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Inaugural Issue ,
The Thinking Man’s Guide to an Active Jersey Life

6 12 18 24 30 36

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS
6 5 30
SEPARATED AT BIRTH? JERSEY JOTTINGS JERSEY HISTORY
A LOOK AT JERSEY’S PAWN SHOPS CARUSO CROONED IN CAMDEN?
10
18 FAMILY OUTINGS 33
CAN YOU REALLY BURLINGTON COUNTY STATE GOVERNMENT
PRISON MUSEUM AND ITS LONG TAX ARM
CRACK BLACKJACK?
THE STORY OF A CONFESSED
CARD COUNTER
12 34
WHAT WE EAT BUSINESS PROFILE
THOSE DELICIOUS BLUE CRABS
22 TIME GRAPHIC, CINNAMINSON, NJ

SMOKING IN THE GIRLS’ ROOM

CAN A WOMAN REALLY KNOW
29 56
ABOUT CIGARS?
TECH TIME WHERE WE EAT
KODAK ZI8 POCKET VIDEO CAMERA CAPITAL GRILLE, CHERRY HILL, NJ

24
COVER STORY
MERRILL REESE LETS LOOSE
Ken Dunek
Want to Reach a Prime
36 PUBLISHER Audience for Your
THE FOOD POUNDERS Lou Antosh Products or Services?
EDITOR
THESE GUYS CAN EAT!
Leah Goodwin Become a
ASSISTANT EDITOR
42 Sheila Manalo
JerseyMan Magazine Advertiser
WHAT’S REALLY WRONG WITH EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE? Our magazine and web site are aimed at
Steve Iannarelli clued-in men who want quality information,
A DOCTOR TURNED LAWYER TELLS ART DIRECTOR
THE REAL STORY top-shelf products and high-grade services.
Frank Pignataro You'll find our advertising representatives
SALES
48 Miles Kennedy
intent on listening to your needs and
McMANSION PRICE MELTDOWN COVER PHOTOGRAPHY effectively delivering our audience in both
KEEPING THE ‘Y’ (GEN Y) IN JERSEY
print and on the web.
Editorial
856-303-1781
Email us at: krdmktllc@aol.com,
50 Advertising ken@jerseymanmagazine.com,
JERSEY’S TOP TICKET TOWNS 856-912-4007
or call (856) 912-4007.
BAD DRIVERS DO NOT WANT Printing
TO MEET THESE GUYS 856-912-7103

JerseyMan Magazine, a product of the partnership of Joe LaGrossa, Ken Dunek, and Lou Antosh, is published by New Opportunity Publishing, LLC, with offices
at 7025 Central Highway, Pennsauken NJ, 08109. Copyright 2010.

The Thinking Man’s Guide to an Active Jersey Life
Letter from the Publisher
This is the birth of a new magazine,
and I’d like you to do me a favor.
Read the stories, we think you will
find them extremely interesting. Scan
the ads, you will find some of the
most high profile businesses in South
Jersey joining with us. Enjoy the pic-
tures as they play an important part of each article. (In the
near future, you will be able to view a video portion of
some of the interviews we do on our website.) And then…I
want you to crumple the magazine up.
You heard me right. Crumple the magazine up into a ball
and feel the crispness of the paper against your fingers. Hold
it to your nose and smell the ink on the pages. And then toss
it into your recycle container and get ready for the next issue,
because it’s coming…bigger and better every time.
People who believe our society is going paperless have
laughed at our endeavor. But I’ve been in a paper-related
business since 1987 and have heard the same thing for 23
years. We believe there will always be a place for the printed
page. It’s funny. When you cut down a tree you can plant a
new one, but when you have an old computer and try to re-
cycle it to make room for the next one, where does it go?
JerseyMan is a publication geared toward men, but we
are sure women will find the content equally fascinating. Our
pledge to you is to provide unique insights with a Garden
State slant when it comes to sports, business, martinis, cigars,
golf, dining, politics, and all the hot topics of the region.
So off we go, wherever the future takes us. Let’s enjoy the
ride…together.
Ken Dunek
Publisher, JerseyMan Magazine
There’s much more to come in future JerseyMan
Magazine issues, so subscribe now and guarantee
that we will be in your home.
Stay plugged into the real issues and concerns of men in New
Jersey by reading JerseyMan Magazine, the first regional
magazine aimed specifically at you. JerseyMan Magazine
understands that men want real information about their lives -
what you eat, what you drive, what you think. Watch us grow
into your information lifeline.
Subscribe to the next six issues for $10. Use PayPal on our web
site at www.jerseymanmagazine.com. Or call (856) 813-1153
with credit card information. Or send a check to JerseyMan
Magazine, 7025 Central Highway, Pennsauken NJ 08109.
www.jerseymanmagazine.com
Inaugural Issue ,
Letter from the Editor
It may be that we’re getting closer
to true gender equality in America.
But even total gender equality will
never result in an equality of interest
on the part of both men and women
in all issues, topics and activities.
Just as women’s magazines serve
the interests of their primary audiences, JerseyMan exists to
provide information that is interesting and important pri-
marily to the men in our region. Will women find it enjoy-
able? We hope so, because our aim is to serve, not shut out.
JerseyMan is not just a magazine, or a web site, or a pod-
cast, or a series of live events, although you eventually will
find our brand name attached to all of those things. What we
are is an information source and service that aspires to touch
the lives of a broad spectrum of men in this state. We want
to inform, entertain, encourage, strengthen, and reflect our
audience.
This is a daunting and humbling effort, and it will suc-
ceed only if you Jersey Men care enough to tell us what we
are doing right or wrong. If we seem to be clueless about
an issue or activity that you know is important to armies
of men, yell back at us and say so. JerseyMan belongs to
the people it is named after. You’re the boss, so give us
our marching orders.
But you can’t bark at a piece of paper, so find us at
www.jerseymanmagazine.com and let’s get acquainted.
We’ll work hard to be worthy of hanging out with you.
Lou Antosh
Editor, JerseyMan Magazine
What's Going On in Jersey, Man?
Get clued in the web way at
www.jerseymanmagazine.com, where you'll find:
-- Interesting videos --
-- A calendar of things to do --
-- Articles covering the spectrum of interest --
-- Reviews of places to eat, stuff to use, things to drive --
-- Products to purchase --
-- Fresh updates of sports news --
-- Informative ads --
-- Games --
-- Polls --
-- Ways to send feedback to JerseyMan Magazine --
And new things coming on-line each time you visit.
Have some comments already?
Let us know at editor@jerseymanmagazine.com
 Jersey
JerseyMan Magazine

Visit: www.jerseymanmagazine.com

More
Politicians Go
Down the Drain
The Township of Delran still has a
sewage plant, but it no longer has a
Sewer Authority, a board usually filled
by political appointees who at one
point were paid $3,000 annually, said
Mayor Kenneth Paris, Democrat,
whose party gained power last Fall.
“We felt they were political posi-
tions, not ‘their party’ or ‘our party,’
but both parties, and we felt the board
was unnecessary,” said Paris. The
sewer department now reports to the
township administrator. Town Council
did spend about $28,000 for an inde-
pendent feasibility study looking at the
plant and its operations, seeking effi-
ciencies and cost cutting.
“We were able to cut back on one
position that was costly and the study
come up with between $90,000 and
$100,000 in savings,” Paris said.
He also put a cap on the fees and
hours of professional consultants such
as engineers and attorneys. The previ-
ous fees were $180 to $195 an hour
with no limit. Now the fee is $125 an
hour with a two hour cap. “They can
only charge two hours even if they’re
here longer,” he said.
Jottings
Gloucester Township IOU for Unused
Employee Sick Days Nearly $8 Million
The page title is “Analysis of Compensated Absence Liability.”
It’s one of the early pages in any municipal budget in New Jersey, but it tends not to
make the newspaper headlines. It tends, however, to give municipal leaders headaches.
The page details just how much money a municipality will owe to employees
who are entitled to receive payment for sick days they do not use. This payment for
unused employee sick benefits usually is guaranteed by the labor agreement crafted
by the municipality and employee bargaining unit. The payment usually occurs
upon retirement.
The 2010 budget for Gloucester Township shows that the municipality at some point
will have to pay $7,975,223 to employees. And the budget also shows zero dollars
reserved for the fund in 2009 and zero dollars appropriated in the 2010 budget.
Here is the breakdown by employee type:
Camden Council 10 Administrative Employees . . . . . . . . . . $ 366,091.17
Camden Council 10 Public Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 411,366.16
Camden Council 10 Supervisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 238,824.88
Patrol Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3,885,321.34
Senior Officers Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2,445,077.46
Dispatchers Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 231,264.39
Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 397,277.99
All but the administration employees are covered by labor agreements, but the
payments to administrative workers are permitted by local ordinance. Gloucester
Townships is one of the largest municipalities in the South Jersey region, with a popu-
lation estimated at more than 65,000.
For the unfunded liability — that would be how much taxpayers owe — in your
town, check your local budget.

When Cheaper Gas Calls, Do the Math

If you find a gas station where the prices are way cheaper – say 5 cents a gallon – than the ones close by your home, do
some gas math before you drive out of your way to fill up. Today’s gas prices may not reward traveling to the bargain.
When one Jersey Man needed gas, he recalled a more distant fuel station where the gas was a nickel per gallon
cheaper. He drove the extra 4.2 miles, filled up, and then wondered if it was worth the trip. Here is the math he did:
Gas price (back then) was $2.70 per gallon. His computer display said he was getting 19 miles
per gallon. That comes out to a per-mile fuel cost of 14.210, round it down to 14 cents.
The round trip of 9.2 miles cost $1.288, round it up to $1.29
The savings was a nickel a gallon on 13.544 gallons or 67.7 cents, round it up to 68 cents.
Our bird-brained bargain-seeker lost 61 cents on the “money-saving” excursion.

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 5

 Richard Har
rison aka th
"Old Man" e
from
History chan
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series, Paw
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6 jerseymanmagazine.com
 o
o n the surface, Richard Harrison
and Martin Wood would seem kin-
dred spirits. They’ve each been in
the pawn-broking business for
decades. They each work in casino towns where a fine line – sometimes
the width of a roulette betting line – separates splendor and squalor.
They’re both slightly crusty, a lot opinionated and quite likable.

But Richard has a national base of television fans

who know him as the “Old Man” who kicks butt in
the family’s Las Vegas pawn broker shop and stars
with son Rick and grandson “Hoss” in the History
Channel’s smash reality series Pawn Stars. The chan-
nel says Pawn is its number one show, attracting 4.2
million viewers one recent month, 3.1 million of
them males.
Marty Wood, on the other hand, gets no fan mail.
But he does have a database of 18,000 customers who
have visited his spartan pawn shop on a busy Atlantic
City street hard by the boardwalk gambling halls. And,
oh, they want Wood’s autograph, all right, as long as
it’s on a pawn ticket that gives them cash for the items
they hock.
While the Harrisons are portrayed as often buying
and selling items worth thousands of dollars, Marty
Wood buys only about 20 items a month. The bulk of
his business is loaning money to people who pawn
their possessions, usually jewelry and most often for
a four-month loan of about $100.
“We do make $50 loans, $1500 loans, $2000 loans,
but most are around $85 or $100,” said Wood. “I’ve
actually even made $10 loans.”
Not much like Pawn Stars, is it, Marty?

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 7

 “First of all they supposedly are open
every day, 24 hours a day, and they
have 30 employees, he said. “We are
open five days a week and there are
only three of us here. They have a cam-
era crews sitting around waiting for
hours and then a guy brings in an old
gas station pump, or a Coca Cola ma-
chine. Not us. We work on the premise
that if we don’t like it, we don’t take it.
If there is no market for us, we won’t
hold on to it. We have mostly jewelry,
maybe a couple hundred rings in the
window, maybe 150 inside.”
Pawn Stars may have “Hoss,” but
Wood’s Pawn Shop has Sheba, a mas-
sive German shepherd with a malevo-
lent look and impressive snarl, who
hangs out with the boys in a back shop
protected by an inch-and-a-half thick
window. “If a guy sticks a gun up
against it and pulls, he’s gonna lose a
finger, he’s not gonna lose us,” said the
owner.
He does get a fair number of musical
instruments, especially guitars, dozens
of which sit along the steel shelving in
All pawn shops are knee - deep in guitars.
back. Wood gets a kick out of the one
with a thick wood case that has been
there for five, maybe seven years. Its
owner pays interest every month until
he can afford to pay back the loan in
full. Guitars that are not reclaimed go
on display out front. All pawn shops
are knee-deep in guitars.
The loans on pawn run for four
months, after which they can be re-
newed at the same interest or paid in
full and the collateral returned. If the
interest is not paid in four months,
Wood waits another 13 days, then
sends a letter. If there is no response,
8 jerseymanmagazine.com
he owns the item. Some people renew
over and over again. The Garden State is a
“Years ago, a man, railroad engineer
I think, pawned a diamond ring for
Pawn Desert with Few
$100. It was here 30 years. He always Shops and Low Interest
paid interest, never paid off the loan.
He died and then another sister took
Some states have many hundreds of
over for five years, then she died and pawn shops. New Jersey: A mere 35.
another sister took over. Finally the sis-
That's because New Jersey is a “hard
ter walked in and said, ‘I’m not going
pawn” state, where government regu-
to keep this here.’ The bill was like
lations tightly restrict the interest rates
$150, and she took this ring to a friend
on the loans made by pawn shops. In
who had an auction on the boardwalk,
said she could sell it. Auction shut
the Garden State, the maximum inter-
down, she never saw the ring again.
est allowed is 3.7 percent a month,
After 30 years, end of story.” much lower than the “soft pawn” states
Movies and novels have painted where higher interest rate allowances
pawn brokers as seedy, shifty charac- attract many more pawn operators.
ters who keep a secret drawer full of
When pawn shops can charge only 3.7
hot goods. The truth is, Wood sends
percent interest, they tend not to give
paperwork on every transaction –
name and address of borrower con-
loans on bulky items such as televi-
firmed by photo ID – to the Atlantic
sions and furniture, say the experts.
City police department. Holding such merchandise as loan
“They might be looking for that per- collateral would require much larger
son, or they may be looking for that storage areas in more spacious shops,
item, say, a Nikon Coolpix with such which can send overhead skyward
and such a serial number. Everything is while revenue potential stays flat.
on the report,” he said. Such reporting
is required by most states, he said. “And
New Jersey, New York and Pennsylva-
we have on DVD a video of everyone
nia are hard pawn states.
who walks through that door.
To learn more about the varying state
“You can come in here and offer me
regulations (and philosophies) regarding
the Hope Diamond for $10. You don’t
pawn shops, please visit
have an ID, we turn you down.
“Somebody comes in with an in- www.jerseymanmagazine.com
strument, say a violin. I ask them ques- and search for “hard pawn.”
tions. How long you have this? Then I
say: Play it. Or else I point to a part of the
instrument and ask: What’s this?
“If they can’t play it, don’t know what
the part is, it’s stolen. I won’t tell them
it’s stolen. They know. Somebody stole it
and they brought it here. If I call the po-
“If they
can’t play
the instrument,
it’s stolen.”
lice I may be in the middle of a lawsuit. I
just close the case and say I’m not inter-
ested.”
Wood has become an expert in gold
jewelry, part of it learned the hard way.
He got burned for about $6,000 from a
guy who sold him two alleged Rolex
watches.
“After we bought them we figured out
they were fake. We know how to tell now
but I can’t tell you, trade secret. China is
making six different copies of the same
watch, some are clumsy, some are so per-
fect. Hard to tell. We can. We paid $6,000
tuition.”
An Atlantic City native, Wood says 40
percent of his customers are repeat bor-
rowers, folks he gets to know. “A cus-
tomer comes in, says ‘Mr. Wood, last
time I came in I got $15 on this, can you
make it $20?’ If it’s a good customer,
yeah, I’ll do it for you. It all depends.”
What his shop is, he said, is a service
to the “unbankable,” people who have
no checking or savings accounts. It also
serves up discretion plus.
“You need money and go to the bank
to borrow money. They say bring in your
last two years of income tax, bring this,
bring that, and don’t forget to bring your
wife. You wait two weeks and then you
go and have to sign 18 papers. You come
here, it takes 5 minutes and you’re out
the door. Your wife doesn’t know and no-
body else knows.”
Yes, people who obviously are casino
gamblers come in for cash, some from
other states. As do casino employees, one
of whom regularly buys jewelry to sell to
her co-workers. But much of the clientele
is local and has been for decades, stretch-
ing back to when Wood’s father ran the
business.
“We used to take in suits, in the ‘50s,
and loan five bucks for each. Had hun-
dreds of suits on a rack here and it got to
be a real pain. But we had a cleaner who
charged us 50 cents to clean the suit and
we charged $1.50 when they went out.
There used to be card games on the side
streets, ‘skin game,’ they called it, and
we’d get suit traffic from that. If you won,
you’d send someone around to pick up
the suit.
“It was working because we sold sin-
gle, double-breasted suits. Where else
could you buy a suit for $10? Then around
’64 the styles changed and that was it. We
couldn’t sell the last three suits and they
went into a trash basket out front. A half
hour later they were gone.”
With the price of gold so high, Wood
said he doesn’t usually bother trying to
sell gold bracelets and necklaces that are
forfeited by borrowers. He figures he can
get from the smelter pretty much the
amount he would sell it for, without the
hassle of making the sale in the store.
“The husband comes in saying, ‘I don’t
know if she wants [continued on page 55]
 Burlington County’s Old Prison as a Family Haunt?
Believe It and Book It.
M ost South Jersey residents don’t
know a thing about the gray stone
Mount Holly landmark known as
the Burlington County Prison Museum, but
many thousands of ghost chasers from around
the nation know about it, and some even visit.

