what Path alerts are you signed up for? the 3 i received about 5 seconds apart all only mentioned the cross honoring of tickets.

Went to Summit Auto based on recommendations from another JC thread. Was not disappointed. Seem like honest, reliable guys and now I only go to them.

Moody's did not downgrade...too bad everyone is focusing on S&P's decision and not Moody's. Good read: The Big Short, by Michael Lewis.

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Sorry for any confusion. I was not referring to the bar that's opening on the corner of bright/monmouth (which I have heard is opening soon), but to the dance club on the corner of bright/varick.

They should talk to the person running the dance club on bright street, across from the elementary school. That place was up and running virtually overnight it seemed. Plays loud dance music till 11pm, with a bonus of loitering loud groups outside, all in a shoebox of a space. Maybe the fact that this barcade ISN'T part of a residential building is the problem and they should just relocate to Grove Pointe...jc inspectors would no doubt give it a C.O. in no time, in such case.

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hilarious.

i agree physics is tough. just not sure it would help prepare one for the MCAT or medical school as well as focusing on higher math classes and chemistry--could be wrong. you can't do everything.

on biology, my sense is that you can pick up what you need for the MCAT without dedicating a lot of time to it. from what i saw, the huge amount of memorization required in biology is much easier to absorb/make sense of after struggling with advanced math and chemistry classes. alternatively, if you take biology as a freshman, unless you come in prepped, the only tool you have is to make a gizzillion flash cards--or whatever the current tech is.

anyway, my bias is clearly toward math and chemistry--i think these are among the toughest disciplines (in which i actually include physics and (analytic) philosophy), and the most rigorous in terms of clearly defined course development.

my two cents...

i'll strongly echo the above about transferring after 1 or 2 years. if he performs well at, say, rutgers (the best choice for affordability if you do not anticipate financial aid), he could very likely get into NYU, Columbia or another top notch program.

from his current SAT score, he seems unlikely to get in to a top-flight school, but you never know.

anyway, no one will care about his SAT scores once he is in college. a realistic action plan is just to get in to a decent school, do extremely well, and then transfer to a 'better' school. the reason to transfer to a higher ranked school is simply because getting in to medical school is tough, and it is a disadvantage to come from a low ranked school when you are being evaluated against so many candidates from 'better' schools (not insurmountable, of course, but every bit helps).

imo, the 'best' course preparation for medical school includes a diverse curriculum that seriously emphasizes math and chemistry, forgets physics, biology, geology, sociology except for whatever minimal requirements are needed, and includes some art history classes/philosophy/music/english classes. (i say this having watched my college roommate do just this).

last, you might want to investigate having the military pick up the medical school tab, if he's willing to serve for a number of years afterward. this was definitely an attractive option for some of my college friends as the cost of med school is just enormous. i have to believe that this man's language skills would make him incredibly attractive to the military (and probably to any medical school as well).

good luck to him.

That response is entirely too coherent for JClist. Please remove and insert a rant.

the New Yorker had an excellent story on this a while back as well:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

is there an uptick of crime of late? does anyone have access to the statistics?

i know that a friend was mugged/held up on montgomery between grove and barrow by someone with a hand gun in 2008; in 2007, i believe, another friend was viciously assaulted on the corner of york and varick; at the end of 2008, a series of home break-ins in the vvp area occurred. these are incidents i have direct knowledge of, and i'm certain there are many more that have been reported in various places.

this is to say, random and sporadic violence/crime is nothing new to the downtown area.

Feel your pain. We never have packages delivered to our JC address any more on account of numerous thefts. The mail situation in this town is out of control bad.

you need to distinguish nepotism from networking. the latter can involve alumni networks, family friends, etc. the former involves family. the difference matters.

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yes, like kim jong-il.

most likely she has received, and will continue to receive, plenty of "breaks" precisely because her father is the mayor. she should have gotten a job in another county.

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Exactly.

does not pass the smell test...then again, neither does jersey city.

jon of doggies playmate is awesome.

it will never happen. this is a fact. a fact. ie, true. ie, your opinion is irrelevant to its truth.

btw, "manditory"? hilarious.

apparently, microsoft and espn recently joined forces and soon you'll be able to stream espn360 content (baseball, tennis, soccer, and i think the nba, but not nfl) via an xbox.

if espn is what keeps you attached to cable and you do not need the nfl, another reason to ditch the monthly extortion.

geez. the point is that this is a residential street, or at least there are residences on it.

since when is it ok to have an ambulance regularly idle outside of your house, to say nothing of doing it at 2am, when there seems to be no emergency nearby? speaking of the pathmark, why not just idle in the colony square parking lot?

posting on JC is to solicit information--ie, maybe there is a good reason--and not just to bitch.

+1

haha, that's pretty funny. had not thought of the advantages...

Oh wise JClist:

anyone know why an ambulance would regularly idle on Bright St. across from the Frank Conwell School in the 10pm-3am range, sometimes for hours at a time, with the engine thrumming loudly?

it happens all the time and does not seem related to any emergency, but maybe there is someone in the area constantly calling 911.

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the first time i have experienced it in 10 years. there was nothing on the road to explain the behavior (nor down the road--the cruiser wasn't seen again for the remaining 10 miles i drove, nor was there an accident, construction or any other obstruction witnessed), and there was little traffic on the road at that time--again, this was early in the morning.

could there have been a good reason? sure. and i could win the lottery one day too. remains unlikely.

yesterday was driving on route 3 in early am when a cop cruiser pulled on ahead and then slowed down to about 25 mph. the cars around me all slowed down, unsure what was happening. the cruiser's lights were flashing, but no siren, and was driving by straddling two of the three lanes, blocking two cars directly behind it.

one car a bit back eventually moved into the third lane and tried to accelerate past. the cruiser then swerved, hard, directly in front of this car, which had to slam on brakes (while still going about 15 mph less than the posted limit). the cruiser then started swerving back and forth across all three lanes, almost drunkenly. after about 5-10 minutes, it finally sped up and disappeared. no reason presented itself for the behavior. i only wished i could have filmed it or recorded the license plate--was grossly illegal and dangerous behavior by someone on a power trip.

this is the kind of stuff that gives the police a bad name.

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You do realize that term limits are a gift to lobbyists, right? When you mandate a new crop of legislators every few years, you destroy the knowledge base. new pols turn to lobbyists (who were former pols in many instances) for guidance and advice out of necessity. the problem is that these lobbyists are just that--advocating for their clients and not the public good.

Nice post. Thanks for the reminder that this is still happening.

the latest:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/wa ... /chris_christie_schundler

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Products of the jersey city public schools, no doubt.