New Jersey Ends... Where?

We Delawareans have made New Jersey, or at least some folks in New Jersey, pretty mad (Courier-Post: Line war taken to the banks).

Earlier this month, DNREC Secretary John Hughes ruled that a pier proposed for the Delaware River, and intended for offloading Liquid Natural Gas, is prohibited by the Delaware Coastal Zone Act (DNREC News: DNREC Denies BP's Crown Landing Proposed LNG Pier).

The proposed pier, though it would start from the shore of New Jersey, would extend out into Delaware (PDF site map). The boundary between New Jersey and Delaware, at least at the northern end of Delaware, was established by the US Supreme Court in 1934 as being the mean low water line on the New Jersey side of the river, as it existed in 1934.

The Delaware Coastal Zone Act was passed and signed in 1971 to stop major industrial development in the coastal zone of Delaware (PDF map), which includes Delaware's portion of the River and Bay.

So now some politicians in southern New Jersey are pretty mad. South Jersey Assemblyman John Burzichelli, for example, wants to stop Jersey from using our banks and credit card companies. He's trying to get our attention and convince us to be "more flexible."

"For Delaware to think they have to protect New Jersey from itself . . . is unnecessary and condescending," Burzichelli said Friday. "Our track record on environmental laws is a national model."

Let's set the huge irony of the second part of that statement aside for just a moment. I think what he's missing is that the Delaware Coastal Zone Act is set up to protect Delaware's Coastal Zone. From, in this case, New Jersey.

There is also talk of trying to re-draw the state boundaries. That should be an easy task; the 1934 Court Decision ended something like a quarter century of dispute last time we opened that can of worms.

More troubling, perhaps, is the talk of Congress acting to over-ride state land use controls such as the Coastal Zone Act in the name of National Security. That's the arena we should be watching.

I Wonder....

What's going on with DelaVoice? I know I've been down on the site of late, but I wasn't expecting it to dissappear. The last day or so the link has not been working. Anyone hear anything?

Some Books

I finished Bob Dylan's book the other day. Chronicles, Vol. 1 is an interesting book. It is not a rock-star memoir. Dylan seems to not want to be a rock star, though he writes fascinating details about wanting to sing and play the music.

What struck me about this book is that it holds up as a book whether its author is a famous rock star or not. This is a literate look at the early folk music scene when Dylan was young, his mid-life as a celebrity, and his re-discovery of the joy of performing late in life.

I also took a day or two to read 21, the unfinished few chapters of what would have been the next Aubrey/Maturin novel from Patrick O'Brian. I had been looking forward to this read, and I will say I enjoyed it. It also made me sad, though. I miss O'Brian's writing.

Bethany in Mid-Winter

I had a chance to visit Bethany Beach today. I walked the boardwalk and gazed into windows of shut-down stores.

It was a blue-sky day with some haze.

Winter at the beach.


When only the birds and fish swim in the ocean.

The beach is now deserted, lacking the scores of vacationers, young and old; many in the delightful dream of first love.

It's been just over seven months. Does this person still love Bubick?

I took a few moments to visit North Bethany, where we often swim in the summer. The houses there have been getting bigger and bigger.

I think this is the current size champion.

I Suppose I Should Add A Blogroll

I've been meaning to put together a list of Delaware blogs. I've been collecting links to blogs by Delawareans and Delaware ex-pats and thought I'd offer a few that I've found.

These are in no particular order. I'm limiting myself to those I've found myself reading lately and that I've found to be active. I know there are other Delaware Blogs, and I'll check them out as I have time.

The Delawarean is by a gent I know through work. He's active and curious and kind, and those are attributes I value in folks in general. He also keeps his blog up-to-date, and attribute to value in a blogger. He's in spatial data as well, so we share a professional affinity.

TLJ's Thoughts of the Day is by Tara. She's a journalist and writes in full. Her blog is usually sunny and nice. She may, in fact, be a Pennsylvanian, but Delaware used to be part of Pennsylvania, so I'll let that slide.

Scrink, by Tink, is a little too focused lately on The OC (for me), but interesting none-the-less. Tink is a Mom. She's from Bear, Delaware, which we all know really doesn't exist.

Becky, of Extreme Dating, describes herself as a "redneck hippie NPR-junkie." How can you not like someone who covers all those bases? Of course, when Karen walks by, and the laptop is open to "Extreme Dating," I have to be a fast-talking hubby.

Little Caesar's Daily R & R is by Brenda, a former U of Delaware student now in law school out in the middle of things. She's a thoughtful democrat. Little Caesar? Her dog.

I found her through comments on Mark's blog To Seek A Newer World. He's also a law student and former Blue Hen. He's been inactive lately, but hey, he is in law school.

Beast's World comes out of Claymont, a place with a bit more "definition" than Bear.

Delaware Law Office is the blog of attorney Larry Sullivan.

Matt Hearn writes at length on a variety of topics and has added fiction lately, or so he claims. I find myself returning in part because I can't help but wonder if he's related to Jack and Dara Hearn, here in Lewes.

Sneaking Suspicions is Fritz Schranck's blog. I've actually known Fritz for some time. He's an attorney for DelDOT and we've worked together; we share a commute and pass each other (to be honest, he usually passes me) on the road every once in a while; and I read his golf column in the Cape Gazette. He earned my great respect though, for his ambitious proposal some time back to establish new city of Brighton, Delaware.

