The Jaffe Briefing - January 18, 2022

TRENTON – Gov. Phil Murphy is getting inaugurated today, and you can just feel the excitement. No? Well, likely not the governor either, as festivities today are greatly scaled down because of the lingering pandemic. Sure, we still get to see Chief Justice Stuart Rabner do his thing, swearing in Murphy at the Trenton War Memorial. There will also be a prayer service. But no inaugural gala, or cannon salute or anything else over-celebratory. The big day offers a limited audience, in masks. So, Inauguration 2022, COVID-style. Maybe someone, somewhere, will also drop a balloon.

PATERSON – In New Jersey, it is impossible to achieve 100% of anything. So, when city officials claim that 100% of Paterson adults have been administered the COVID vaccine, it just begs for an enterprising reporter to walk down Chamberlain Avenue, ask someone if they live in Paterson and then, in a follow-up, ask if they are vaccinated. The always-nimble Paterson Press is poking at the claim that all city adults have had at least one dose. Following more pesky media questions, city officials explain the claim is rooted in 2010 census data that put Paterson’s population of residents age 65 and older at 107,000. They admit the city’s population has since grown and there are immigrants in town lacking documentation, affecting the tallies. And some city residents were happy to discuss their vaccine hesitancy with the Paterson Press. So, it is clear that Paterson has done a great job with administering vaccines. But there is a 99.9% chance that the 100% stat is a reach.

JERSEY CITY – New York City’s population is at a record high, and expected to reach nine million residents in the next 30 years. So, to prepare now, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wants to widen highways through Bayonne and Jersey City, as part of a $4.7 billion project, so more people can squeeze into the Holland Tunnel. Of course this makes sense; it is good planning for an obvious future. But, NJ.com reports, there’s opposition among biking groups who don’t want the Hudson County extension widened, arguing it would just attract more traffic and air pollution, as well as more vehicles diverted through Jersey City and Bayonne neighborhoods. Sure, there needs to be many conversations between the Turnpike Authority and host communities about feasible solutions to an unsolvable problem. But when you live next to the Holland Tunnel – with nine million people anticipated on the other side – how do you fight the inevitable?

BRIEFING BREATHER

Vacuum cleaners were originally horse-drawn.

RARITAN – Never, ever disregard the power of the press. Just ask the owners of DeLucia's pizza joint. Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy gave DeLucia's pizza a near-perfect review on Jan. 6. The video review went viral, being seen almost 400,000 times in less than a week and prompting pizza fans from up and down the East Coast to find Raritan on a map. People are now waiting out in the cold, upwards of two hours at a clip, for a taste. Portnoy gave DeLucia's a 9.4 out of 10. Some perspective: out of the nearly 1,000 pizzerias with listed reviews on his YouTube channel, only one – in Portnoy's hometown – has gotten above a 9.4. Worth a visit; so get in line.

TRENTON – With one of the leading proponents of recreational marijuana now in charge of the State Senate, the party will rage, right? Well, perhaps. But that doesn’t mean that New Jerseyans can start growing their own weed at home, the Record reports. Senate President Nick Scutari told cannabis entrepreneurs to not expect home growing to occur right now, saying that would only contribute to a black market and stifle the growth of the nascent industry, just now taking root in the state. Scutari tells the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association that the state needs to focus on the grow facilities, before even thinking about all those home growers.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

STATEWIDE – Robitussin ribs? Tylenol tacos? OK, we’re not yet there, but the “Nyquil chicken” fad needs to end soon. The NY Post reports that people are braising chicken in the cold and flu medicine, with the dish appearing on TikTok for all to admire and emulate. People are using upwards of a half bottle of medicine on their poultry, boiling away the water and alcohol and leaving a super-concentrated amount of drugs to help cure the sniffles. Doctors are aghast. One tells the tabloid: “The idea that by saturating any food product in a medicine believing that it will provide some novel health benefit or cure is not just stupid, but incredibly dangerous.”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

It was this day in 2012 that Kodak declared bankruptcy. No one snapped a photo.

WORD OF THE DAY

Modicum – [MAH-dih-kum] - noun

Definition: a small portion or limited quantity

Example: Will today’s newsletter generate a modicum of interest?

WIT OF THE DAY

“Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

BIDEN BLURB

“It was 1957. I remember because I was a freshman in high school. My parents seldom went out socially, but they went to the office Christmas party. My dad was the general manager of an automobile dealership. The owner was a wealthy man, and he was there along with the mechanics, salespeople, secretaries, and spouses. They had dinner, then cleared the tables for a band and some dancing. My mom and dad had told me they'd be back around midnight, but at about nine my dad walks straight into his bedroom. "What happened?" I asked. My mother said, "You know that promotion where you buy a car and get a bucket full of silver dollars? Well, the boss threw the silver dollars out in the middle of the dance floor for people to pick up. Your father turned to him and said, 'You can take this job. I quit.' It's not like my father had an alternative. But that was my father. And my mother was proud of him. Nobody owes you a living. But everyone's entitled to dignity.”

- Joe Biden

WEATHER IN A WORD

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