See more on the prison at

www.jerseymanmagazine.com

10 jerseymanmagazine.com
“Instead of buying a cemetery plot, they just
dug a hole in the back and buried him there.”
“We have a huge haunted event every
weekend in October,” said attorney Janet
Sozio, president of the Prison Museum As-
sociation. “We’re getting maybe five thou-
sand people and it gets bigger each year.”
Paranormal lovers are convinced that
the spirit of one Joel Clough roams the
historic passageways that date back to
1811, when the prison opened with the
capacity to hold 25 drunks, vagrants and
the occasional violent sort such as
Clough, who murdered his girlfriend.
There are two main attractions at this
High Street treasure designed by the
fabled architect Robert Mills, whose
brainchildren include the Washington
Monument and other major District of
Columbia attractions.
The physical characteristics of the prison
fascinate anyone who wants to touch 200-
year-old oak doors or the metal bars guard-
ing the death row cells with their narrow
windows. You walk down narrow steps
and feel the temperature drop upon
descent into the basement, where you will
find a workshop and some interesting lore.
That’s the other attraction – the stories
these 18-inch-thick walls contain.
“One man who was in a cell down here
near the coal-burning furnace said he was
sick and the warden came down,” said
Sozio. “The inmate had secreted on his
body the stoker and he came out of here,
swinging the stoker, and killed the warden
right on the spot where we’re standing.”
That murderer was not executed (he
was declared insane), but there have been
nine other inmates hanged, seven of them
from the gallows which are replicated in
the prison backyard, she said. Sozio still
works as an attorney, but she’s a perfect
tour guide, dispensing dozens of stories
during a stroll in the prison, which re-
mained open until 1965. Its capacity by
then had swelled to about 100 prisoners,
often housed four to five to a cell.
“When I was a young lawyer I clerked
for a judge down at the courthouse and I
used to walk over here and hang out. I’m
a history buff, been in the Association
since 1983, president for the last 10 years.
We had tours in here until 1990, but the
roofs and walls leaked, there was no toi-
let. It took 10 years to get the place back
in shape.”
When it opened, the prison was a
model for the humane treatment of pris-
oners. Architect Mills, a Quaker, had
friends in Mount Holly involved in the
Quaker movement for prison reform. Sep-
arating prisoners into cells by their crime
was meant to facilitate rehabilitation. But
things weren’t exactly cushy, said Sozio.
“By 1820 the beds were broken and
prisoners used to sleep on floor mats,
women mixed in with men,” she said.
“The state board of health came in and
said the jail was obsolete. It wanted the
warden’s apartment moved out, which is
why they built a house next door. They
wanted beds raised up. Instead of
wooden buckets they wanted metal
buckets for waste.”
What about the haunting stories?
“Joel Clough was living in a boarding
house and fell in love with the owner’s
daughter. They had an argument and one
day he slit her throat. He was put here,
escaped and was brought back. He ended
Burlington County Prison
128 High Street, Mount Holly, NJ 08060
Hours: Thursday to Saturday; 10 to 4 pm
Sundays; noon to 4 pm
Admission: Adults $4,
students and seniors (over 55) $2,
Children under 5, Free
up being hanged on Marne Highway and
the story was he put his own rope around
his neck. This was in 1833.
“They say he haunts it because he was
hanged when we were in a deep depres-
sion and there was no money around.
The county freeholders, instead of buying
a cemetery plot, just dug a hole in the
back and buried him there.”
Is it true that workers in the prison
Attorney Janet Sozio, left, oversees the prison building, the
first completely fire-proof building in the nation. All of the
doors are original, but the lead-based paint was removed
at a cost of $100,000.
have heard or seen spooky things?
“Yes, when they were fixing it up they
left their tools in one cell and they were
mysteriously found in another cell. People
just go berserk. I like it because it brings
people into the jail.”
But not enough to recover the mu-
seum’s costs, she said. And because
school budgets are lean, school bus trips
have been drying up. Some groups have
rented the place and a wedding reception
was located in the backyard this year.
“Floors have been replaced over the
years. The roof had to be replaced; that
was like $300,000. It’s a shame. I love the
place, but it really is a white elephant for
the freeholders.”
They answer, she said, is more traffic,
and finding more creative ways to bring
people and revenue to the museum. ■
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 11
 What we eat

S
JerseyMan Magazine

RAB
C ’re To
, Tasty an
M
ugh ut Are ower?
B
They Young, heir Fire
r
Thei Losing
Crab
s
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12 jerseymanmagazine.com
 “I can’t get enough crabs.”
Norman Uman, Burlington crab
restaurant owner, supplements
local crabs with Mexican crab
meat, which costs $19 a pound,
“ridiculously high.” It helps:
“Last year I sold more crabs than
I've ever sold in recent years.”
T
his is the time of year when crab
crackers and hammers are buried
somewhere in kitchen drawers,
safely tucked away until the
weather turns warm again and Independ-
ence Day beckons. In fact, American Blue
Crabs also are snuggled away in their
muddy beds well below the whitecaps.
But here's the news. Right now, there
are crab fishers out there in those Jersey
waters, setting up dredging equipment,
rousting thousands of crabs from their
sleep, hauling in blue crabs to the docks.
Yes, they catch crabs in the winter in the
Garden State; about 20 percent of the
state's total annual haul, which averages
about 19 million crabs. And crab experts
guess that the 2010 catch will exceed the
average because crabs have been abun-
dant. But that fact is small comfort to one
crab maven who is out there sounding a
warning bell.
“What’s amazing is that even with in-
tense fishing pressure, it’s not like you see
a sudden crash in the crab harvest,” said
Rider University Associate Professor Paul
Jivoff, who has spent four years studying
crabs in Barnegat Bay. “In the minds of
many, there always will be crabs out there
to catch.
“Part of that is scary in that it leads to
a false sense of security. There are results
from other places indicating that really
intense fishing pressure can have an
influence on crab reproductive biology.”
What’s behind this scare, Professor?
In two words: crab sperm. Or rather, the
lack of it.
If you are a crab eater, you may un-
knowingly have had some experience with
crab sperm, said the man with the zoology
doctorate.
“A lot of people have opened up a female
and see the organs inside, big pink things
“Please
Pass Me
Your Leg”
If some experts are concerned that fishing
and environmental pressures may some-
day create a scarcity of blue crabs, then
why not farm them like shrimp, catfish
and some other seafood? The answer is
simple and short.
Because they will eat each other.
Crab experts have known for a long time
that crabs like to eat crabs. One study
dating back 50 years claimed that
“cannibalized blue crabs make up as
much as 13 percent of the (crab) diet.”
“In the Chesapeake they tried to do some
hatchery raising of blue crabs, but it’s a
pretty difficult process,” said New Jersey
state fishery official Brandon Muffley.
“When they are confined together, they’re
gonna eat each other.”
Crab researcher Paul Jivoff, of Rider
University, said some efforts have been
made to cultivate crab larvae and raise
them to juvenile size before releasing
them into the environment.
“The problem is that once they get to
about two inches in size, they are so
aggressive you’d have to keep each one
in its own individual container or else
they would go after each other,” said
Jivoff. “You might start out with 100,000
crabs, but once they get to that size the
numbers would go way down because
they are so aggressive.
“Juvenile females are also very aggressive.
“I think, in a way, that is one of the appeals
of the blue crab. They’re so pugna-
cious that people like them. They’re like
an underdog.”
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 13
 What we eat

CRAB Red State/Blue State

Identify gender by claws.
Females have red “painted”

FACTS tips. Males, blue claws.

Shocking Claw Fact How Old Do You Think I Am?

To keeps claws from falling off, outlets either plunge them in ice Scientists don’t know how to age
water or electrocute them before cooking. “It sounds terrible,” crabs; there are no tell-tale signs. Most
said one cook, showing a tub with electrodes. probably live a couple years. Some
think the oldest crabs live to about 8.

What The Heck Are Those?

These two antennae-looking
items are gonopods, which
males use when “doubling”
Fis Wh
h, at with a female to transfer
sh oyst Cr sperm into two
rim er ab
State Minimum Size for Keepers co p, w s, cla s E corresponding
urs at
4.5 inches from tip to tip for hard shells. e, or m ms, apertures in
oth s a sna
er n i the mate.
The State record is 8.5 inches. cra d, o ls,
bs f
.

Best Swimmers of Class

Among all crab species, blue crabs
Males Molt Always
Male crabs shed their shells
are the fastest swimmers, thanks
periodically throughout
to this special “swimmer” fin.
their lives, enabling them to
They’re not as fast as most
grow larger than females,
fish, though.
which stop molting
upon maturity.

Crabs Get Sick

They can suffer from viral or bacterial infections that slow Family Crabbing Free Pass
them down (making them vulnerable to predators) or kill Taking the kids with some small
them. The cooking process usually kills such organisms. traps? No state permit needed

14 jerseymanmagazine.com
with stuff in them. When you tell them that
the stuff is sperm that crab got from its
mating partner they are really surprised.”
It is a surprising biological fact is that
the female crab mates only once in her life,
receiving from the male a large amount of
sperm that is retained for a year or more
in an internal storage compartment often
encountered by crab eaters. The sperm
and other mysterious material (“it’s not
clear what that other stuff does; maybe it
preserves sperm”) eventually are used to
fertilize eggs. Then the fertilized eggs are
pushed outside onto the bottom shell,
combining to form what looks like an
orange sponge full of eggs that eventually
are released.
That’s the biology, but what’s the
problem?
Jivoff, a veteran at freezing and analyz-
ing blue crab sperm, is worried that the in-
tensive fishing of large males could be
altering the eons-old reproductive process.
(One year-long state study said 82 percent
of all crabs harvested in Jersey are males.)
It may be that plucking the large males may
slowly be changing the size and number of
crabs caught overall. Large males have
more sperm than smaller males. Fewer
large males, less sperm, fewer eggs fertilized.
“Females may be running out of sperm
because of the size of the males available
out there,” said the professor. In a year or
so he expects to have results of the study,
which is “looking for the potential impacts
of that size change and how it may influ-
ence reproduction.”
But you don’t have to tell Norman
Uman that large crabs might be in jeop-
ardy. Owner of the Blue Claw Crab Eatery
in the City of Burlington, Uman recalled:
“In the old days a bushel of Number 1
crabs could have had just 40 crabs, they
were that big. You just don’t get them like
that anymore. I can’t get enough crabs pe-
Meet the Experts
Crab Connoisseurs All
Sources for our crab report are:
Desmond Kahn, biometrician, State of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife:
“Oh, yeah, I’m a crab eater. I like them with spice and I like them hot. That’s about the only way I
know. We have them at our swim club. Hot, I think they’re better that way. What, you eat them cold?”
Richard Wong, biometrician, State of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife:
“What do I like about working with crabs? I like the fact that they taste good. They’re one of my
favorite things to eat.”
Brandon Muffley, Bureau Chief for Marine Fisheries, New Jersey Division of Fish
and Wildlife:
“Blue crab is one of my absolute favorite seafoods. I’ll tell you, all this talk about crabs, I’m
gonna get some tonight, some beer and crabs (laughs). I like blue crab better than Alaskan
King Crab and those sorts of things.”
Paul Jivoff, associate professor at Rider University:
“A crab eater? Absolutely. In Maryland (where he got his Ph.D.) crabs are part of the historical
and social fabric of the state. It’s part of what people do in the summer. I myself have caught a
10-inch crab. I was on my belly at the bow of the boat and out comes this guy who barely fit into
my net (laughs). When we bring crabs back for processing we take data on them, keep some for
freezing the sperm, the majority we let go, but we do have an opportunity to take some back for
eating.” (We bet you do, Professor!)
familiar Old Bay seasoning. guards who haul crabs from the Jersey
Uman says he is the only area retailer shore of Delaware Bay in their off time.
bringing in the Mexican crabs, which he “It’s still a small business,” he said. “Guy
often uses in preparing garlic crabs, another goes out in a little boat, catches eight, ten
dish he claims to have pioneered here. “I bushels, sells it to a broker who buys from
had them in Florida or somewhere, thought the small crabbers, he puts it on a truck or
it would work here. It just became huge and air freights it. You buy them and throw out
now everybody does it. My garlic crab the dead ones. I don’t touch dead ones and
business is about 70 percent of what I do.” sometimes that can be half your load.
It’s tough to get a perfect grip on just “I get crabs all year long from New Jer-
how abundant or vulnerable the crab sey, which some people don’t understand;
population may be in New Jersey, but it doesn’t make sense, but we do. Starting
there is no denying that the appetite for December 1 the guys dredge them, take a
crabs has exploded, here and everywhere dredge along the bottom and pull up the
else. That appetite has global ramifications. crabs, which are cold but alive. We liven
The famous Phillips Seafood Restaurant, them up in cold water, purge them of mud,

One year-long study said 82% of all crabs harvested in New Jersey are males.
riod.” Now, he said, a bushel of true Num-
ber 1 will contain about 70 crabs.
People like their crabs big, which is why
Uman receives from a business friend in
Mexico three shipments a week of blue
swimming crabs from the Pacific coast of
the Baja Peninsula. They’re much larger,
denser crabs than blue crabs, he said, with
a similar taste, but not as spicy because
they’re cooked in Mexico without the
whose outlets include Baltimore, Ocean
City, Maryland, and various airports, now
imports nearly 100 percent of its crabmeat
from facilities it maintains in Asia, accord-
ing to one published report.
But the gathering of crabs is no different
in Asia than it is here in New Jersey, where
individual fishermen head out in small
boats and check their crab pots. Restau-
ranteur Uman knows of some prison
and as far as I’m concerned it’s a really
good, tasty crab.”
Brandon Muffley, Bureau Chief for Ma-
rine Fisheries, said that New Jersey regu-
lates both types of commercial crab
fishing, capping the number of licensed
crab pot fisherman at 312. These are the
warm-weather operations operating in the
Delaware Bay and the coastal estuaries
such as Barnegat Bay, Great Bay Mullica

