Springfield, NJ: Homer of the Simpsons?

Yes, friends Union County’s Springfield, NJ, has entered into a competition to become the premier city for the Simpson’s movie, which opens July 26.

Community members completed a video for the competition yesterday, according to a piece on NJ.com. More than 70 other Springfields across the country have entered.

It’s always been a bit of a mystery as to what state the Simpsons is set in. For some reason, Springfield, KY, sticks in our head but trying to sort through the 2 billion some Simpson episodes is a bit hard.

If they win, how cool would it be for the town of Springfield, of course, working against the town might be the fact it doesn’t have a movie theater. Doh!

JC

Soprano Snackers

You may have heard about this show called the Sopranos going off the air on Sunday? Well, it seems there are a lot of folks interested in it and, as with Seinfeld, Cheers, Night Court, well maybe not Night Court, several of you out there in Jersey-land are planning parties to celebrate or mourn.

As such, NJ.com has a piece on today’s site about what to serve for the occasion. It’s a must read for those preparing a going away party.

JC

Munchers Not Impressed With Raymond’s French Toast

They came, they ate, they went eh. The Star Ledger’s Munchmobile did the breakfast rounds this week and stopped at non-other than Montclair’s own Raymond’s. We weren’t surprised by this.

Raymond’s has been a hot spot on the North Jersey breakfast scene since the 1990s. However, the upscale diner’s signature dish, French toast, did not make the grade with at least one of the munchers.

“Lovely to look at, but it had no taste.”

I suppose a day of eating French toast and pancakes must have ruined their appetite. We here have Raymond’s French toast on our last meal list.

On the positive side the munchers liked Raymond’s corn cakes.

JC

Brown Studio Opens in Montclair

Confused about foundation, gloss, eyeliner? Well, Montclair native Bobbi Brown has opened her first retail store off of Bloomfield Ave. in Montclair.

The grand opening it tomorrow at Lackawanna Plaza in Montclair but the curious can read all about it today on NJ.com.

JC

Starbucking the Trend

We get as annoyed with Starbucks as the next guy. Why do I have to order a tall when I want a small? Why do I need to pay $3 for a cup of java that most places sell for half that? Why does the person making my drink make me want to punch them?

However, on occasion, the Buck gets it right.

One of the companies marketing programs prints customer quotes and opinions on the outside of their cups. Most are fairly innocuous along the lines of “Don’t eat the yellow snow” but some customers have, as you probably expected, taken offense with some of the opinions fellow latte lovers have to offer. Namely, several questioning the existence or importance of God. It’s also fair to note there are pro-religion quotes as well.

Anyway, the blog WorldNet Daily has a much better post on this than we could come up with if you want to read the controversial quotes but let’s send our props out to the Buck for sticking to its guns. Rather than bow to a few — and I mean a few (think Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, you know, the usual suspects), who are calling for boycotts, protests, the ritual dumping of tea at your local Starbucks, the company is sticking with the program.

Now, we love Jesus as much as the next guy, heck, we even share the same initials but what’s happened to us as a society when we can’t read a quote on a coffee cup without having a hissey fit and threatening a boycott. If you can’t get through your mocha grande because of a sentence some Seattle hipster jotted down on a brownie sugar rush you’ve got some issues.

We’ll see how this plays out, but good for Starbucks for standing up to the tyranny of small minds.

JC

House Hunting With Cruelty

The Daily News’ David Hinckley has a piece today about the cruelest man on Tuesday night TV. American Idol’s Simon Cowell? No, Princeton General’s Greg House.

Yeah, if you’re a fan of the show then by well you know that House’s cutting tongue is one of the more amazing things about the show. Knowing no boundaries, including race and gender, House quips with razor wit.

Of course, Hinckley’s theory that House could out cruel Cowell is a bit flawed since there’s a team of writers working up House’s insults. I’m sure Cowell has some ideas about ready to roll for when Sanjaya takes the stage tonight but it’s not like he knows exactly how bad this year’s vocally challenged champion will be.

This brings us to a discussion of TV friends. It’s OK to have TV friends as long as you remember they’re just TV friends.

JC

Commenters Play Nice, Now

We’re often asked by our dozens of readers why we don’t allow unmoderated comments on JerseyCool.com. Well, OK we’re never asked that but in case you’re wondering here’s a nifty NY Times article that pretty much explains why we look at all your comments before they go live.

We treat commenting like gun control. If you really, really need to make that comment right away it’s probably a bad idea.

JC

Property Tax Reform Passes

We alluded to it in our FOW post but property tax reform was passed and signed into law today. We’re still incredulous but apparently homeowners and even renters will be getting more relief in the form of rebates this year. This brings Jerseycool’s property tax bill down from insane to just plain crazy.

For more read the story here.

What You Eat Can Kill You

Great piece on CNN today about teenagers with food allergies. The story centers on teenager who bit into a cookie that had peanut butter in it and then died an hour later. We’ve all heard this story before but isn’t it about time that the food industry did something about this.

We have selfish reasons here. My partner in crime C has a food allergy and in addition to the fact that we pretty much have to act like Gestapo whenever we eat out there is always the chance that something bad might sneak through. We won’t even get into the linguistic gyrations we’ve had to go through at some Chinese restaurants. And of course people aren’t perfect and sometimes they do forget to ask. You shouldn’t have to die or spend a few hours in the emergency room because of a mistake.

We really had hoped the food industry would have solved this problem by now and it’s a pretty simple one to solve. Instead of relying on people telling their server what they are allergic too how about the menu telling  people. A simple color coded system on the menu would be all that’s needed. Say items in red contain peanut or peanut oil, items in green have gluten or wheat in them, items in blue contain no known allergens.

Sure restaurants would have to redesign their menus but think of how much they good will and customers they could gain by making just a few simple changes.

JC

Two for Tea

Fans of the tea leaf should pick up today’s Star Ledger or visit Nj.com today since the paper’s ticket cover story highlights some of the new cafes and shops catering to tea drinkers.

Some of the shops featured include Montclair’s Cha Ma Gu Dao, Teaberry’sTea Room in Flemington, and Janam Indian Tea Shop in Jersey City.

JC