h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I came to New Jersey reluctantly. My employer gave me the choice of relocation or (too) early retirement. I have lived here for 10 years, and have come to appreciate many things about it.

It is a small state (one can drive from north to south in a few hours, and east to west in half that, except at rush hour), jammed between New York and Pennsylvania. It has lots of history (everything from the battlefields of the Revolution to the Edison workshop and recreations of early industrial sites (glass manufacture, iron works)). It is close to New York theatre (about an hour or so from most of the northern part of the state), and also has several professional acting companies, college dramatic groups (e.g. the Princeton Triangle Society) and community orchestras.

Lighthouses dot the shore. In some places it is like New England (white steepled churches at the edge of a village square) and in other places very industrial and urban, or suburban sprawl converting farmland to acres of "McMansions". Then there is Atlantic City with its gambling, and the Victorian shore towns (some "dry" -i.e. banning alcohol purchases, and some not so).

In the last several years a number of "brew pubs" have arisen, and "microbreweries" produce a variety of tasty offerings, from lagers to stout. (one of these is beginning to produce limited runs of specialty brews labeled for exits on the NJ turnpike, like Cherry Hill cherry wheat.) Then there is the large Anheuser-Busch "factory" in Newark, producing Budweiser for the entire Northeast.

I guesss you could say New Jersey is "not so bad".