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 15

 What we eat
River and Little Egg Harbor, which collect
about 80 percent of the annual crab haul.
There are far fewer dredging licenses and
those operators catch the balance, scrap-
ing up dormant crabs dug in for the winter.
“The idea of getting a bushel of crabs
is more of a social, summertime thing, so
the guys (crabbers) will bring the crabs
in when the market really wants it, July
into late summer and early Fall,” said
Muffley. “I think a lot of crabs in the win-
ter go toward processing crab cakes,
things like that.”
According to retailer Uman, if October is
warm “it’s probably the best month for
crabs because they’ve fattened up, they’re
full of meat. And crabs that come from the
“The crab population is driven mostly by Mother Nature.”
bay areas, around marshes, from brackish
water, are the sweetest crabs, better than
ocean crabs.”
While some experts warn of a waning
crab population, state scientists working in
New Jersey waters are reassuring about
the current crab population.
“We feel that the effort that’s going on
in the fishery is sustainable,” Muffley said.
“If we can’t sustain then we’re not looking
to increase the commercial harvest at all.
We feel that the landings (catches) have
been sustainable over the past 25, 20
years, so we think the resource is fully
sustainable, is doing fine.”
Even though he is concerned about the Paul Jivoff, associate professor, Rider University
eventual reproductive life of crabs, Rider
University’s Jivoff said that “in Barnegat mate of the population. Given the fact
Bay it doesn’t seem that the blue crab pop- that one crab releases millions of larvae
ulation is what a fisheries manager would that go into the ocean water column and
call overfished.” try to make it back, population estimates
Fisheries experts spend countless hours have to be taken with a pinch of Old Bay.
trying to balance the resource with the But one body working to revive the blue
catch, often using surveys of tiny crabs crab stock in the Chesapeake Bay recently
dredged in the winter to attempt an esti- put the crab stock there at 658 million.
New Jersey officials don’t make such es-
timates, deferring to “stock assessments”
made by their Delaware counterparts in
the Delaware Bay, which is sailed by New
Jersey crabbers from Cape May, Cumber-
land and Salem counties.
Do humans pose the biggest threat to
crab populations? Hardly, said fisheries
expert Muffley.
“The population of blue crabs is very
dependent on environmental conditions,
and by environmental I mean winds, cur-
rents, how cold or mild a winter may be.
The population is driven mostly by
Mother Nature and not necessarily pollu-
tion or fishing or those sorts of things,
which can obviously have an effect, but
largely it is Mother Nature.”
Once crab larvae drifts out to the ocean
and develops into miniscule crabs, these
hundreds of millions (billions?) of
crablings depend on currents and winds
to bring them back to the estuary. But ex-
perts say there are 101 species of sea life
that prey on crabs, especially when they
are very small. Flounder, sea turtles, and
puffer fish are among them. And crabs
are a favorite of striped bass, which were
protected in Delaware Bay for so long that
many are huge and fill their bellies with
crabs. (Another major predator: other
crabs. See sidebar page 13.)
Is pollution a threat?
Along with federal experts, scientists at
Rutgers University have been issuing
warnings about high levels of nitrogen
and nutrients running off developed
lands into Barnegat Bay. But in his years
of working with crabs in that estuary,
Professor Jivoff said at this point con-
sumers of crabs have nothing immediate
to worry about.
“One of the nice aspects of South Jer-
sey is that the waters are relatively clear,
especially the Great Bay Mullica River,”
he said. He agrees that the kind of nutri-
ent overload cited by Rutgers researchers
is a problem. “But in terms of nasty, toxic
chemicals, those two estuaries are rela-
tively clean. One of the hot spots would
be up around Newark; the state has a
challenge getting the word out to those
local folks, but I don’t think that’s an
issue in South Jersey.” ■

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 17

JerseyMan Magazine

♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦

Can You Really

How a “Dumb Jock” Learned
to Count Cards Just Enough
to Inflame the House

18 jerseymanmagazine.com
♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠

Crack Black Jack?

ARTICLE BY KEN DUNEK

I can relate to the folks who are out of work

now because in 1986 that’s exactly where I was. Oh, I had some
money in the bank, coming off a short, but tremendously enjoy-
able pro football career. But I needed to bring in some money
while I searched for a new career. What I turned to surprised most
people. I played casino blackjack for a living.

And I won.

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 19

♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠
Blackjack Rules
are Simple,
But Winning
Can Be Difficult
The game of blackjack is based on the
number 21. Aces can be counted as 1 or
11, face cards count as 10, and all other
cards are counted as the number on the
card. Your cards are dealt face up, but
the dealer receives one card face down
and one face up. Subsequent cards
to all players are delivered face up, in
rotation around the table. The dealer
stands on his hand until all other players
have busted or stood or a player shows
blackjack
Your quest is to be closer to 21 than the
dealer, without going over that number.
If you continue taking cards (“hits”) and
exceed 21, you automatically lose the
hand (“bust”) and the dealer scoops up
your chips. If you stop taking cards
(“stand”) and are closer to 21 than the
dealer, you win your bet. Ties (called a
“push”) result in no chips being ex-
changed. The dealer must take another
card (“hit”) with a 16 or under, but the
player has the option to stand (not take a
hit) at any time.
Other options: The player can “double
down” (double their bet) after the first two
cards or split pairs to make two hands,
each requiring a bet.
Basic strategy cards are available in any
casino gift shop. The house (casino) will
have a ½ to 1% edge on a player who
plays basic strategy. An aggressive card
counter can turn that into a 1 to 2% ad-
vantage for himself or herself.
20 jerseymanmagazine.com
The key was counting cards, some-
thing people know about but few people
understand. I’m here to tell you it can be
done. But beware, because it’s not as
easy it may seem from the outside.
In 1962 Edward Thorp authored a
book titled Beat the Dealer, and it went
straight to the New York Times Best Seller
List in 1963. Based on the existing rules
of blackjack at that time, it informed the
novice player how to keep track of high
cards (A,K,Q,J,10), neutral cards (9,8,7),
and low cards (6,5,4,3,2,).
That helps the player make an edu-
cated guess about what cards are left in
the shoe that holds the cards and how to
“
vary their bets accordingly. For example,
when many low cards come out of the
shoe early, that means there are many
high cards yet to come, which creates
”
I swaggered in and threw $9,500 on
the table. I was immediately swarmed by
the floor person, pit boss, shift manager,
and casino host.
better odds for the player – a positive
count. But more high cards coming out
of the shoe early in the game creates a
negative count, which is disadvantageous
to the player.
If card counting is such a valuable tool
for winning, how can it be that the casinos
are still in business? With all this infor-
mation out there, why aren’t card players
armed with this knowledge breaking the
bank? Interesting question, isn’t it? Let
me explain.
My good friend Tommy Hyland from
Marlton introduced me to card counting
in 1986. My professional football career
had just ended and I was looking for a
way to supplement my income until I
launched another career. He began play-
ing in Atlantic City the day the doors
opened at Resorts in 1979, parlaying a
$4,000 investment into $50,000 in his
first year. Let me emphasize here that
Tommy is one of the most honest and
ethical individuals I have ever met, and
would never cheat anyone out of a
plugged nickel. So when he approached
me about playing blackjack, I was confi-
dent everything was on the up and up.
He explained the card counting system
to me, and we spent the next several
weeks practicing on his kitchen table
until I could keep the count, a running
count of the points of cards that had left
the shoe. Then I had to convert it to the
“true” count.
The true count results from dividing
the running count by the number of
decks left in play. For example, if the run-
ning count is plus 9, and there are 3
decks left in play, the true count is plus 3.
I used that true count to make my deci-
sions whether to take a hit (another card)
or stand (stay pat) with the cards I had.
Usually a true count of plus 2 or better is
an advantage bet for the player. Anytime
the true count is worse than negative 1
it’s time to look for another table and a
fresh shuffle.
Once I passed Tommy’s test, it was
time for me to dive into the deep and
treacherous waters of the Atlantic City
casinos. The first stop was the Golden
Nugget.
I swaggered in with my NFC Champi-
onship* ring proudly displayed on my
right ring finger, threw $9,500 on the table
and asked for chips. I was immediately
swarmed by the floor person, pit boss,
shift manager, and casino host, all wel-
coming me to their fine establishment.
♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥♣♦♠♥
Offers of limos, free dinners, and compli-
mentary rooms soon followed. “What
hospitality!” I thought to myself. Little did
I know that their mood would change
dramatically within a matter of days.
I began my play at a $50 minimum
table and began to count down the shoe.
It was midweek and no one else was
playing high stakes, so my advantage
against the house was even greater. (A
card counter would rather play against
the dealer one-on-one because it reduces
the risk of the other players getting the
better cards.) I was waiting for the mo-
ment when the deck would be tilted in
my favor. It didn’t take long before a
flurry of small cards came out of the deck
shoe (which held six decks) and my true
count soared to a true plus 4. It was time
to make my move.
I put out two bets of $500 dollars each
and watched the floor person scurry to
the phone with a report on my increased
bet. I won both hands, and the next two,
and the next. I was up around $3,000 in
just a few minutes when the deck evened
out and I reduced my bets back to the
minimum. Again, the floor person re-
ported my betting pattern to whoever
was on the other end of the phone.
Very soon I noticed several “suits”
standing in the background watching my
play. When I asked the dealer what was
going on, she whispered to me, “They
think you’re counting cards.” I made
some joke about being a dumb jock and
failing math in high school, but the suits
remained steadfast. I ended the four-
hour session up about $2,000, and the
monitors watched me walk out the exit.
Subsequently, every time I sat down to
play, the same “guards” came briskly to
the table.
After a few sessions I noticed the dealer
receiving instructions from the pit boss
and moving the yellow “cut card” up,
eliminating almost half the cards in the
shoe from being in play. The cut card is
used by the dealer to take a certain num-
ber of cards out of play. On a six-deck
shoe, she or he will cut out one-and-a-half
decks; on an eight-deck shoe, maybe two
decks go. Since a player can walk away
from the negative shoe, the higher the cut
card, the quicker a positive shoe ends
early. This is a ploy used by casinos to
help negate a card counter’s advantage.
When I asked the head man why they
moved the card up, I received a frosty
reply of “house decision.” The next time
the shoe was rich and I increased my bet,
one of the monitors tapped my dealer on
the shoulder and announced “shuffle.” I
was incredulous.
“What the heck are you doing?” I
asked him. “House decision,” sang the
chorus of monitors. It became a routine:
Ken Dunek
I increased my bet, they shuffled the
cards. My ability to profit from the game
vanished as quickly as the offers of free
rooms and show tickets. I was no longer You Think You
greeted as “Mr. D.” I was now an unwel-
come guest. Know Blackjack?
I had done nothing other than play by
the rules displayed at the table. Minimum Why does the house have any edge
bet $50, maximum bet $10,000; all splits
and doubles and insurance rules were
at all? I get two cards, and the
posted and I followed them to the letter. dealer gets two cards. I can split
But they no longer wanted my action. Of and double, and the dealer must hit
course, the next drunken tourist that 16 or under. Where’s the edge?
came to the same table with a fistful of
cash was treated like royalty. It was then The edge for the house in blackjack is
that I got a true taste of the curse of ad-
based on your making the first decision. If
vantage play, or card counting.
A casino only wants your action when you play aggressively and bust against an
it holds the odds. But card counters unknown dealer hand, you have beaten
change those odds, and the house will yourself before the dealer has to play his
make your play as uncomfortable as pos- or her cards.
sible until you leave. In Atlantic City, they
shuffle the cards on you. In Las Vegas, Why does the fact that high cards
they can ask you to leave and threaten
remain in the shoe give the player
you with arrest for not leaving private
property. And some casinos in the the edge? The dealer can get the
Caribbean have been known to pull a same two high cards and get 20 or
gun on you, take your winnings back and blackjack.
put you in jail on some trumped-up
charge. Seems like harsh medicine for First of all, the house will pay you 3-2 on
being a capable card player, doesn’t it?
a blackjack, while you only have to pay the
Tommy Hyland has been able to con-
tinue his career using disguises and other house even money. Secondly, you can
means of throwing casino management split and double down, while the house
off the hunt. So, get your wig out of the cannot. So if you have a rich deck and
closet and head down to the Jersey shore. have a 10 or 11 against a dealer’s 5 or 6,
Your fortune awaits, but it ain’t easy. you can increase your bet and make more
Believe me. ■
money. Finally, you can stand against the
*Ken Dunek was a member of the 1980 Philadelphia dealer and not bust. So if you have a 14
Eagles team that went to the Super Bowl and later versus a dealer’s 6 up card, why not let the
won championship rings with the United States dealer hit until he or she busts?
Football League Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars.
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 21
JerseyMan Magazine

Smoking in the
Girls Room
How much can a woman really
know about cigars?

She lights up.

You decide.
BY ALYSON BOXMAN LEVINE

S
itting in the ballroom of
a famed New York City
hotel, surrounded by
over one hundred cigar-
smoking women, may
seem an odd way to
spend the evening for
some people, but as the
Editor-in-Chief of SMOKE magazine, a
men’s cigar lifestyle publication, for me
it was just another Tuesday night.
While living in New York City, I hosted
numerous cigar dinners, many of which
were “ladies only” events. Sitting in a
large room filled with women all puffing
away on cigars, I came to the realization
that women smoke cigars for exactly the
same reasons men do — relaxation, en-
joyment, and camaraderie. After welcom-
ing the attendees and introducing myself,
I begin to share something that had hap-
pened in midtown a few days earlier:
Racing into my favorite cigar shop during
my lunch break to grab a few Arturo
Fuente Hemingway Short Stories, my then
current cigar du jour, the salesman inside
the walk-in humidor asked, “May I ask
whom you are purchasing these cigars
for?” as other male shoppers looked on.
This is a typical question asked whenever
a woman enters a cigar shop, and usually
I simply smile and go about my shopping.
But this time I replied, “I just need a few
to hold me over until I leave for Hon-
duras. Can I bring you back anything?”
The look on his face was priceless.
As many of the women laughed and
nodded at my anecdote — having them-
selves experienced similar treatment in-
side a cigar boutique — I took out a
Churchill and placed it on the table be-
fore me. I always began my cigar discus-
sions with the complete dissection of a
premium smoke. Many cigar smokers are
unaware that premium cigars are actually
made up of three distinct parts: the filler,
the binder, and the wrapper. The filler is
the tobacco that forms the center of the
Alyson Boxman Levine
cigar and is generally responsible for the
Five Quality Premium Cigars for Under $10
Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story: Medium-bodied, made in the Dominican Republic
with a Cameroon wrapper.
Davidoff Avo No. 2: A mild-to medium-bodied cigar, with a Connecticut shade wrapper;
binder from Ecuador, with Dominican filler.
Dunhill Diamantes: Mild- to medium-bodied, Dunhill cigars are created using tobacco from
one specific crop only, resulting in a consistent taste. The wrapper is from Connecticut, the binder
from the Dominican Republic; the filler is from the Dominican Republic and Brazil.
Rocky Patel ITC 10th Anniversary: Spicy and very complex, this is the company’s first
Nicaraguan Puro using binder and filler tobacco from three different regions in Nicaragua.
The wrapper is a Cuban seed corojo, also grown in Nicaragua.
Zino Mouton Cadet No. 8 Tubo: Specially selected for Baronne Philippine de Rothschild, this
cigar is handmade in Honduras and offers connoisseurs a cigar rich in aroma yet mild in taste.

