Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers

[NOTE: Even if you've checked this post already, be sure to read to the bottom -- our trip to the Boardwalk isn't finished! -- MamaQ]

Welcome, one and all to the ~~Carnival~~ Old School Wildwood Boardwalk of the New Jersey Bloggers! Step right up, break a buck and try your luck, one win gets you choice!

"Watch the Tram Car, please. Watch the Tram Car, please."

We begin this week with the ramblings of one Pax Romano, because people like him put a face on what's happening in the news. Furloughed, "non-essential," a 20-year state employee now faced with a summer of eating Spam and ramen noodles, he chose mockery over protest. The reasons I love this particular site are too numerous to mention, but a few things stand out: Cosmo, Wanda and Magnolia Thunderpussy.

Give that man a giant stuffed knockoff Care Bear!

Uh-oh, hear that music? Here comes the fiberglass torso of a certain vampire, popping out of an upper window to tell us all the next ride at Castle Dracula is about to start. Someday, when I'm a big kid, I'll be brave enough to go through the castle itself. But for now, the boat ride through the dungeon is plenty scary! Let's keep going.

Next, let's hit up redbankgreen, a very new and very notable site all about Red Bank, Monmouth County, the riverside borough once infamously called "the hippest town in New Jersey." (Unrelated, but it's also where my son was born!)

I choose redbankgreen for several reasons, not the least of which is that I know its proprieters, John T. Ward and Trish Russoniello, from my days at the Asbury Park Press. He's the words, she's the visuals, and together they are one of those cool, creative couples that everyone likes to know.

What makes their site so special is the reporting, the work, that goes into it. After a fruitful newsroom career, Ward left the Star-Ledger and went freelance a few years back. (You've read him in New Jersey Monthly.) With redbankgreen, he's gone back to the most basic of basics -- actual shoe-leather journalism, where good stories are found by pounding the pavements and not by sitting in town hall meeting rooms or waiting for a press release. When we're talking about people finding on a blog what they're not finding in their local newspaper, this is it, folks. Take heed.

Yo, come over to Jilly's with me, I need to buy a new shark bracelet. Your Mack's Pizza can wait five more minutes. I know they have the bracelets in the Boardwalk Mall, but Jilly's are cheaper.

Not surprisingly, the budget impasse, the state shutdown, and at long last, the actual budget were on the minds of many in Jersey blogland this week. Bob the Corgi weathered the storm with canine aplomb, and proprietress Suzette looks beyond the politicking at the real-world impact of the 2008 budget. Mark Krull invokes George Harrison.

Ok, let's walk the other way, now, toward North Wildwood. My cousin Mikey from Fox Chase is staying at the Thunderbird. I told him I'd meet him on Hunt's Pier to ride the Flyer.

Oh hey, here's Jon "Woody" Woodward. He's pretty new at the whole blogging thing, but I've always loved the Desiderata, especially the end part:

Therefore be at peace with God.
Whatever you conceive Him to be,
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
In the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
It is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Ugh, that funnel cake is giving me a stomachache. Let's go over to Gateway 26 and play some Skee-Ball for a little while.

Now that our budget's passed and the state's door signs have been flipped back to "open," let's declare this Happy Nice-Nice week, or, as I learned from the Boomer Chronicles, Be Nice to New Jersey week. (Aside: Fortysomethings aren't really Boomers, though, right? You're younger than that, more like a Tweener, or whatever they call people who were born at the very tail end of the Boom, in the middle 60s? I have a few sisters who fall into that category.)

Ooh! Let's go over by the Musik Express, that boy in the dj booth is, like, a fox. Maybe we should get a lemonade from Curley's, too. Did you see that French-Canadian guy on the beach today, with the speedos?

You know what, even scarier than the Dante's Inferno ride from Morey's Pier is the search term bringing folks to Tom Ott's "D"igital Breakfast: "my house is in forclosure." Yikes. Moving on...

Roderama just made me spit that Curley's lemonade all over the desk, with her tale of trying to see Superman Returns at the old Beach 4 theater in Cape May last week. The lede killed me:

Seeing a movie lately has turned into an opportunity for a trip into the Twilight Zone for me. You may recall my previous adventure at The DaVinci Code, where I apparently aged 20 to 30 years while watching the movie.

Hey, let's go into this T-shirt shop. I want to see if they can put this on a cutoff V-neck shirt with the beaded strips hanging off the sleeves. [Via Gigglechick] Should I buy my mom some Douglass' Fudge now, or wait? She loves those plaid boxes, with the little Scotty dog.

Over at the Fifth Column, Schadenfreude was rolling his eyes at MSNBC's coverage of last week's bustup of an alleged plot to blow up the NJ/NYC tunnels.

OK, it's time to go. My mom said I have to be home by 11:30, or she wouldn't give me money to go on the waterslide tomorrow.