country,” ranked ninth.

Gateway to the world

Have you ever taken a flight from Newark Liberty International or JFK to Europe, the Caribbean or some other distant port of call and heard the stories from fellow travelers who embarked from some point in the nation’s heartland and felt like they already had traveled halfway across the world?

One or more connections, often with delays and lost baggage, and lots of aggravation before getting on a plane to their final destination.

Yes, Newark Liberty and JFK leave a lot to be desired. But at least once on the plane, it’s generally smoothe sailing.

Many of us may take it for granted how fortunate we are to live within easy reach of airport that can take us nonstop to nearly every part of the world?

Concert capital of nation.

New Jersey, with its wide range of concert venues, is a magnet, year afteer year, for virtually every touring musician and musical group, of every musical genre.

Those who, for whatever reason, skip the amphitheaters, concert halls, theaters and clubs of New Jersey, doubtless stop off in New York or Philadelphia. Few states, if any, make those kinds of music offerings available within a one hour’s drive.

Many need not travel far from home. Among New Jersey natives or residents: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Queen Latifah, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Connie Francis, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Marilynn McCoo, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Kool and the Gang, George Clinton, Lauryn Hill, Count Basie, Ice-T, Nick Adams, Ricky Nelson, Dizzy Gillespie, Leslie Gore, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra, the Smithereens, My Chemical Romance, Wayne Shorter, Woody Shaw, Skid Row, Sebastian Bach, Symphony X.

Access to pro teams worth cheering for.

Sure Boston is on a roll, with the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics all playing well. But New Jersey sports fans not only have three pro hockey teams, two pro baseball teams, two pro football teams, three pro basketball teams (counting the women’s Liberty) and a pro soccer team to choose from in New York, but a bunch more from Philly.

And if you can’t get enough of baseball, there are seven minor league teams to choose from, where you can see many players play on their way up to the big leagues, or briefly, on the way down for rehab games.

First and best

New Jersey has often done it first. And it frequently does it best.

Some of the firsts:

The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.

In 1642, the first brewery in America, opened in Hoboken.

In 1935, the G. Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey became the first brewer to market beer in steel cans. In that year, only about 25 percent of beer was packaged in bottles and cans — the rest was kegged. Today, however, about 90 percent of America’s beer production is consumed from bottles and cans.

Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah, in 1940.

The light bulb, phonograph and motion picture projector, were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ , laboratory.

We also boast the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.

The first seaplane was built in Keyport. The Aeromarine 40F was a two-seat flying-boat training aircraft produced for the US Navy and built by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company of Keyport, New Jersey. Fifty out of an original order for 200 were delivered before the end of World War I, with the remainder cancelled due to the armistice.

The aircraft was a biplane with a pusher propeller. The pilot and instructor sat side-by-side.

SEE ALSO

The first airmail (to Chicago ) was started from Keyport.

The first phonograph records were made in Camden at the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world.

New Jersey has the largest petroleum containment area outside of the Middle East countries.

The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey, in the Watchung Mountains .

New Jersey has the tallest water-tower in the world. ( Union , NJ !!!)

New Jersey had the first medical center, in Jersey City

The Pulaski SkyWay, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.

NJ built the first tunnel (Holland Tunnel) under a river, the Hudson .

The first baseball game was played in Hoboken.

The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889 ( Rutgers College played Princeton ).

The first drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden.

The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson , NJ .

The first FM radio broadcast was made from Alpine, NJ, by Maj. Thomas Armstrong.

The Great Falls in Paterson , on the Passaic River , is the 2nd highest waterfall on the East Coast of the US .

New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production (and here you thought Massachusetts ?)

Highlands, New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida .

New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the “Diner Capital of the World.”

New Jersey is home to the original Mystery Pork Parts Club (no, not Spam): Taylor Ham or Pork Roll.

Home to the less mysterious but the best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w/peppers and onions.

North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.

New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island .

New Jersey is the largest chemical producing state in the nation when you include pharmaceuticals.

New Jersey has the third largest seaport at Port Newark-Elizabeth.

George Washington slept here. Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on New Jersey soil, led by General George Washington.

Filmed on location in Sea Isle City, NJ at 80th Street on the bay. What an incredible sunset. Truly Autumn Colors. The song is not mine at all. It is a beautiful tune by Denise Young. I thought it was the perfect song to go with this colorful sunset.