22 jerseymanmagazine.com

strength of the cigar. The binder is the in-
termediate leaf used to hold the filler to-
bacco together, while the wrapper is the
beautiful outside layer of tobacco leaf
that gives a cigar one of its primary flavor
components.
One of the inevitable questions asked
during these dinners is, “What is so great
about Cuban cigars?” I always answer
that question the same way. While there
are great Cuban cigars out there, I reply,
there are also countless exceptional ci-
gars from the Dominican Republic, Hon-
duras and Nicaragua, as well as other
parts of the world. For example, I have
had the pleasure of experiencing won-
derful cigars from far-off locales such as
the Canary Islands, so it is essential not
to limit yourself to one region. A great
A great deal of the mystique of
Cuban cigars stems from the
fact that they are forbidden.
As we all know, when something is forbidden,
it becomes that much more coveted.
deal of the mystique of Cuban cigars
stems from the fact that they are forbid-
den in the United States due to a long-
standing embargo of Cuban imports. And
as we all know, when something is
forbidden, it becomes that much more
coveted. If you simply must try a Cuban
cigar, stay clear of the Internet. Instead,
when traveling outside the United States
on business or pleasure, stroll into a local
cigar shop and pick out a forbidden
Cuban gem of your choice.
As the event progressed, and while dis-
cussing the pairing of a Partagas Aristo-
crat with a well-heeled Riesling, I began
to appreciate the similarities between the
various wine-growing regions around the
world and the multitude of cigar-produc-
ing regions. I would always end these
events with a cigarillo — a small, quick,
and tasty treat that fits nicely into your
purse and is perfect for a sophisticated
smoke at the end of a beautiful celebra-
tion. I got hooked on these while travel-
ing in Europe the prior year and always
recommend the Davidoff Mini Cigarillo.
If you are looking for a great place to
find cigars in the southern New Jersey
area, check out Hemingway’s Cigar
Shop in Marlton, 856-985-7580, or The
Cigar Boxx, in Northfield, 609-568-5656.
If you are searching for a shop in another
area, check out the International Pre-
mium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Associa-
tion’s Web site at RTDA.org. They have
a listing of tobacconists grouped by
state. If you still can’t find your favorite
stick, then mail order is another option.
JR Cigars (jrcigars.com) and Thompson
Cigar (thompsoncigar.com) are two rep-
utable companies that carry practically
every brand imaginable.
As the evening came to end, I was sur-
rounded by like-minded cigar zealots.
One can not help but sense a strong and
vivid feeling of camaraderie and friend-
ship based on a common appreciation for
the finer things in life. Looking back
fondly on my cigar evenings in New York
City, these sophisticated women cigar
smokers are etched in my memory as we
collectively raised our glasses and toasted
the magical powers of cigars. ■
Former Editor-in-Chief of SMOKE maga-
zine and past Editor-in-Chief of TRUMP
WORLD magazine, Alyson currently
resides in Linwood, NJ, with her hus-
band and young son.
Top 10 Cigar
Smoking Tips
1. Do not inhale…cigars are a treat for
your mouth, not your lungs.
2. Try different brands and sizes until you
find your favorites. Different countries
of origin provide very distinctive fla-
vors. Accordingly, don’t limit yourself
to only one country of origin.
3. Befriend your local tobacconist. The
good ones offer a wealth of knowledge
and always can recommend the
newest brands.
4. A good cigar does not have to cost a
small fortune. There are countless
great cigars for under $10.
5. Some premium cigar connoisseurs
prefer the neatness of punch cutters,
but for me most any type of cigar cut-
ter works just fine. Remember to cut
just the cap off of the cigar, about 1/4
inch, nothing more.
6. Do not be afraid to put your cigar
down in an ashtray between puffs. A
good cigar will remain lit for a few
minutes.
7. Never flick your ash. Let it fall off nat-
urally or with little assistance. I have
seen some ash get to a few inches in
length. This is one tell-tale sign of a
quality stick.
8. When storing your cigars, use the
70/70 rule: 70 degrees Fahrenheit and
70 percent humidity.
9. Experiment with pairing your
favorite cocktail with your cigar.
You will be amazed at the flavors
your mouth experiences.
10. Cigars are meant to be celebrated and
shared. And remember, cigars are a
hobby…not a habit.
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 23
EAGLES BROADCASTER

MERRILL REESE
LETS LOOSE
A
ll the while he was rounding up shopping carts at the Acme in Atlantic City, or bussing tables, or demonstrating
magic tricks for cash on the Boardwalk, Merrill Reese was driven by only two passions – playing tennis and
announcing sports.
“Our family had a summer home there and I had a bunch of summer jobs growing up,” the Voice of the
Eagles said recently. “I graduated from Temple and my friend was doing an evening disc jockey show from
this remote booth right in front of Steel Pier. I’d play tennis by day, then listen to the Phillies at night and
write sports scores.
“Steve invited me to go on once an hour – without clearing it with the station – so I’d shoot down there
and do sports once an hour. The station guys probably heard it and thought, ‘Great,
here is this dope doing sports and we don’t have to pay him’.”
Turns out the kid wasn’t so dopey after all. The practice paid off, and Merrill Reese is enjoying his
34th year of broadcasting the Eagles this Fall. He considers it the greatest compliment of all that
his name is mentioned up there with the handful of Philadelphia’s sportscasting icons – Kalas,
Campbell and one other gentleman he met early on.
“After midnight we would go down to a little bar on New York Avenue and talk
with another guy who primarily was a school teacher, but also did sports. No drinking,
just a rare roast beef and cole slaw sandwich, and we’d talk about sports and
everything else. I got to know and appreciate that man, spent the summer hanging
out with him.
“That teacher’s name was Gene Hart.”
Such are the anecdotes that spilled forth from veteran sportscaster Reese
during a one-hour interview with JerseyMan Magazine Publisher Ken
Dunek and Editor Lou Antosh. The venerable Eagles announcer shared
his picks for the best of Philly’s gridiron players and sports announcers. He
chimed in on various topics: Eagles fans, Donovan McNabb, Ricky Watters,
the future of Brian Westbrook, and much more. And he disclosed how he
was stung when he was passed over for a 1980 NFC championship ring when
distant celebrities – Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles – were gifted the ring by
team owner Leonard Tose.
All of this is offered in a voice seldom heard by his radio fans. It is softer, calmer,
although always enthusiastic. One wonders if anyone would ever recognize this
Merrill over the airwaves. Near the interview’s end, he spoke of his pre-game preparation
and tension, describing the lead-in to the first second of broadcast. Only then does he
flick the inner switch to illustrate that first moment of broadcast, and the booming
Reese we all know emerges:
“THE SKY IS GRAY, IT’S DECEMBER SERIOUS HERE AT LAMBEAU…”
Enjoy!

24 jerseymanmagazine.com
 PHOTO: MILES KENNEDY

JERSEYMAN: What are your thoughts

on the Eagles quarterback situation?
REESE: The Eagles now have two quar-
terbacks that are worthy of being starters,
and that’s a good situation.
Kevin Kolb has been named NFC Player
of the Week twice, so he obviously can
play. Michael Vick is one of the most
physically gifted quarterbacks I have ever
seen and gives the Birds a great chance to
win every time he steps on the field. His
elusiveness can mask any shortcomings Mike Vick Kevin Kolb
the Eagles may have on their offensive

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 25

line because of injuries, and coupled with
his amazing arm it makes him a very
tough player to defend.
The bottom line is that the Philadelphia
Eagles can win with either of these quar-
terbacks.
JERSEYMAN: Talk about some Eagles
quarterbacks.
REESE: To me, from the neck up, just
the neck up, the greatest quarterback I
have ever seen is Jim McMahon. He had
the attitude, the kind of toughness you
need. He was one tough cookie. He was
a real throwback and I loved the guy.
Buddy Ryan used to say, “I don’t want
guys who want to win. I want guys who
will pay the price to win.” That was
McMahon. Jaworski was a very confident
guy. Randall Cunningham was a very
confident guy. In my 34th season, if you
ask me who is the greatest athlete I’ve
Randall Cunningham
been around in football, it would be Ran-
dall. He had more unique talent. He
could leap. He had an arm that was a ver-
itable canon. Elusiveness. Grace. He
could kick. He had it all, could do any-
thing. However, he was not a student of
the game. He needed a strong coach on
top of him but Buddy basically said to
him, “Make three or five great plays a
game.” Randall’s a wonderful person, a
marvelous athlete, the greatest talent I
have ever seen, but not a student of the
game.
26 jerseymanmagazine.com
JERSEYMAN: What about Donovan
McNabb?
REESE: I love Donovan. I think Dono-
van McNabb is the best quarterback, most
productive quarterback, in the history of
this franchise. But unfortunately he was in
the West Coast system. If you look at quar-
terbacks in that system, primarily Joe
Montana, the quarterback has a very ac-
curate arm. Donovan was good, but he
did not have an overly accurate arm. Now,
you have Donovan throwing a 9-pattern
downfield there is nobody like him. A re-
ceiver is cutting across the field 35 yards
down, nobody can put the ball in that sit-
uation like Donovan when he is right.
JERSEYMAN: But you’ve been critical
in the past?
REESE: When Donovan started out in
the first half against Arizona two years ago
and threw bouncing balls, I said on the air
you can’t do that. I didn’t call for them to
bench him but I said, “This is hurting the
football team.” And I love him personally,
he’s the greatest guy in the world.”
JERSEYMAN: Have you ever wanted to
criticize a player and held back?
REESE: I try to be as honest as I can. I
have a governor on myself in that I will
never call for someone’s job. I will never
say it is time to change coaches or criti-
cize a general manager or an owner or
something like that because it is going too
far. Obviously I love the Eagles. I want
them to win. My voice reflects the great
things that happen and you can hear
when I’m not happy. But I respect the
fans. Sid Gillman used to say, “There are
60 million offensive coordinators out there
watching.” I love the Phillies, the Flyers,
the Sixers. But they can take all the sur-
veys they want, in my opinion the team
closest to the heart of this city is the
Philadelphia Eagles. So they know what
they’re doing and it’s not my job to try to
sell them a bill of goods or promote the
team. My job is to describe as honestly
and clearly as I can what is happening.”
JERSEYMAN: You are employed by?
REESE: CBS Radio, I’m sure with the
approval of the club. I don’t think (radio
station) WYSP or anybody could name a
broadcaster without the club approving.
JERSEYMAN: What are the common
misconceptions about football players?
REESE: The biggest misconception is the
fact that people say “Football players are…”
The stereotyping of athletes is a great mis-
take, the biggest misconception. Athletes
are not one thing. You have 54 individuals,
some egotistical, some unapproachable,
some who are extremely cooperative and
warm. Some players are careful with their
money, others take their first check to buy
a Hummer or Bentley. But you can general-
ize a little bit by positions.
JERSEYMAN: Can you give examples?
REESE: The offensive linemen are
thinkers and very analytical about things,
while the defensive linemen have more
aggressive natures. I think, by and large,
that wide receivers tend to have large
egos. There are defensive linemen who
are intelligent, of course, but as a rule your
offensive linemen are quieter guys who
keep to themselves. The only wide re-
ceivers who are not in the least bit egotis-
tical are Mike Quick, the best guy you
could want to meet, and Harold
Carmichael. Quarterbacks have to be
cocky. The best quarterbacks have to be-
lieve they can not lose. Given enough
time, they have to think they can pull out
any game.
JERSEYMAN: What do you think is
Brian Westbrook’s future?
REESE: I worry about the fact that he’s
had two serious concussions and I’d hate
to see him get into his 40s and have trouble
Brian Westbrook
remembering his own name. We’ve
always had a great relationship. He’s very
bright and he should go into a front office.
He has the ability to be a general manager
some day; that’s the kind of intelligence
and knowledge and intuitiveness that
Brian Westbrook has. I guess football
players are like boxers. They want one
more fight.
JERSEYMAN: Your book talks about
Ricky Watters.
REESE: He was in the locker room be-
fore the Eagles announced his signing, no-
body else was there, and I walked up,
stuck out my hand and said, “Hi, Ricky,
I’m Merrill Reese, I broadcast the games,
nice to meet you.” He looked at me,
(team GM under Tose), a great guy who JERSEYMAN: Have you read the re-
was no longer with the team, took me cent book about the late Harry Kalas that
aside. He said it had always bothered him delves into the darker side of his life?
that I never got a ring. I told him it was REESE: I have a problem with it. Harry
years ago, decades ago, and I love what I was an icon. Why did we need that after
do. He told me to find out my ring size and he’s gone? There is no doubt everyone
leave him a message. Weeks later I got a
voicemail saying “Merrill, I don’t care
what you have planned today, be at the Vet
at 3:30 this afternoon.” So I cancelled
plans and went through the empty
stadium to the broadcast booth and Jim
Murray walked in and did a little ceremony
to present me with that ring. That ring
means as much to me as the 2005 NFC
championship ring. Now I want one that
says, “World Champion,” a Super Bowl ring.

“HARRY WAS A
turned his head and walked away. Then
at training camp, where nobody worked

WONDERFUL GUY
harder than him, he stood around with

AND OBVIOUSLY A
writers and was very funny and charming.
After the writers dispersed I said to him,

GREAT ANNOUNCER.”
“Ricky I enjoy watching the way you pre-
pare.” He turned his head and walked Harry Kalas
away. Two games into the season I was in-
vited to a TV Monday night show he co-
hosted, so the show is on and Ricky
announces me as the “Golden Voice of the
Philadelphia Eagles.” We’re chatting on air
and I’m thinking now, “I can feel com-
fortable with him.” The show ends, I get
my mike off and Ricky is on the side. I
extend my hand and say “Thanks for
having me on the show tonight.” He
turned around and walked away. I wrote
about it in book. I never had any interac-
tion with Watters ever.
JERSEYMAN: Tell us about the 1980
NFC ring incident?
REESE: When the rings came out, I
didn’t get one. I didn’t expect one. Later I
was bothered when my dear friend, Jack
Edelstein, the statistician, got one and the
guard got a ring and then Don Rickles and
Frank Sinatra got rings because they were
friends of Len Tose (former team owner).
I felt badly because even though I didn’t
throw a pass or tackle, I had a much
greater association with the team, I was
the liaison between the fans and team. I
didn’t feel bitter, but I felt like I had
missed out.
In 2002 I was sitting in a press dining
room after a playoff game and Jim Murray

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 27


knew Harry could drink a tremendous
amount, and the fact he could go on the
air the next day was amazing. But Harry
was a wonderful guy and obviously a
great announcer.
JERSEYMAN: Is it true that you use
flashcards to memorize player numbers
and names?
REESE: Yes. I feel each week the way
you feel when you go into a final exam
where you want to get it right. You don’t
want to say something stupid or misiden-
tify the wide receiver on the touchdown
that wins the game. So I work hard and
never stop working hard because I never
take it for granted. I never say, “Ah, this is
just a preseason game.” I prepare harder
for them because you have 80-man rosters
in pre-season and probably 45 are known
only to their mothers. Billie Jean King told
me that she got into this visualization the-
ory and before Wimbledon she would ac-
tually sit quietly, relax and visualize herself
on the grass court winning point after
point. So after that before a game I would
take a bath, lie back in the water and vi-
sualize the Giants player numbers, for ex-
H
ow often does a bona fide icon provide a step-by-step manual on how to
become as successful as he has? With his new book Sportscasting: Turning Your
Passion into a Profession, Philadelphia Eagles play-by-play announcer
Merrill Reese has done just that.
This work is Reese’s follow up in writing to try and achieve the same success he has
had behind the microphone. His initial work, It’s Goooood! (Sports Publishing Inc.
1998) goes into detail of his many years of Eagle highlights and memories. With this
book however, Reese (who is compact in stature but with the pipes of Luciano
Pavarotti ) provides an interesting insight on how to get into the business, the dif-
ferences in radio and television, the intricacies of calling different sports, and how
to become a polished professional and stay in the business.
In a word, the common theme that threads throughout this work is preparation. Merrill
Reese loves what he does with every fiber of his being, and because he is so
passionate about his job, he enjoys doing the homework that has helped endear him
to the legions of Eagle fans across the country. There are uncountable hundreds of
“Iggles fans” who watch the games on TV, but turn the volume down and tune into
Reese and his partner ex-Eagle WR Mike Quick to get the hometown flavor they provide.
So if you have a hankering to get into sports broadcast, or know someone
does, this book will undoubtedly be of substantial help. It can be purchased at
www.merrillreese.com. Like Reese’s initial effort… IT’S GOOOOOD!
– by Ken Dunek

“BILL CAMPBELL IS THE

BEST BROADCASTER
lungs. I have Mike next to me needing to REESE: It’s a dream come true. I just
come in with a comment. I visualize all consider myself tremendously fortunate. I

IN THE HISTORY OF
of that in that 10 minutes of relaxation so love every single second of the job. I love
I can handle it all. And by the way, we do the preparation during the week. I love the

PHILADELPHIA,
love being there. We are enjoying it. fact that I wake up on game day nervous

BAR NONE.”
ample. Visualize the booth, what’s going
on, maybe take ten minutes to do that. Just
to get ready. The best compliment is when
people say, “You and Mike sound like
you’re having a lot of fun.” Well, we are,
but there is so much going on. The atmos-
phere is exciting. I have a producer stand-
ing beside me to cue me for breaks, I have
a statistician standing there showing me
different numbers. On my left is my spot-
ter, who has a board with all the player
numbers, giving me hand signals. I follow
the ball and can’t see it all, so he will give
me a hand signal – we have about 50 of
them – saying, “A good block by,” then he
points to the number. I have 60,000 or
70,000 people screaming at the top of their
JERSEYMAN: Who was the greatest
sportscaster in Philadelphia history?
REESE: I remember as a little kid going
out to Franklin Field and looking up at Bill
Campbell. He is the best broadcaster in the
history of the city, bar none — radio and
television. Because here is a guy who did
the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers, the War-
riors, the Big 5, the Penn Relays. He’s the
best interviewer I ever heard in my life. I
like his commentary on KYW. Bill today at
86 is as vibrant and filled with great sto-
ries as he ever was. Just a magnificent
broadcaster and he is a great friend. I look
at Bill and his wife Jo as family. My wife
and I have gone to all their celebrations –
they renewed their wedding vows after
their 50th wedding anniversary, Bill’s 80th
birthday. They’re like family to us.
JERSEYMAN: You sit in his seat now
as the Eagles broadcaster.
and scared to death when I drive down. I
have breakfast at home or back at the
hotel, because once I get to the stadium I
can’t even look at food. And once we get
closer and closer to airtime I can just feel
the tension build. Before the game most
of the time I’d spend in the broadcast
booth just watching them go through
warm-ups, quietly charting the kickers
and witnessing what they’re doing. And
going over the identification of the num-
bers. And just feel the tension build. And
my producer says, “60 seconds.” I can re-
ally feel this… my heart pounding. But the
second Joe cues me and I go, “THE SKY IS
GRAY, IT’S DECEMBER SERIOUS HERE
IN LAMBEAU…” And it all goes away. For
the next three hours I feel like I’m float-
ing. And they could probably set off a fire-
cracker in the back of the booth and I
wouldn’t hear it. ■

