PSA: Karno Kids

I don't do this often, but it's for a good cause so:

On June 4, I'll be running the Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon. As part of my entry, I'm raising money for Karno Kids, which provides financial support to organizations and programs that are focused on improving the health and wellness of our youth and restoring and preserving the environment and urban open-spaces.

As someone who grew up with a quarter acre of land at home year round, and the beaches of the Jersey Shore in the summer, I know important having that healthy outdoor space is. This charity helps provide that for children who don't have it.

So, if you'd like to donate (and, yes, it's a tax deduction), click here.

/end PSA

News from Around the South Jersey Shore

Resorts allegedly fires older cocktail waitress who were deemed not good looking enough in new, skimpy 1920s themed uniforms. Yeah, THAT'LL end well.

The casinos are about to face compliance checks that they're ADA compliant. Really? The casinos rely on seniors in wheelchairs playing slots for money. When I first toured Resorts, the PR guy boasted that there are no stairs between their bus depot and the casino floor to accommodate older gamblers. Sheesh.

Big rodeo in Atlantic City this weekend. Of course people are protesting.

Cape May-Lewes Ferry is adding a fuel surcharge.

Firefighters deliver baby in Wildwood.

First, it was pizza boxes. Now coloring books. What's next? A beach ball?

Apparently I missed Sea Isle City Girl's Weekend. Who knew? Also, there's apparently a website called www.seaislerevitalization.com. Scratching my head over that one. In a slip of an island with many million dollar plus homes...what needs revitalizing?

Behold! The Colonial Mills Ridgevale Stone Harbor Chair Pad, available at Walmart. No, this isn't really shore related. But neither was this.

Next up on the blog

Even though it feels like winter (really? really?!), tomorrow is April 1.

April is also the month my book is (maybe) published. Yah! In honor of this event, and to promote the publication, I am starting a "Jersey Shore Fact of the Day" series. Every weekday, I will post some fact about the shore that you may or may not know. Some will be from the book, some not. A lot will be silly.

So stay tuned, and subscribe to the blog if you haven't. It's about to get a lot busier up in here.

Puppy in a Bag

As taken on the Wildwood boardwalk on Saturday. I know dogs aren't allowed - which is why she's in a tote bag. But it was so flipping cold that I didn't want to leave her in the car while I picked up my race packet for the Ocean Drive 10 Miler - the expo was in the Wildwoods Convention Center.

It was an OK race. I'm still recovering from an injury, and work and the book have kept me from training hard, too. Excuses, I know. But I did OK. Not my best time, but far from my worst.

It did not snow. We had about a minute of flurries, but after all the build up, I was ready to run through the fluffy stuff. Maybe next year?

My mom took a lot of pictures. If she ever downloads them off her camera (love you mom!), I'll post them.

REALLY?!

I don't even want to think about what the winds will be like.

Remember that "invite only" swim club?

You know, the one that said the shore sucks so stay in Philly at an "invite only" pool?

Guess it's not as exclusive as they made it out to be if applications are available. I got this in an email that I'm signed up for because it usually has shore-related information.

Dolts.

Spring Cleaning

Found this while cleaning my office last night. I don't remember requesting information from the Virginia and the Ebbitt Room in 2002, but apparently I did. Postmark proves it.

Destiny?

Almost Ocean Drive Time

On Sunday, I'm running the Ocean Drive 10 miler for the fourth year in a row despite what happened last year.

As such, I'm getting obsessive about the weekend weather. This does not look good:

This morning, the little Sunday icon included showers. After hot and humid, there are no worse running conditions than 41 and raining.

I'm not being competitive this year. I am still recovering from an injury and haven't been able to train like I used to. But: I will get out there, and cross the finish line.

I'm curious about the race being sold out, as the website says. This thing NEVER sells out. Either a lot of people found out about it recently, or they capped entries at a very low number. One of the reasons I like the race and am running it again is because it is not crowded. When I do Broad Street in May, I'll be running with 29,999 other people. I can't imagine that many people mobbing the Ocean Drive starting line - which would be a mess because this race does not do chip timing.

This weekend is also Cape May's Singer Songwriter weekend if that's your thing. It would be mine but I don't know when I'll get into Cape May on Saturday, and when I do, I will look forward to carb loading first.

News from Around the South Jersey Shore

Lucy's getting a new tail!

Surprise surprise: once again, Gov. Christie skips out on the GOVERNOR'S Conference on Tourism. I already ranted once this week. Don't have another one in me.

Do it for the turtles: like this group on Facebook.

Not to knock Stone Harbor, but isn't mid-March a little late for a polar plunge?

Revel in Atlantic City is moving along.

A little out of my blog range, but it's too funny not to share: it's no longer illegal to build sand castles in Belmar. Phew. I was worried.

New Atlantic City Triathlon

This one's for my tri-sport readers: Atlantic City's going to have its first triathlon on September 18, 2011.

It'll involve a one mile open water swim, 27-mile bike and 10k run. The field will be capped at 1,000 participants, so if you KNOW you want to do this, sign up ASAP. Cost is $150 for the first 150 USAT members to sign up.

No, I will not be participating. Sorry, folks. Tris are too rich for my blood.

Simply the Best!

Well, this is exciting news: the blog you're reading right here was named a "Best Blog" by New Jersey Monthly magazine. Read about it here.

I thought I was being interviewed for a story that was just about bloggers in state. Didn't realize it was for the Best of Jersey issue until I saw it online today. Congrats to Ann Delaney and John & Lisa Howard-Fusco as well. Their blogs were named best blogs, too!

Nice thing to hear coming into the day before I'll do the last read through on the book. It's almost here!

I do not write for free

Please excuse the short rant:

If you love my site, that's great. If you love it so much that you want me to write for your site, that's awesome, too.

