Dog Ear

Having lived in New Jersey for almost 2 years now and having traveled frequently into NYC and the surrounding NJ area, I am now aware of the subtle slights against NJ found in many middle grade, young adult and adult books that had hitherto passed before me unnoted. This is from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan:

 ”Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can’t believe there’s so much nothing right across the river from New York.”