28 jerseymanmagazine.com
 TechTime
IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS WITH
A POCKET VIDEO CAMERA FOR ABOUT $150
I
didn’t exactly make my friend’s day when I
brought the Kodak Zi8 pocket video cam-
era to our New Jersey diner lunch. He is a
professional videographer who’s been too
busy shouldering his equipment to inves-
tigate those little digital things people are carrying
around on their person.
So when I opened the ham-sandwich-sized carry-
ing case to reveal both the camera and a clever desk-
top tripod, he gave me a curious squint.
I clicked on a video clip and held out the 2.5 inch
color LCD screen to him, saying, “I didn’t have the
HD setting on when I recorded this, so it’s not really
TV quality.” He watched the clip for 15 seconds,
looked at me and said:
“Yeah, it is.”
With a somewhat pained expression, he asked,
“Exactly how much would something like this set
you back?”
“A hundred forty or fifty, I forget which.”
More pain was evident as he shook his head and
said, “I just paid $5,000 for a new camera.”
Don’t be misled. The Zi8 will not take the place of a
high-end HD video camera. For one thing, the zoom
is only 4x optical. But in terms of quality, the Zi8
provides better results than the $500 palm-held
video camera we purchased two years ago. (That
camera had “HD” plastered all over its box, leading
us to think, “Wow, high-def.” What it really meant
was that the camera had a “hard drive.”)
In terms of quality, the
The Zi8 is one of a breed of small cameras popular-
Zi8 provides better ized by the Flip Video camera several years ago.
When I first saw a Flip, I wondered, “Why the
name?” since no flip action was visible. The Zi8 has
results than the $500 a USB connector that flips out of the top of the unit,
and I’m guessing that’s the key. I’m probably wrong,
palm-held video camera so let me know.
My first video with the Zi8 consisted of some shots
we purchased of the little ones and a weary mommy. I plugged the
USB into the laptop, clicked the clip and was amazed
two years ago. at the quality from a phone-sized camera. Robust
color, razor sharp definition. Good-bye, bulky cases
and two-pound palm cameras.
The Zi8 is maybe a half inch longer than my
by Lou Antosh
Blackberry, the same width and slightly fatter in
depth. It doesn’t come with or need a carrying case
and you can put it in a pants pocket or small purse.
But the case I bought via Amazon also has room for a
mini-tripod (purchased from another Amazon vendor)
that’s perfect for desk placement, and other items such
as a digital recorder. You also can strap the case on
your belt so truckers can laugh at you at McDonald’s.
Some other tidbits about this
four-ounce device:
The internal microphone (monaural) works fine at a
distance of 5 or 6 feet and there is an external mike
jack. The internal memory is close to useless, so
you will need an SD card – even 8GB is adequate if
you download to the computer after a few hours of
capture.
The four button controls are simple to use and un-
derstand, though using the centered joystick to
zoom seems a bit awkward. Flipping out the USB
connector is easy to do, as is inserting the SD card.
The still capture mode of 5.3 MP takes pretty nice
JPEG shots. Video is captured at 1080p at 30 fps
(HD), 720p at 60 or 30 fps, and WVGA at 30 fps.
Video is captured as MOV files, easily converted
to other types.
Normal focus works well, as does a macro focus
setting for close work.
Kodak says recording at 720p, 30 fps, for 20 min-
utes is supposed to eat up about 1 GB. Sounds
right to us. But one glaring drawback of this unit is
the Li-ion battery, which did not give us a good
hour of video shooting at 720p. Better to buy a
backup battery and charge both, either with the AC
adapter or by plugging the USB into your com-
puter. The camera comes with HDMI and AV ca-
bles for TV playback.
A search of the internet will find this camera at prices
ranging from $140 to $180. Kodak had it listed for
$179.95 the day I searched, but crossed out that
price for a sale price of $129.95, which might
possibly mean the company is clearing inventory
because it will release an upgrade soon.
Doesn’t bother me, since I’m happy with the Zi8. If
you want one, make sure to buy an extra battery and
you’re in for a successful video experience.
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 29
History
JERSEY

ARTICLE BY MIKE MATHIS

It is believed that
Enrico Caruso, the
Pavarotti of his day,
recorded in Camden.
This label may be proof.

I
t was one of those things you
didn't know you owned,
tucked away for many years in
a pile of junk in the basement.
Let’s check this out. An old
78-rpm record. The label says
1903. Wait a second!
It also says Caruso. Enrico Caruso.
Wasn’t he the Italian tenor who took
the world by storm much as Luciano
Pavarotti did 60 years later? Yes. That
Caruso was a legend, and here is his
voice.
This could be worth some money. Cha-
ching!
Well, not really. A tenor of immense
world-wide popularity in the early 20th
century, Caruso recorded a lot of songs
(oops, make that "selections," their being
opera and all that) and the Victor Talking
Machine Co. pressed millions of them on
the brittle-as-slate 78-rpm discs.
You knew the Victor company was based
in Camden, right? It later became RCA,
short for the Radio Corporation of Amer-
ica, and the company's exploding record
business eventually took up 22 buildings
along the Camden waterfront. The logo of
a dog, Nipper, listening to an early hand-
cranked record machine was known world-
wide. The image still stands atop one of the
original buildings now used for luxury
apartments. More on that later.
First, let's find out about this record
and then maybe even play it on that com-
bination cassette player/radio/turntable/

30 JerseyMan Magazine • Issue 1 - Volume 1

Caruso’s celebrity as the world’s first recording star
played a major role in Camden’s emergence as
a recording and communications center.

ENRICO CARUSO

foot massager the wife unveiled on Fa-
ther's Day back in the day when most
people made mortgage payments and
only babies made google sounds.
Our go-to guy is Fred Barnum, author
of His Master's Voice in America, an illus-
trated history of the enterprise that began
in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Co.
and, through numerous incarnations over
the decades, became L-3 Communications.
He said the recording was made in 1917
or later, because in that year Victor
changed its original Red Seal label to the
Victrola label on the disc in question.
Unfortunately, he could not pinpoint
where it was recorded, nor could various
other sources contacted, although a few
fingers pointed to Camden, NJ.
with RCA's de-
fense electronics
breakthroughs
and space commu-
nications, you see
that there are so
many facets to the op-
erations over a century
that, to me, it's like the
story of the history of com-
munication in America.”
Recordings manufactured in Cam-
den were played on the Victrola, the Vic-
tor Talking Machine Co. device that had a
phonograph horn enclosed in a speaker.
Company founder Eldridge R. Johnson
recorded Caruso by having him sing di-
rectly into a horn while solo instrumen-
talists played
into other horns,
with all of the
sound transcribed
onto a master
recording.
Victrola prod-
ucts came to be identi-
fied best by their logo of
Nipper, a fox terrier, listen-
ing attentively to a horn gramo-
phone. The logo was developed after
the purchase of a painting by Francis Bar-
raud, the dog’s owner. By the time the
world knew Nipper, he had been buried
under English soil at Kinston-in-Tames.
Victor's first Camden recording studio
was on the southwest corner of Front and

V
ictor opened its first
recording studio on
the eighth floor of
Carnegie Hall in New
York on March 26,
1903. It was at that lo-
cation on Feb. 1, 1904
that Caruso first recorded selections from Of the four identical, 14-foot stained-glass images
Rigoletto, an opera in three acts by of Nipper that sided the RCA tower in Camden, one
Giuseppe Verdi, according to Barnum. remains here. The other 94-year-old windows went
to two universities and the Smithsonian.
Once the company opened its Camden
studio in 1907, Caruso traveled there to
record Rigoletto selections and other
works several more times until his death
in 1921, the author said. Caruso’s celebrity
as the world’s first recording star played a
major role in Camden’s emergence as a
recording and communications center.
“From the practical phonograph that
first brought recorded sound into the
home in the Victor years, to the first mass
production of radios anywhere in the
world, to the creation of the crucial tools
that propelled the growth of the radio and
television broadcast industry, the com-
pany changed society,” said Barnum.
“I don't know of any other place any-
where that produced the magnitude and
variety of products like that site did in the
world of radio and television. And then
if you get into the 50s and 60s and 70s

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 31

History
JERSEY

Cooper streets, which is now a parking lot for The Victor loft
apartments. Another location was on the northwest corner of the
same intersection. That building, a production factory, now
houses the offices of the Camden School District.
But there were several problems with the studios, chief among
them that they were too small for large groups such as orches-
tras and had poor acoustics. Both were located in the sprawling
Victor complex comprised of brick and glass buildings.
Because of its need for a larger studio, the Victor Talking
Machine Co. purchased Trinity Baptist Church several blocks away
at Fifth and Cooper Streets in 1918. Caruso recorded his last songs
at the Trinity Church studio on Sept. 16, 1920.
The Camden recording studio remained in operation until 1935,
when a subway line that was opened under the building caused
sufficient vibrations and recording disturbances to force the
company to move its recording facilities to New York and other
locations. The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording at its
home base, the Academy of Music. But in its time, the Camden
studio hosted some of the best-known musical talent of its age.
The stars included Irish tenor John McCormack and classical
pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Arturo Toscanini and the visiting La
Scala Orchestra made recordings in the Trinity Church studio on
Dec. 17, 1920. And the church’s pipe organ was tried out by Fats
Waller when he recorded “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” In 1929, Jelly Roll
Morton and his orchestra recorded “Down My Way” and “Try
Me Out.”
RCA Victor then converted the building into a gymnasium for
the Victor Athletic Association, and later added the employees'
store.
The building no longer exists, but the complex is still rich
with history. The major RCA building bearing the stained glass
windows of Nipper listening to his master’s voice is now a luxury
apartment building with sweeping views of the Philadelphia
skyline. Officials hope the building will be a key component in
reinventing the Camden waterfront into a cultural and enter-
tainment destination, much in the way the Victor Talking
Machine Co. complex set the stage for the first recording artists
more than eight decades ago. ■

To Listen: Forget a Needle,

Use Your Mouse
Finding an old record player to listen to 90-year-old Caruso
recordings can be difficult, but you may be able to bag that
search and listen in on the internet. Here is where you can
find one side of the Caruso record which is the subject of the
accompanying article:

http://www.besmark.com/caruso.html

Go to the 8th selection, click on the link and you will hear the
voice of Caruso singing La donne e mobile from Rigoletto,
recorded in 1908.

32 jerseymanmagazine.com

Should a company “invisible” in
New Jersey pay the business tax?
I f you were looking for a New Jersey company to
develop software for you, you would never be led
to the Telebright Corporation. You wouldn’t find
its phone number in the New Jersey listings. And
you would find no evidence that Telebright ever
received one cent of income in New Jersey.
In fact, even the State of New Jersey agrees that Telebright, a
software developer based in Rockville, Md., does not maintain
an office here, maintains no financial accounts here and does
not solicit sales here.
So why are the state and the company battling it out in court
over the state’s insistence that Telebright must pay the NJ Cor-
porate Business Tax? And why is Richard Bove, Telebright’s cor-
porate secretary and an attorney, vowing to take the case to the
“It doesn’t point well to
U.S. Supreme Court if need be?
New Jersey as being
business friendly.”
It all goes back to 2004, when a female employee of Tele-
bright, who writes software code, announced that she was leav-
ing Maryland to relocate with her husband to New Jersey. The
company said she could work from her new home.
And now the state is demanding six years’ worth of
back taxes because it has determined that Telebright is
“doing business in New Jersey” by employing the woman to
work in New Jersey.
The woman had no company contact with others in New Jer-
sey and received her assignments from an independent con-
tractor in New England. She sent her work to Maryland via an
online transmission, said Bove.
In fact, he said, the only reason the Telebright company iden-
tity was picked up is because “as a favor to this person and to
help her with the taxing authority in New Jersey we agreed to
withhold New Jersey income tax when she left (Maryland).” He
has appealed the State Tax Court decision to the Appellate Court.
“It’s a strange situation and it doesn’t point well to New Jer-
sey as being business friendly,” said Bove. “If you’re a busi-
ness person, you just say, ‘Hey, it’s another hand in my
pocket?’ If it’s an issue where you have a New Jersey employee
JerseyMan Magazine
State Government
and you are out of state, you just say,
‘Screw them, I’m not going to pay
any of your payroll taxes because you
live there.’”
The state wants back business taxes
from Telebright starting from February,
2004. Bove said that the minimum
“franchise tax” demanded by the state
is $750 per year, even if a company
shows a loss.
Bove argued the company case be-
fore Tax Court Judge Patrick De
Almeida last February. He said the Richard Bove
state’s arguments are “extremely
thin.” The state requires companies to use four factors in deter-
mining the tax they owe. One of them is the degree to which the
company employs property in New Jersey.
In Telebright’s case, the employee was using a company
computer when she first moved to this state, then replaced it
with her own.
“I held up a pencil and I held up a cell phone and said, ‘Are
we going to consider pencils and cell phones property now?’ A
computer is no different from a pencil these days; you can buy
one for two hundred bucks,” said Bove.
The company official said, “The basic principle in hundreds of
U.S. Supreme Court cases is that in order to have the tax you
generally have to have the benefit.”
“If her computer is stolen, does the company benefit from the
legal system? No, because it belongs to the individual.”
In denying Bove’s appeal, the judge’s opinion said, “Telebright
regularly enjoys the benefits of New Jersey’s labor market
through the employment of” the woman employee. (Bove points
out that she was an employee of the company before she was a
New Jersey resident.)
The opinion noted that, “the company has benefitted from New
Jersey’s maintenance of a legal system that protects its interests in
this State.” This got a chuckle from Bove. “The only reason we are
in the legal system is because they came after us,” he said.
“The clerks, when they craft their opinions, reach for what-
ever they can. If the judge took this to the other tax court judges
and discussed this, they just couldn’t politically open this door.
The judges also have to realize where their pay comes from.”
Bove said that if the appeal to the Appellate Court is denied,
“We’ll take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if they’ll grant us certiorari.”
His basic argument: “There is no benefit.” ■
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 33
 JerseyMan Magazine

BUSINESS
[PROFILE]
How to Ride Out The
Economic Storm?
He Goes to Auctions
and Buys Smart
If commercial printers are dinosaurs, then Sean
Solomon is in the business of repairing and selling
dinosaur accessories – paper cutters, paper drills,
round corner machines, equipment needed by
printers to finish the job. But printing isn’t dead
yet, nor is Time Graphic, founded by his father,
Jerry, in 1976.

When the economy soured, the company had
already committed to moving from its 12,000-
square-foot Beverly birthplace to a Cinnaminson
building twice the size. That’s where the father, son
and nine employees keep their heads down and
wait for a recovery.
Time Graphic and Equipment Sales
1423 Broad Street, Cinnaminson, NJ
Sean Solomon, 42, President
Reponsibilities: Buying, selling equipment (now about
60 percent of the business), marketing. Dad Jerry
Solomon handles the repair side.

JM You started as a repair shop and now sell equip- JM Ever see emotional buying at auction, macho
ment. Why? stuff?

SS It was a natural progression. We would be servic-
ing a machine and people would tell us they were
looking for another machine, ask us to look out for
them. Sometimes a bank will approach us and ask
us to consider buying a whole shop, but we would
have to buy everything. We had to take some high-
tech scanners once. I know nothing about scanners.
But a friend in document imaging in Florida helped
us out. We did sell them.
JM How often do you go to auctions and why?
SS Several times a month. I started go to them with
my father, and we’ve had $100,000 days at auctions.
There is a lot of equipment on the market now. We
discuss price beforehand and we have to stay fo-
cused on what we know.
SS Oh, yeah, it gets comical sometimes. I saw one sea-
soned machine dealer get outbid at an auction by a
customer of his who needed the machine. He threw
a fit, yelling at the auctioneer, the customer. “I had
it, I had it,” he said. Yeah, but you got outbid on it.
Sometimes a guy will just get caught up in it with-
out any regard for what’s happening. The best guy
going in has done his homework.
JM Any other odd things about auctions?
SS In a machinery auction you get a lot of companies
that might only come in once a year or less, and
they don’t necessarily know the rules. I’ve seen
many buyers who win with their bid, then find out
there is an additional 12 percent buyers’ premium
(paid to the auctioneer), and they say, “I can’t do

34 jerseymanmagazine.com
 that, I can’t pay that much more.” But the auction-
eers announce it all at the beginning. I’ve seen
another end user (winner) go up to the auctioneer
afterward and ask, “When can you deliver it?” They
find out they have to get a rigging company or
someone to haul it. They don’t know, they’re
novices.”