But never, under any circumstances, expect me to do so for free. It's not a good "opportunity" nor is it worth the "exposure." Asking me to give away my work is not only ludicrous but offensive. I am paid to write. Would you ask your doctor, or your plumber, or your electrician to give you work for free in exchange for the opportunity to work for you? No. And you shouldn't ask the same thing for writers, or photographers, or website designers.

Writing is my business. It is not a hobby. This is how I earn my living, pay my mortgage, feed the dog, so why would I just give that away? Because you ask nicely? Because you promise me something down the line?

Even when I was starting out, I did not write for free. My first clip paid $150. I didn't need to audition for it by giving away work first. To suggest anyone do the same - especially someone who's been writing professionally since she was 18 - is outrageous.

A lot of people learned this lesson the hard way when Arianna Huffington sold Huffingtonpost to AOL for $315 million. What she she really sold was the content generated by people who agreed to work for free. The fact that some of them now expect compensation shows how naive they are, and that promises of work in exchange for exposure mean nothing. They got exactly what they deserved for their work when they said OK to the arrangement: nothing.

I'm not that person. Frankly, I'm not that dumb. The only place I write for no pay is this page you're on right now, and my book blog.

So: if you want to do a Q&A, or write a story about me or my book, or pay me to write for your site, please feel free to drop me a line.

But if you dare come knocking with the "opportunity" to write for you for no compensation, don't even bother. You're not worth the time to answer the email.

/end rant

The Jersey Shore Always Wins

Apparently the 'social elite' of Philadelphia will not be coming down the shore because they can hang out at a pool in Northern Liberties:

View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com.

Good riddance, though I guarantee that John Bolaris will be at the Whitebriar every weekend.

Won't You Like Me?

C'mon, you know you want to.

I use that photo, which is an outtake from an old headshot photo session from 2008, to draw your attention to my facebook fan page. Yes, I have one! Won't you like it?

And why am I making that face? Because I'd been smiling for an hour, and I had to flex my face muscles. Not a bad way to do it.

(Photo, of course, by Marc Steiner of Agency New Jersey)

More on DMB and those three-day passes

Sorry to overload you with this music news, but the DMB Caravan festival in Atlantic City is drawing huge amounts of attention. Plus, I've gotten more question about this than anything else I've covered in the almost four years of running this blog.

The Press of Atlantic City has an excellent piece about the concert, including the three-day pass only option. They're also not going to let anyone camp out.

It's not hard to see through the quotes as to why they're doing this: they want people to stay and spend in Atlantic City.

A lot of good points are raised in the comments: At $195 for a three day pass plus two nights at full summer prices for hotel rooms, are they really going to be able to draw enough people to this thing? To go to the concert is going to be expensive. I'm even considering not going if I can't get a press pass. So consider:

$195 for pass (and that's without fees and taxes)
$300 per night for a room for a total of $600
$100 for food

I'm already up to $895. Of course, I'd cut down on that price by sharing the hotel room, and I'm getting emails from people looking to stuff four to six people into a room to make this affordable.

So while I think this is great for Atlantic City, I'm concerned that they're pricing a lot of people out of this. I know DMB doesn't tour much anymore, and his die hard fans will pay this no matter what, but is this really the right way to go about things?

I don't know.

DMB Caravan lineup

Well, golly.

I was hoping for a good lineup for the DMB Caravan festival coming to Atlantic City June 24-26, but I didn't expect one that included Guster, Fitz & the Tantrums, the Flaming Lips (!!), Thievery Corporation (!!!!!), David Gray, O.A.R., Dr. Dog AND a ton of other great artists.

Check out the full lineup here.

I'm still waiting to get full details since I wasn't at the press conference, but all I'm seeing is a three-day pass available for purchase on March 25 for $195, though that doesn't make sense consider the long distance shuttles (I'll get to that in a minute). It also appears that casinos have jacked up rates for the weekend. I usually don't point this out, but if you look on the left hand side of your screen, there's a link that says "Going to AC?" It'll give you a run down of your options (as of this morning, there was a Tropicana package for a lot less than what you'll find on the site).

The concert is also providing long distance shuttles.

Atlantic City is going to be a zoo that weekend. And you know what? I can't wait.

**UPDATE** Confirmed: You can only buy three day passes. No individual passes will be sold. I also got some language about hotel packages being made available but no further details at this time.

Summer shorts

Today I direct you to the blog of Couture Allure (the shop where I've been buying vintage). Why? Because she's writing about summer shorts.

Personally? I hate shorts. I've been going to with comfy skirts instead (they're more forgiving to the athlete who was nicknamed "thunder thighs" in middle school). But I can remember my grandmother wearing shorts down the shore, and I know that knee length short looks good on a lot of people.

Ladies, what about you? Shorts or skirts? Or hey if you're a guy who prefers skirts, I don't judge.

Season's Starting

So now that I'm not sitting on a beach in 80 degree weather...(sigh)

Things are starting to heat up at South Jersey Shore central. My book edits are done and submitted. One more go through, and it'll be on the printing presses.

This site is in the process of getting a redesign. As much as I like the basic look that I picked in July 2007 from the dining room table of a shore house in Avalon, it's time for an upgrade, I think.

And the articles are starting to come in. First up is a dining feature about Atlantic City, then an article for an in-flight magazine about Asbury Park.

What are you looking forward to for the 2011 Jersey Shore season?

Ready for summer?

Ready for summer yet?

I'm back from my annual trip to St. Pete Beach. It was lovely every single day. I can't wait for it to be the same here. Seeing the sun set on the Gulf of Mexico is very nice, but not quite the same as at Sunset Beach in Cape may. Soon enough...