The Bunker claims to come from deep beneath Wilmington's Trolley Square. Maybe. But I like his (I think it's a he?) take on things.

And let's wrap things up for the evening with a mention of DelaVoice, which purports to have taken over for DelaTacit. I miss DelaTacit. The Voice site seems a little one-note. I was participating on there for a while, trying to offer a left-side perspective on what is an un relievedly right-wing blog, but the level of debate was low. I backed away when I noticed I was only one of a very few actually using my own name.

I have more on my list, I'll try to post them soon and will undertake to add a blogroll to the sidebar soon.

Sunrise, 7:38 a.m. (EST), February 2, 2005. Just north of Barratt's Chapel, on Delaware Route 1.

An Update: Ouch

Okay. So this crown stuff is not as pain-free as I thought earlier in the day. This is like a lowgrade tooth-ache. On the plus side, I won't have to worry about why I have this toothache. I know why.

In Which I Visit The Dentist To Get My First Crown

This morning I arrived bright and early at the offices of my dentist for the first part of a two-round installation of a crown. My rear-most upper-left molar had simply worn out, if not down, to the point where it had cracks and a bothersome tendency to flex when I chew. That hurt and did not bode well for the long term structural integrity of the tooth.

I see this as a sign of aging and a right of passage, though not a sign of the end of life. I'm 43; this sort of thing is to be expected. I blame years of chewing ice cubes. Mom told me not to. Did I listen? No, I did not.

After about six months of denial, I steeled my courage and went in for the work this morning. Younger readers should understand that, when I was a lad, we didn't have the same level of dental care that you young whipper-snappers enjoy. I learned to dread dental work. It makes no sense now, of course; Drs. Barnhard and Jones, whom I see most often, are as painless as they can be. Even the novacaine shots are painless now.

I know these facts intellectually; on a sub-intellectual level, however, I still harbor some dread. So I was not happy about the prospect.

Of course, the actual hour of work by Dr. B. wasn't too bad. There's a lack of dignity involved; laying back, mouth agape, muscles tensed. It is odd to hear grinding and scraping in the center of your head and see splashes of water and occasional wisps of smoke just visible beyond your nose. Two grown people have both hands deep into your face; wielding drills and mirrors and spray nozzles and vacuum hoses and who knows what else.

So, there is a lack of comfort, but not really any pain.

After the excavation work, Dr. B. built a rudimentary molar to serve as a temporary cover while highly skilled craftsmen sculpt a replica of my former molar. I go back in a few weeks to have that work of art installed in my permanent collection.

I'm left with an odd feeling in my mouth. As the novacaine wears off, there's a slight discomfort (that's a medical term, many of us use the old fashioned "pain"). It is not unlike the sensation that follows a thorough cleaning when you haven't flossed as well as you should have for several months. Certainly not unbearable.

More interesting is that odd sensation of something foreign in my mouth; I remember this from having braces so long ago. It will take some getting used to the new shape of that sector of my mouth. By the time I do, of course, the new crown should be in place and I'll be back to something close to the original layout.

Now I'm back home. I've treated myself to a day off from work. I'll surf the web, Watch some old Monty Python, try to install a WiFi system in the house, visit the library, and enjoy meeting Colleen at the bus this afternoon.

I guess I'll take any excuse to spoil myself.

Bleah (Part II). Cold Weather (Again). Ice (Again). But No Sick Kids.

Well. Here we are in the midst of another winter storm. At least this time the girls are over what turned out to be a full week of fever, coughing, stuffy noses and general malaise.

Unfortunately, mother nature has let us down in the snow department. We woke this morning to freezing rain and icy sleet. It's too ugly out for my usual digital camera offerings, so I decided to visit the Delaware Department of Transportation traffic camera web page and see what the weather looks like around the rest of the state.


Upstate, in New Castle County, winter looks the way it should.


In Kent County, looks like they got a fair coating of new snow. It's hard to tell if it has stayed snow; this view rather suggests rain. That's the WaWa I often walk to for lunch, by the way.


Here in Sussex County, at least in the east, we see just freezing rain soaking into minor snowfall and a layer of sleet.

It is weather like this that brings up for us the notion of moving our lives to somewhere like Vermont.

A Bad Idea

The brain trust at The Learning Channel has let Paige Davis go from Trading Spaces (In 'Spaces' Makeover, It's Curtains for Paige (Washington Post; Reg. Req.).

A "new creative direction" towards a host-less version of Trading Spaces. Nope. Sorry. That's probably not going to fly.

They lost Vern, but we came back. They lost Ty, and we came back. I think, though, that Paige has an awful lot of fans who probably won't come back.

Give Ms. Davis (actually Mrs. Mindy Paige Davis Page) credit for class, though. Her farewell statement -- posted both on her web site, above, and the TLC site -- takes the high road.

I have to confess that this was in the news earlier than today. I simply had missed it until I came upon a photo with a caption about the firing on the Washington Post web site this evening. It was one in a series of news photos I was flipping through after having enlarged a photo of a glowering VP Cheney in a bulky parka at a Holocaust memorial event in Europe.