JM How about bargains at auctions?

SS Some guys have an idea that “Well, it’s an auction,
so everything should be cheaper.” An auction is not
supposed to be a lot cheaper. It’s supposed to be
fair market value. It’s not supposed to be rock-bot-
tom price or free, it’s supposed to be an average of
what the going rate is. That’s how auctioneers mar-
ket it. They don’t want it to be free; they’re getting
a percentage of the winning bid.

JM You enjoy auctions?

SS I enjoy it when I win something. Years ago there was
an outside auction my dad went to and there was a
phone booth, an old English phone booth, and I asked
him to bid on it for me. I ended up buying that phone
booth for $50. Thought it was great, but it had to be
taken out of concrete, a big deal. I thought it was re-
ally cool, had it in my back yard. When I got married,
I sold it on eBay, had it shipped to a guy in California.
He paid $1,000, but I sat on it for a long time. I love
yard sales, looking for the next opportunity.
JM How is business?
SS I think we’re okay for a while. The printing busi-
ness is definitely shrinking. A lot of our customers
are leaving the commercial end with larger equip-
ment and going digital, but it’s still printing in a dif-
ferent mode. They still use paper, they still have to
finish and bind, paper needs to be cut, that’s our
niche. My wife and I have a four-year-old and a
seven-year-old and I don’t expect them to come into
the business like I did. We may have changed into
something else by then.
JM What about those political buttons framed on
the wall?
SS My dad collected clocks (that’s why it’s Time
Graphic), and when you grow up with a collector
it can be contagious. I had a cousin who collected
political buttons, and the week I got out of college
he was getting a divorce and gave me first crack to
buy it all. I got a loan and bought his collection.
It’s a little crazy, but it was the only way to do it,
take a loan.
JM So how many buttons do you have?
SS Over 10,000 now, I had been collecting in college at
flea markets, yard sales. I enjoy promoting my
hobby and our group, the American Political Item
Collectors (APIC). I’m on the board and we have an
annual show in Langhorne, PA, each November.
You have to have an understanding wife to do this,
and I was collecting before I met her. She knew the
sickness was there. She said, “There’s something
wrong with you, but OK, we’ll go with that.”
JM What’s the oldest item you have?
SS George Washington. It’s metal and it’s not a cam-
paign button, he didn’t need to campaign, he was
anointed. It’s an inaugural pin. It’s not as rare as
people think. There are hundreds out there. Same
with Lincoln. There are a lot of them out there, and
I have quite a few. I sort of specialize in political
campaign badges, delegate badges, speakers’
badges, employees’ badges, doorkeeper badges. I
like the styles, I like the design. I’m on eBay two or
three times a day looking. My wife calls it “a lot of
stuff collecting dust,” and says I’m a hoarder. I’m
not. She also tells everybody I have a spending
problem, which I probably do. ■

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 35

JerseyMan Magazine

DAVE “U.S. MALE” GOLDSTEIN

To see video of Goldstein in action, go to

www.jerseymanmagazine.com
The
FOOD
POUNDERS FOOD
They’re Athletes. They’re Circus Performers. And They’re Loving the Gorging Spotlight.

P ostal carrier Dave Goldstein, 42, a big Eagles fan

with a big appetite, had a bummed-out holiday
weekend down the shore.
The man who calls himself “U.S.
Male” just couldn’t get it going.
Even with the crowd chanting him on
at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, he could
barely stomach another Nathan’s hot
dog sandwich… his twentieth consecu-
tive Nathan’s sandwich. The Voorhees
resident took a breath, grimaced and
made the dog and mashed-up roll disap-
pear. He did the 20, what speed eaters
call “the deuce,” and he was done.
Not bad for the average bear, but Dave
had hoped to down 25. The winner
ate 40.
U.S. Male’s mediocre day (5th place)
no doubt had to do with size. Oh, Gold- MIKE “POLISH PIRANHA” DEMCOVITZ
stein is six-foot plus, 230 pounds. But
that’s irrelevant in his Major League Eat-
ing (MLE) world, where the Top 10 com-
petitors can consume 10 or 12 pounds of
food in mere minutes. Goldstein, ranked
21st, marvels at them. “They have an
amazing capacity. I’m about a seven-
pound capacity now,” he said.
In the stomach-focused world of Food
Pounders, size matters big time.
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 37
 Voorhees resident Goldstein is a Food
Pounder, one of a handful of South Jer-
sey men who secretly obsess about their
stomach capacity as they go about their
workaday jobs as a mail man, an ac-
countant, a social worker and a poultry
sauce salesman.
They are all former boyhood athletes,
tough competitors, and now they’ve
found another way to use their bodies in
battle. They compete under nicknames
and they all love the carnival of eating
contests: the music, the crowd and the
hype. It’s about more than the food. It’s
about standing apart, doing something
hardly anybody else can do.
“Oh, I can eat, man,” said Bill Sim-
mons, 48, easily the best-known Food
Pounder in South Jersey, now retired.
BILL “EL WINGADOR” SIMMONS
“I’ve eaten 22 California cheeseburgers in
30 minutes—that was like 14.4 pounds of
food. When I trained for events, I did 15
pounds a day. That was five in the morn-
ing, five in the afternoon, five at night.
And with every five pounds, I drank a
gallon of water.”
Unlike Goldstein, whose biggest first
prize has been $1500 for gulping five
pounds of crawfish at Showboat Casino
in February of ’09, Bill Simmons has gar-
nered tens of thousands of dollars worth
of prizes, most of them as the five-time
winner of Wing Bowl in Philadelphia.
An early-morning wing-eating circus
38 jerseymanmagazine.com
and female anatomy lesson that attracts
25,000 rabid sports/party fans to the Wa-
chovia Center each winter, Wing Bowl
was created in 1993 by WIP talk-radio
jocks Al Morganti and Angelo Cataldi to
bring some post-football season excite-
ment to the area. If bra burners still exist,
they would find little material to work
with at Wing Bowl, where barely-clad
gentlemen’s club merchandise struts its
stuff in front of mostly-male spectators
screaming themselves so hoarse they can
barely call in sick a few hours later.
Woodbury Heights resident Simmons,
known to fans as “El Wingador,” is re-
tired from eating now, but another South
Jersey man is working to unseat him as
all-time wing king.
Mild-mannered Jonathan Squibb, 24
“Oh, I can eat, man.”
and six foot, four, is an accountant who
drives to work from his Winslow home
in a Mini Cooper won as first prize in the
’09 Wing Bowl. On weekends, “Super
Squibb” tools around in a Ford F-150
truck won at the ’10 Wing Bowl, where
he ate 238 wings in 30 minutes and blew
away the competition by 90-plus wings.
An unlikely Food Pounder, Squibb
tripped into the sport one night when he
and a friend entered an all-you-can-eat
wings eatery. The record was 100 wings
and he beat it. Then he found out that
Wing Bowl offered a car. He needed a car.
Career launched.
To qualify, he ate six pounds of cottage
cheese in 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
That led to two car prizes, as well as two
Wing Bowl rings worth about $7500
each, he said.
“Prizes are a motivating factor,” he
said. “I like to overcome challenges;
that’s my personality. It’s just something
that I can do well and chicken wings are
my best food. I can’t describe the amount
of contacts that I’ve gotten, expanding
my network.”
He is one of the new breed in competi-
tive eating, once dominated by beefy guys
with 55-gallon-drum bellies. A self-de-
scribed “fat kid,” he played high school
football, then turned to rowing and
lacrosse at Rutgers, where he learned to
eat healthy – except when he competes.
Squibb is not yet a “professional,”
meaning a member of the dominant
Major League Eating organization, run by
the New York-based IFOCE. MLE eaters
sign contracts to enter only IFOCE-sanc-
tioned events. The word is that the two
best MLE eaters – Joey Chestnut and
Takeru Kobayashi – pulled down
$150,000 each last year. Kobayashi fell
– EL WINGADOR
out with MLE earlier this year, protested
and got himself arrested.
How can you earn $150,000 a year by
eating? Credit George Shea, the New York
public relations mastermind guru who
two decades ago took a quaint publicity
stunt – the July 4th hot dog eating con-
test at Nathan’s in Coney Island – and
created a national, perpetual, movable
feast of public gorging. Shea developed
regional qualifying events for the July 4th
spectacle.
He pumped MLE (www.ifoce.com)
into a media darling, running 80 events a
year as far away as Australia, Canada and
England. Prize money for all events tops
$400,000, he claimed. Sponsors pay Shea
and his brother, Richard, for the publicity
they attract.
“How big can it get? We could easily
double the number of events we now do,
hit different markets, different types of
food,” said Shea.
The ingredients are there, including the

JONATHAN “SUPER” SQUIBB
novelty-starved news media. Then there
are the highly competitive ex-athlete
eaters. And an audience which “skews
male, without question,” says Shea. “The
wise-ass 27-year-old attorney, he’s a big
fan. The Wall Street guys, the white-shoe
law firm guys, they know the eaters. I
hear it at parties.”
What’s the attraction of watching peo-
ple, mostly guys (because only 3 of his
top 50 eaters are women) pig out pub-
licly? Everybody eats, says Shea. So if
you can eat three hard-boiled eggs you
want to watch someone eat 65, you get
it. It’s human interest, plus, there is an-
other element. If Mom doesn’t like it, it’s
gotta be fun.”
The Food Pounders are in it for the fun
and, frankly, the attention. Said Gold-
stein: “I love strutting in front of people.
When we go to some of these events, the
kids love watching. It’s almost like pro-
fessional wrestling.”
The South Jersey guy who calls him-
self “The Savage,” Elliott Maruffi-Cowley,
30, says what got him into rugby was
what got him into competitive eating.
“There’s just something about extreme
sports. I like the idea of pushing myself
physically and mentally.”
A social worker at a private school for
kids with behavioral issues, the reflective
Savage says competitive eaters debate the
question: “Is this a hobby, a freak show
Doc Ponders:
Might competitive eating stars
hold the clue to ending belly
pain for millions?
Can the sport of speed eating somehow have a positive impact on the large number of Amer-
icans who suffer from chronic stomach pain?
That question is pestering a Philadelphia gastroenterologist who has observed in real time
the expanding stomach of a world-class speed eater as he ate 36 hot dogs in the Hospital of
the University of Pennsylvania radiology lab. The study of competitive eater Tim Janus, now
33, used fluoroscopy to produce images of his stomach as he munched.
The study team finally saw Janus’ stomach “massively distended,” maybe 10 times larger
than the stomach of a control male who was full after 7 hot dogs, reported radiologist Marc
S. Levine. He said the study was stopped after the consumption of 36 hot dogs for fear of per-
forating the stomach of the pro eater, who insisted he could eat much more. When the team
lifted his shirt, “he looked like he was carrying a full term pregnancy,” said Dr. Levine, who
reported on the study in a 2007 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
The gastroenterologist on the study, David C. Metz, M.D., said his work with Janus gave him
some insight into competitive eaters. “They have a very big stomach and they have an in-
credible ability to relax the top half of the stomach so they can fill an enormous flaccid bag
without having the pressure, without making them feel full and uncomfortable.”
If this ability to relax the stomach is related to the training regimen of professional eaters,
which involves drinking water and eating foods to stretch the stomach, it might possibly lead
to therapies for persons with chronic belly pain, he said. The key is whether the large stom-
ach and ability to relax is more nature (inherited) or nurture, a product of training, he said.
“Maybe this training really works, I don’t know. I’ve often wondered about the potential
clinical relevance of this in patients we see who get belly pain after eating – dyspepsia,
indigestion, agita – whatever you call it. It accounts for about 10 percent of GI visits. Maybe
these people don’t have the ability to relax their stomachs like these speed eaters.
“Maybe if you trained them with water loading, or whatever, you could improve their function
and limit their pain. Maybe that’s the real reason for studying these guys.”
(The doctor stressed, however, that drinking excessive water can result in extremely low
sodium levels in the blood and be fatal. “Do not try this at home,” he warned.)
He also detailed other potential risks of competitive eating/training, which include obesity,
loss of satiety (the sense of being full), and rupture of the esophagus and stomach.
Dr. Metz is itching to study competitive eaters over their careers and do endoscopic
surveys of their stomachs at rest. “I imagine their stomachs don’t look much bigger than
an average stomach, but that they have collapsed stomachs that are full of folds in the
walls, enormous, thick folds so they can stretch out and flatten out without putting stress
on the walls of the stomach.
“I’d like to study them as time goes and see how much is nature and how much is nurture. It
would be interesting to see if training does make a difference, because maybe that can be
extrapolated into a therapy for people with belly pain.”
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 39
 With wary eyes, they
weigh the benefits of his
food fights
They stand by their men, but
given the nature of competitive
eating, not too close. They know
that hurling happens.

Being the wife or steady of a Food

Pounder does carry some of the
same concerns faced by wives of
professional athletes.

Debbie Simmons (right), wife of

Bill “El Wingador” Simmons,
five-time Philadelphia Wing Bowl
champion, can say, now that hubby is retired from competitive eating,
that “we had a great time.”

In the next breath: “We had a horrible time from the day after Thanks-
giving until the day of the event (in February), because all he focused
on was that. When he focused on that it was 100 percent. I was con-
cerned about his health. He would go up 30 pounds before the event
and then right back down afterward. It was too much of an adjustment.”

Nevertheless, she was reluctant to sit down with her husband and talk
specifics about his health. “That’s because he tried to stay on top of
it, he has been going to the gym faithfully for years.” (Simmons said
he worked out to bring his cholesterol and triglycerides down.)

He can still pound food, said Debbie, “He cooks and we had spaghetti
the other night; he made two pounds – a pound for him and a pound
for the rest of us. Whenever he orders out he has a pizza, a roast beef
hoagie, breaded mushrooms – all at once. If he doesn’t eat before he
goes out, he eats for two people.”

Susan Goldstein, wife of Dave “U.S. Male Goldstein,” thought her

husband’s appearance at the Wing Bowl several years ago “was a one
time thing.” Then, she said, “he started finding out more about
competitive eating, doing easy contests on the side, then he joined the
eaters website. It’s a strange hobby.”

She said her husband has lost 30 pounds in recent times, but “he’s
always been a big eater. He’d have a full meal and be hungry two ELLIOT “THE SAVAGE” MARUFFI-COWLEY
hours later; you can never get him full.” Goldstein would eat two
cheese steaks at a sitting, she said.

“We try to eat healthy in-between contests, but I’m not thrilled about “I like the idea of pushing
it. I worry about his health. His cholesterol is kind of high, but he
does go to the doctor regularly. myself physically and
“I support him, whatever he wants to do and as long as he is happy,
I guess it could be worse, a lot worse.”
mentally.”
– THE SAVAGE

40 jerseymanmagazine.com
or a sport?” The man who often has per-
formed bare-chested, with some macho
acting-out, say he actually is somewhere
in-between. “It’s an opportunity to per-
form and I’ve always been on stage, soc-
cer, rubgy, always something. I play a
mini-role, almost like a WWE character.”
Unlike his more intense peers, Maruffi-
Cowley says the sport “is just a hobby
and if I make 500 bucks a year I’m
happy.” But he does look out for chal-
lenges, like the Blackwood restaurant
that offered a gift certificate to anyone
who could eat 20 suicide wings in about
10 minutes.
“They were so hot you had to sign a
waiver and I didn’t have that much
experience with hot things. I ate 18 and
the heat actually burned through parts of
my skin. They were 9-1-1 wings and it
was not good. The heat, the exhalation, it
was as ill as I’ve ever been. My worst
experience ever.
“But I am really good at ice cream.”
Food Pounding is about being good at
something and it’s not always about the
prizes.
Earlier this year Super Squibb was in-
vited to compete along with six other
contestants on the side lot of a pizza
shop in an Atlantic City neighborhood.
The co-owner of Tony Baloney’s restau-
rant, Mike Hauke, worked enough PR to
attract a crowd, a band, and the city’s
mayor.
Also appearing was another well-
known eater, Dale “Mouth of the South”
Boone, of Atlanta, who shuffled onto the
stage wearing a coon-skin cap a la Daniel
Boone. Said Hauke: “I don’t care how
long it takes, I just want someone to eat
30 slices of pizza.” The slices were thick
and laden with various toppings.
One newbie, Mike Demcovitz, 26, of
Atlantic City, was up for it, since he usu-
ally can eat a whole pound of spaghetti.
He donned a shirt touting “The Polish Pi-
ranha” and exuded confidence. “I usually
take out a whole pizza pie by myself with
no problem,” he said.
Also on hand as an official was the re-
tired “El Wingador” Simmons, who got a
nice hand from the crowd and promoted
his Wingador wing sauce. Simmons
charted the progress as each contestant
faced a mountain of pizza.
The band played, the crowd stood and
watched the eating (which turned out not
to be to exciting) until 45 minutes later,
when Squibb, way ahead at the time,
WHEN SQUIBB FACED A TEMPORARY PIZZA-EATING WALL,
MONITOR BILL SIMMONS BRAVED THE UPCHUCK THREAT
suddenly closed his eyes, grasped the
table and stood swaying. Like melted
mozzarella, anticipation hung in the air.
Some people were concerned, but
feisty “Mouth” Boone, just a few feet
away, looked at his rival and unleashed a
stream of indecipherable comments. He
loudly simulated gagging. The suspense
went on for a few minutes. El Wingador
looked up at Squibb. “You okay?” he
asked with mentor concern. “I’m glad I
don’t this any more,” he told the crowd.
“There is definite
pain, extreme
discomfort.”
– SUPER SQUIBB
And then Squibb opened his eyes, re-
sumed chewing and the contest ended 10
minutes later. When the pizza flour had
settled, Super Squibb was the victor with
27 pieces devoured. No one else seemed
very close. The Polish Piranha’s platter
held enough uneaten pieces to satisfy a
buffet line, but Democovitz was in good
spirits after his maiden munchathon.
Did Boone’s badgering bug Squibb?
“Not really,” he said. “When guys or fans
doubt me, it kind of motivates me more.
Did I hit a wall? Well, the food settles in.
There is definite pain, extreme discom-
fort, but once you get to an unbearable
level, that’s when you push through.
You’re competing.”
Squibb went to his car with a basket
of gifts and gift certificates, many from
Atlantic City vendors. “It was just a good
time,” said the winner. Meanwhile, a few
of his competitors could be seen in a
nearby lot discharging their pizza overload.
Obviously, Food Pounding has its
downs and its ups.
“U.S. Male” Goldstein lost two tough
ones last spring, but in the Fall he won a
cannoli-eating contest in New York's Little
Italy, downing 13 of the creamy desserts
in six minutes. A video of his perform-
ance showed up on Wall Street Journal
online.
“I’ll do this as many years as I physi-
cally can,” said the former 13-year Army
man. "I don’t play sports anymore so this
is like my time, my opportunity for com-
petition. My wife calls this my mid-life
crisis. But she enjoys watching me and
showboating for the crowds.
“I always go into a contest with the
attitude that I have a chance of maybe
getting top three and landing in the cash.
I’m not exactly winning a lot of money."
As he heads into Philadelphia's Wing
Bowl this Winter, Goldstein is on a roll.
Thanks to his cannoli victory he has
cracked through the Top 20 ranking of
the professional eating organization. "I
never thought I would break into Top 20,
but now that I'm ranked 19th I aim to
make it as high as 15 before I am
through," said the mail carrier.
Whether its custard, crawfish or can-
noli, this food pounder out of Cherry Hill
promises to leave nothing on the table. ■
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 41
JerseyMan Magazine
Surgeon (and Lawyer) Gerry Burke pours it hot and straight,
with no cream and certainly no sugar
G
erald V. Burke, M.D., surprises
from the get-go. His idea of a
meeting place is the McDon-
ald’s on Route 70 in Marlton.
And even though it’s a busy day, after the
introductory handshake he waves off ini-
tial questions, saying, “Sure, we can get
to that, but first, tell me something about
yourself.”
This is a busy reproductive endocri-
nologist, a 56-year-old guy who used to
open his practice as early as 5 a.m. so he
could put in a full day of surgery and pa-
tient visits and then attend Rutgers Uni-
versity School of Law in the evening. He
wants to interact? Really? The answer is
“Oh, yeah,” one of his favorite phrases.
Of average height and average build,
with an Irish Catholic, priestly kind of face
and haircut, “Gerry” Burke sits there in a
McDonald’s booth and shatters the stereo-
type of the slightly-distracted, carefully-
spoken physician who has a reputation to
maintain. Thirty minutes into it, the inter-
viewer thinks to himself: He knows the
recorder is running, doesn’t he?
For example, in the Year of Our Lord
2010, this new lawyer is talking out loud
about praying. Even some priests have a
problem with that. He recalled praying to
St. Joseph with his mother on their
kitchen floor the morning he had tryouts
for the baseball team at LaSalle Prep
School across the river. Like that, his
nerves soothed and he headed out.
An outfielder just 5’2” and 105 pounds,
he was shagging flies at tryouts when the
coach came out and said “Who’s the
catcher?” Little Gerry looked around, saw
only one other catcher, and blurted, “I
am.” To which the coach said “Okay, go
put on the monkey suit.” He recalled: “The
shin guards came up so high I couldn’t run
very well. But the coach and his son came
over to me and the son said, ‘He’s got big
hands.’ Long story short, I was one of two
people they kept out of 70 kids.”
Smart coach. Cool saint.
 JerseyMan Magazine

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 43

 His gentle demeanor belies the pre-trial advocacy is to So why did he choose
catcher’s heart. And once he starts his get your theme for the law?
rapid-clip analysis of the medical and case and learn how to “It wasn’t because I
legal professions, you struggle to keep up spin it from there. It’s all watched a whole bunch of
and gradually realize that his pleasant ca- about spinning, it really episodes of Law and Order
dence is absolutely ripping away at the isn’t law. And when you and got inspired,” dead-
protective facades of both traditions. He are 50 years old and you panned Burke, who did
doesn’t seem angry. But no question, he are seeing this, you’re his residency at Jefferson
is ripping. He says candidly that there are thinking ‘how ludicrous’. Medical College. (His fa-
good surgeons and not-so-good surgeons That’s like me getting up “THE CURRENT ther was a Philadelphia or-
and the public has no clue. In fact, most in front of medical stu- MEDICAL thodontist who dreamed
of what Burke says that day qualifies as dents and saying ‘You do MALPRACTICE of a father-son practice,
candid. A sample: X and Y and Z and they but Burke told him,“I just
“What the (surgical) robot has done, will pay you more, and SYSTEM IS don’t see myself with fin-
which is a good thing, is taken a lot of make sure you render REALLY AN UTTER gers sticking down peo-
guys that are average or less-than- your services so you get FAILURE.” ple’s mouths for the rest of
average surgeons and given them the the maximum payoff.’ my life.”)
ability to do things laparoscopically they “The current medical malpractice sys- Burke pursued a law degree for the same
could never do before. The problem is, tem is really an utter failure. If you walk reason that a growing percentage of physi-
there are more than just technical skills into somebody’s office and there are no cians are obtaining non-clinical degrees. “It’s
that make a good surgeon. bucks there, you could be the most not because they have an ever-loving quest
“In my experience I have not seen a crit- wronged, aggrieved person in the world for education or knowledge,” he said. “It’s
ical review of the robotic cases, certainly and nobody’s gonna touch it. My per- because they can’t make a living and they’re
not of the appropriate use of the robot. I’m sonal opinion after four years of law looking for alternative sources of income.”
seeing that the public, they tend to be en- school…is that if justice is served in our (A 2007 survey of physicians by the Massa-
amored with the technology and it’s like legal system, it is purely by chance. chusetts Medical Society found that nearly
leading the lambs to the slaughter.” “You are taught to find out where the 60 percent had considered leaving the prac-
After earning his new degree, the deep pockets are and who has insurance. tice of medicine.)
Voorhees-based physician now also has And you’re taught that if there’s no ade- Burke said he once earned around
an inside view of the legal profession, es- quate monetary value in the case, don’t $500,000 a year, but thanks to managed
pecially the malpractice bar. touch it. You’re not doing anything altru- care and insurance reimbursement rates
“One of the things they teach you in istic, and that’s the tragedy.” permitted by insurance companies and

Burke’s Answer to the Malpractice Mess:

END TRIALS, PUT INSURANCE KIOSKS IN HOSPITALS
Anybody old enough to remember those airport kiosks that used to sell
flight insurance at fairly low rates to travelers?
Dr. Gerald Burke does, and he thinks that similar kiosks could be lo-
cated in hospital lobbies to sell supplemental malpractice insurance to
patients about to undergo surgery and hospitalization.
That’s just one component of a proposal that fertility surgeon Burke
would like to throw into the national debate that rages over the financial im-
pact of the current system of malpractice resolution on health care costs.
Like many, he feels the current system is “an utter failure.”
It isn’t just that physicians are forced to practice defensive medicine
and order expensive tests “with an eye toward optimizing a legal defense
in the case of a law suit,” he said. And it isn’t just that physicians must pay
high premiums for malpractice insurance.
The primary reason is that all too often the injured party winds up “pen-
niless and impoverished” years down the road and “the only real winner
in this system is the plaintiff’s lawyer.”
Most malpractice verdict awards are paid out in a lump sum and the
plaintiff’s attorney will take from one-third to one-half, plus expenses,
“before the injured and victorious plaintiff see a dime,” he said. (He doesn’t
contend the lawyers have not earned their pay.)
Malpractice, proposed Burke, should be handled similarly to Work-
men’s Compensation, with establishment of panels consisting of judges,
lawyers, physicians, actuaries, possibly a patient representative.
“They would evaluate and make awards, if appropriate, but no lump
sums,” he said. When it is established that medical malpractice did lead
to an injury that results in true economic damages, then installment pay-
ments would be paid to keep the plaintiff in the lifestyle to which they are
accustomed and provide care, “but not so they can live lavishly for the
rest of their lives.”
Burke, who now has his law degree from Rutgers University, said that as
a result of this system “patients and physicians would be much happier
and better served.”
“Unfortunately, a very lucrative area for trial lawyers would also disappear.”
While physicians and hospitals pay insurance premiums to defend
against malpractice law suits, Burke said allowing patients to purchase their
own insurance from kiosks would supplement the new system of adjudi-
cation panels. “I strongly suspect that a booming insurance business would
blossom around the sale of this insurance in the lobbies of hospitals.”

44 jerseymanmagazine.com
the government, “I make 15 percent of
what I did 15 years ago, dropped off by
85 percent.” (The math here makes that
$75,000.)
Because he does not deliver babies
and the surgery he does is fertility-en-
hancing, not very risky, his malpractice
premiums are only $18,000 annually,
compared to the much higher rates for
other surgeons. “If I was paying $50 or
$60,000, I’d probably have a hard time
staying in business.”
After considering and rejecting enroll-
ment in an MBA program and the med-
ical equipment field, Burke chose the
second career path of Rutgers law school,
which he attended weeknights after his
long medical practice hours. Law school
required some 16 hours of study each
weekend, and he figures he averaged five
hours of sleep a night, with occasional
15-minute catnaps to recharge for an-
other eight hours.
That schedule wasn’t exactly Cupid-
friendly, so Burke was lucky he had al-
ready married Nicole, his second wife
(“my other half”), just before starting law
school. Burke said his first marriage
ended in a traumatic divorce and that his
ex-wife died prior to this marriage.
“The first time around I let the practice
control me more than I probably should
have,” he said. “Nicole was very support-
ive, extremely good to me. She’s Italian,
very passionate, and about three weeks
into school I’m sitting there studying and
she slams the book shut and says, “When
I want to talk you’re gonna listen!’ Helped
put things into perspective for me. So the
second time around, my main priorities
are my wife and daughter and everything
else falls behind that.”
What will Burke do with his new de-
gree? While he has no immediate plans
to scuttle medicine, he has several ideas
on the legal front.
“When we physicians are sued, the
medical malpractice insurance compa-
nies hire the attorney,” he said. “I have
become aware of the fact that there are a
lot of attorneys who aren’t very good.
One institution uses one person (attor-
ney) to defend everybody, even though
they have different interests in the case.
They (doctors) are not consistently being
prepped for their depositions. The defense
attorneys let it ride, they let everything
ride because they get paid by the hour.
“I can see myself being hired separately
by the sued physicians to review their
cases and let them know exactly what is
going on.”
He also could start an independent
MORE TROUBLING DIAGNOSES FROM AN
OUTSPOKEN DOCTOR WITH LAW DEGREE
■ A Disincentive to Learn More Painless Procedures
A surgeon who does an open hysterectomy will be reimbursed between $950 and $980, said Gerald V.
Burke, M.D. He accomplishes the same result using laparoscopic surgery, but that shorter procedure is
reimbursed just $750.
“The tragedy is that it’s like night and day in terms of the welfare of the patient. I’m getting more and
more patients opting to go home the same day, with very little pain for most people.” (The open procedure
requires larger incisions, a longer hospital stay and up to six weeks of recovery.)
The result, “You don’t see many people (surgeons) interested in developing their skills to do it laparo-
scopically. They never say, ‘You have 20-week sized fibroids so I’m going to open you up. But if you want
it done laparoscopically I can send you over to see Gerry Burke or somebody else and you’ll be back to
work in two to three weeks.’”
“I know one surgeon who with a partner does four open hysterectomies every Wednesday, they have a
third-year resident there to scrub so they can bill an assistant fee. The resident stands down by the toes and
trims the toenails. Does four every Wednesday whether they need it or not.”
■ Physician groups such as the American Medical Association
Why would the AMA support the physician reimbursement system that is tied to Medicare payments and
has resulted in a dramatic drop in income for physicians?
“The AMA champions this diagnosis-related-groups (DRG) reimbursement system because (the AMA’s)
main source of income is selling the code books that are revised annually,” Burke said. He also claims that
officers in many medical groups “are less concerned about their constituents and more concerned about what
their personal perks are going to be.”
■ Gender Mix in Medical School and Impact on Physician Supply
The majority (maybe 55 to 60 percent) of students in most medical schools are women, said Burke, many
of whom are not interested in long training programs such as general surgical residences and the lifestyle
of those specialists. Many are interested in part-time work, he said. “So if 60 percent of your class is
female, that means in 10 years 30 percent of your graduating class isn’t going to be practicing medicine and
another 30 percent or higher are going part-time. They gravitate to that lifestyle and I can’t blame them, but
you’ve got to start considering that when you’re selecting candidates.”
■ Use of “Physician Extenders” Such as Physician Assistants, Advanced Practice Nurses
“First off, I see quality dropping because more and more physician extenders are being used more in-
dependently. As I understand it, nurse practitioners, advanced practice nurses, were designed to be seeing
patients only in an office with a physician. They were to do routine pap tests, oral contraceptive checks.
Then if they had questions or problems they would have a physician available.
“As reimbursement keeps getting reduced, the attitude in most offices has become ‘If I (the doctor)
am seeing 20 patients this morning, then you (the assistant) are seeing 20.’ There is no monitoring of
who is routine and who is not.”
He said advanced practice nurses organized and won the authority to prescribe “50 of the most dangerous
narcotics you can write prescriptions for.” Soon after, the list was expanded, he said. The newest legislation
no longer requires the physician to be in the same state when an assistant calls with a problem, he said.
“What you’re seeing is a progressively diminishing of the quality of care. I’m also hearing from a fair
number of nurse practitioners, the actual people in the trenches, who aren’t too thrilled about the positions
they’re being put in.”
■ “Gimmicks” Doctors Use to Boost Steadily Sagging Income
“Another symptom of the increasing difficulties that physicians are having making ends meet is that most
of them are looking for other gimmicks to supplement their income. One example of this is ownership of a
share of the surgery center where you operate,” Burke said. While he has not done this, “most of my
colleagues who have invested in them tell me that when they bring a patient in to their center for surgery,
they actually personally make more money off of their share of the (insurance) facility fee than they do from
having performed the surgery.”
Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 45
practice to provide expertise in malpractice ‘top docs.’ I’ve been named frequently, but no-
cases, not always for the physician or hospital body comes in here and says, ‘Oh, I saw your
but sometimes for the patient when the cause name here and that’s why I’m here.’”
seems just. Gerry Burke says he was “tremendously
“I’d like to be independent as opposed to competitive” as a catcher with the baseball
working for a firm, because that way you could team at LaSalle Prep and LaSalle University,
look at a case and see if there is merit or not. If where he graduated in 1975. Catchers see the
there is no merit, I would tell someone, ‘Listen, whole field, take it all in. He’s still catching
you’ve got a bad outcome, but that’s called mal- things in his practice. “Every lab that comes in
occurrence, not malpractice.’ That means I can “PEOPLE THAT I personally check and sign off on – have since
pick and choose, so I don’t have to compromise I was a resident.” And when talking with a pa-
myself as far as right or wrong.”
ADVERTISE IN tient, he asks her: Did you bring your USB
Right and wrong are crucial concepts to Gerry THE MAGAZINE drive today? That’s because all notes, labs, x-
Burke. He chafes at the thought of surgeons who ALWAYS SEEM TO rays, everything that he gets, is offered to the
have assembly-line operations, including multi- END UP BEING patient in digital format.
ple operating rooms used simultaneously. And he backs up three separate hard drives
“When somebody comes to you, they are ONE OF THE each night.
turning their whole body over to you, particu- ‘TOP DOCS.’” A few weeks after the McDonald’s interview,
larly when they go under general anesthesia. Burke emailed further thoughts on a number of
Personally, I feel a very high moral obligation to take care of that topics. Like a catcher, Gerry Burke backs up and follows up.
person, not 50 or 60 percent but 100 percent. If I am doing a la- His email discussed how physicians are being squeezed by
paroscopic procedure I position the patient myself and make managed care companies, resulting in a severe reduction in in-
sure there are no pressure points, and I respect the nurses’ opin- come. He said that even when he made “very, very good money,
ion on that. Once that patient is asleep they have no control I found out that I really didn’t need that much to be happy and
over anything. They’re totally my responsibility.” that material things really didn’t make me happy.”
He said he stays with the patient until they are wheeled out of That realization, he said, “really helped me to be able to
the OR and contrasts that prac- emotionally tolerate the radical drop in my income, particu-
tice with those of certain other larly when it has been by forces completely out of my control.
surgeons, some who do knee re- My lifestyle and happiness haven’t changed at all.” ■
placements, for example. They
will come in when the leg is al-
ready opened, “probably cut the
bone, do the measurements, put
the knee in and they’re gone.
Somebody else does the rest.”
“I suspect the surgeon’s
defense is that ‘I was there for
the key part.’ But (in a trial) I
would already know whether
or not A/ he had explained
that he wasn’t going to be
there the whole time, that
other people would do signifi-
cant parts of the surgery and B/ he had explained that if my
client had a cardiac arrest at the end of surgery he wasn’t going
to be in the room and be able to make decisions or do anything
else, such as opening up your chest.”
Burke says it is difficult for patients to tell a terrific surgeon
from a mediocre one. There actually are times when a surgeon
has made sufficient mistakes in the past that he or she can not
operate without another qualified surgeon on hand in the oper-
ating room. The patient will never know that, he said.
“I remember when I was a medical student I saw two anes-
thesiologists sitting at the nurses’ station talking about the day,
saying with a sense of admiration, ‘Did you see what so and so
did today?’ That was in terms of being really good as opposed
to, ‘You can’t believe what so and so did today.’”
“The people who have a good hand on who’s strong or not are
on the inside.”
Are those “Top Docs” ratings by regional magazines any help?
“Some of them are very good, some are mediocre and some
aren’t very good. It never ceases to surprise me; people that ad-
vertise in the magazine always seem to end up being one of the

46 jerseymanmagazine.com
JerseyMan Magazine

H
McMansion ere’s a Great Recession question:
If you used to pay two bucks for a

Price Sausage McMuffin sandwich and can now

get it for $1, what can you expect to pay for

Meltdown
one of those $800,000 “McMansions” with
an acre of ground in a South Jersey suburb?

on the
Answer: Considerably less than
$800,000, if you buy it now. And lots less
if you buy it a few years from now.
That’s the bottom line of a demo-
sent a 70-million strong bubble in the ad-
vancing population carpet.
“This next generation is not going to
be looking for the big homes in places

Menu? graphic vision troubling Chris Brown, a

Burlington County Freeholder and a re-
alty company owner who is alarmed that
the assessed valuation of real estate in his
county has dropped by $780 million in
We must keep the Y just one year. It’s a big drop, said Brown.
like Moorestown,” predicted Augustyn.
“No one will want those homes again.”
He said the Gen Y members now in
their 20s may stay in apartments and
condos at first, “but you can’t raise kids
there, so they’ll want a modest house

(that’s Gen Y) “Scary. Almost a billion dollars.”

The county has enjoyed tremendous
in New Jersey, growth in the last 10 years, as thousands
of grand homes sprouted on half-or one-
says the Man acre lots of former farmland. But that
trend halted when the nation’s economy
with a Plan wilted. Prices went down. “And prices
will continue to fall because that expen-
sive kind of product is not what is
wanted right now,” said Brown.
This isn’t just Brown’s vision. Joe Au-
gustyn, a planner with the Alaimo Group
who has advised numerous municipali-
ties, said the key to the future is the first
wave of Generation Y, persons born be-
tween 1977 and 2002. Gen Y will repre-
with a little yard for the kids to run
around in. But definitely not a big home
with three-quarters of an acre.”
Joel L. Naroff, who has served as chief
economist at several New Jersey banks,
said the Baby Boomers now living in the
idealized McMansions are trying to get
rid of them. “The next generation that
would likely take them over, well, they
just don’t like the land and to some ex-
tent the home size is too big,” he said.
“The generations actually are merging
in their tastes, except what’s left are the
McMansions, and we’re not sure who is
going to try to fill them up as we try to
sell ours.”

48 jerseymanmagazine.com
 Y
Freeholder Brown isn’t pitching a
doomsday scenario for the McMansions,
saying that under the right conditions the
Generation Y members will prosper and
buy some of those McMansions. But those
homes will not sell and the rest of the “This next generation is not coming in
South Jersey suburban picture will not
brighten unless public and private leaders here looking for single family homes.
first figure out how to keep the Gen Y
youths from deserting their New Jersey They don’t want to be tied down.”
roots, he said.
Why would they leave? In a word: Chris Brown - Burlington County Freeholder
Philadelphia.
The City of Brotherly Love actually
grew by 7,000 residents to 1,547,297 last side and Burlington City. “It’s a great open space, about $20 million a year. We’ve
year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. location and you’re right between saved a ton of ground and acreage, much
The nationwide residential housing slump Philadelphia and Trenton. I think we’re focused on the eastern side of the county.”
has slowed movement to suburbs such as missing a big opportunity.” He argues that redirecting funds to
those in New Jersey, the bureau said. Brown notes that those towns, along those towns will stem urban sprawl and
The lure of the big city is especially with Willingboro, Mt. Holly and West- begin renewal, starting with land acqui-
strong for the Generation Y folks, accord- ampton, have been designated by the Free- sition, building demolition and engineer-
ing to Brown. He noted that Burlington holder Board as economic stimulus zones. ing, then moving into solicitation of bids
County College, which is enjoying its “These areas have been the hardest hit by the municipalities. Brown thinks it
largest enrollment in history, has a pro- by the economic downturn,” said the might take five years to get apartments
gram allowing its two-year graduates to freeholder. “I proposed that we allow built, another couple of years to fill them.
continue on at Drexel University. those towns to be able to redirect their You bring in attractions such as a movie
“Do you think those kids going to open space funds into a county redevel- theater, “the 16-screen blowout kind of
Drexel are going to come back to Burling- opment trust account for the purchase of place,” he said.
ton County for the jobs?” he asked. lands (in those towns) for redevelopment “At that point you have a talent base,
“They’re not. They’re going to stay in to provide the product generation Y are individuals for technology and research
Philadelphia or its suburbs.” attracted to. and development businesses, and then
The county needs to recognize what “We’ve been spending and spending on you bring in the [continued on page 56]
those young people want and move to
provide it, said businessman Brown,
owner of a general insurance company
and a title insurance company and man-
aging partner of seven RE/MAX real estate
offices. His real estate offices see plenty of
Gen Y clients, he said.
“They’re not coming in here looking for
single-family homes. They don’t want to be
tied down. They want a very comfortable
high-end apartment, two bedrooms. They
want to be in the center of a town with their
gym right there, their doctor there, they
want places that scream entertainment.”
New Jersey can’t recreate Philadelphia,
but Brown is looking for “mini-cities”
where the Gen Y needs can be satisfied.
“Collingswood has done a great job in
their town center by tying the train station
into their redevelopment efforts,” he said.
Burlington County doesn’t have a train
line running to Philadelphia, said Brown,
but it does have the NJ Transit River
LINE serving the fraying Delaware River
towns such as Palmyra, Riverton, River-

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 49

 TOP
TICKET
TOWNS
Bad drivers
do not want
to meet
this guy.

Sgt. Chris Sulzbach

I t’s hard to avoid TV and radio

commercials for a popular
mattress that lets users cus-
tomize how much it cushions
the body. Because consumers
adjust their side of the mat-
tress to a setting between 1
and 100, the mattress company invites
everyone to find and enjoy their night-
time “Sleep Number.®”
Now we find out that cops, too, have
personalized numbers. But these numbers
are in their heads during the workday,
when they’re out their patrolling the high-
ways. And these numbers all have the
same suffix: M.P.H.
“Honestly, each officer is different,”
said Lt. Lloyd Lewis, ranking officer of the
Lawnside Police Department. “Everybody
has a different number. If I am able to get
out there and write, I’m going seven mph
and above, that’s what I’m thinking.”
So, he won’t bother you if you’re mov-
ing four or five miles over the limit. But
seven is his ticket trigger, unless you heed
the situation.
“If you see me and you don’t have the
courtesy to slow down, then guess
what?” he said with a hearty laugh. “It is
what it is.”

50 jerseymanmagazine.com
Traffic tickets. Everything you
ever heard about them is true, to some ex-
tent. Yes, there are mayors who take a Largest Percentage Change
keen interest in how many tickets are
being written (and how much town rev- in Moving Violations
(2009 vs. 2010)*
enue is being derived). Yes, cops will tuck
themselves and their radar cars near fo-
liage so they can home in on speeders.
Yes, some officers are hard, some are soft
See the latest statistics and more at
and some are too busy to care. (For June 2009 to April 2010) www.jerseymanmagazine.com
“We are a very, very proactive town and
people we pull over will tell you that,” said
Sgt. Chris Sulzbach, head of the traffic ef- ATLANTIC COUNTY
fort for the Pennsauken Police Department.
“We have a 100-man department here and Largest Increase (%) 2009 2010 Largest Decrease (%) 2009 2010
we take 10 percent of that department, the
more proactive officers, and they are +41% Longport 558 933 -31% Atlantic City 17,280 12,510
assigned to traffic division.” +22% Buena Borough 990 1,198 -30% Northfield 3,672 2,599
How proactive? Pennsauken’s officers +22% Port Republic 593 710 -29% Egg Harbor City 1,936 1,377
(including township, port authority, park -19% Buena Vista 2,087 1,685
+15% Absecon 1,022 1,133
and state police) wrote up nearly 18,000
moving violations in the most-recently re-
-17% Pleasantville 3,955 3,477
ported period, down from 24,000 a year
ago. That’s still more than the 13,500 such
violations written in the recent reporting BURLINGTON COUNTY
period by police in the township of Cherry
Hill, which has a population nearly twice
Largest Increase (%) 2009 2010 Largest Decrease (%) 2009 2010
as large (71,000 versus 36,000).
“Our DWI (driving while intoxicated) +56% Wrightstown 146 227 -38% Southampton 3,702 2,271
arrests are always number one in the +33% New Hanover 1,247 1,630 -36% Moorestown 2,274 1,574
state,” said Sulzbach. “Usually between
+22% Woodland 1,493 1,824 -35% Beverly City 636 409
350 and 450 a year, and we’re consid-
ered the most proactive in the state. Do +20% Medford 5,879 6,921 -30% North Hanover 2,156 1,514
we have a reputation? Well, it saves +19% Delanco 263 333 -30% Maple Shade 3,753 2,609
lives. Our fatal (accidents) have dropped -25% Evesham 10,440 7,723
dramatically.”
Put Pennsauken down as a hot ticket
town. And while you’re there, add Delran
Township. Police there wrote more than CAMDEN COUNTY
4,000 traffic citations from July ’09 to
April of this year. Delran has around Largest Increase (%) 2009 2010 Largest Decrease (%) 2009 2010
16,000 residents and consistently writes
two to three times as many tickets as its +50% Haddon Heights 2,160 3,606 -65% Mt. Ephraim 71 25
mirror-image neighbor, Cinnaminson +30% Collingswood 2,374 3,415 -37% Berlin Twp 2,995 1,890
Township. +27% Brooklawn 1,798 2,264 -33% Clementon 1,828 1,234
Different communities have varying +17% Berlin Borough 1,764 1,818 -31% Audubon 4,181 2,914
philosophies regarding traffic safety, -26% Pennsauken 24,082 17,703
according to Delran Police Chief Alfonse
Parente. “I’d say Pennsauken’s [philoso-
phy] is similar to ours,” he said. He’s fine
with the fact that his town has a hot ticket GLOUCESTER COUNTY
reputation. Drivers nabbed for speeding
confirm the fact. Largest Increase (%) 2009 2010 Largest Decrease (%) 2009 2010
“You get the comments that they knew
we were patrol-heavy in a town enforcing +51% Wenonah Boro 738 1,183 -49% South Harrison 1,169 594
traffic and they screwed up,” he said. +28% Mantua 3,327 4,037 -19% Pitman 3,349 2,529
“There used to be a website for speeding, +26% Glassboro 3,752 4,962 -16% Logan 3,986 3,364
I haven’t been on it for a long time,
+26% Deptford 7,560 9,610 -11% Washington 9,340 8,182
‘speeding something.com’. We were always
on or near the top of the list for speed +15% Elk 2,520 2,917
traps.
“The previous chief saw a direct corre- * Percentages may include all violations (DWI, Moving & Parking)
lation between the number of burglaries

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 51

“ Traffic stops
are one of the
most dangerous
things we do.”
– Sgt. Tom Tubic
and traffic enforcement. The more traffic stops we made, the more
burglaries went down. Lack of enforcement, burglaries go up.”
But why did the number of moving violations in the 1.5-
square-mile borough of Lawnside plummet from 1784 to 904
from one 10-month reporting period to the next? A decision to
go easy on motorists? Not really.
“Mainly it was a manpower thing,” said Lt. Lewis. “We lost
two officers to other employment opportunities, two others were
out IOD (injured on duty) and I’m really down four people on a
seven man force.
“Also, right now, I would never make an excuse, but the offi-
cers, the rank and file, are going through a contract negotiation
and that plays a part in it.” He laughed, “They slow down.”
He said he makes a monthly report to the town fathers and he
Is Your Town a
Hot Ticket Trap?
How can you determine whether your town is a sizzling or
lukewarm ticket community? The statistics – all 543 pages
of them – are there to see on the internet at this address:
http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/quant/munm1009.pdf.
You can scroll down to your county and municipality and
check out the municipal court statistics for traffic arrests.
The statistics may be a good barometer of how aggressive
or passive police are in your town. They may also, however,
reflect unusual circumstances for the period in question.
The police force may be willing to enforce closely but unable
to perform through no fault of its own.
52 jerseymanmagazine.com
knew ticket revenue to the municipality was down. “I knew it
dropped because they definitely pulled my coattails to it in the
last couple months, you know, they weren’t doing as much
(revenue) as they were. I don’t know the particular number, but
I would say it’s like 40 or 50 percent down.”
Because of the manpower shortage, “I couldn’t even do spot
checks, which is more guaranteed money because when you do
inspection spot checks or the Click It or Ticket (program) most
people don’t come to court, they just pay it outright,” he said.
Ticket revenue isn’t the backbone of municipal budgets, but
it’s more than petty cash. The municipal court revenue for
Delran last year was just under $400,000 in fines and costs, and
a town official guessed that traffic violations accounted for the
majority of that.
Delran Chief Parente said the number of tickets fluctuates
depending on the distribution of manpower. “In the summer,
when it gets hotter, we may assign a couple officers on bicycles,
which moves you away from traffic.”
Township administrator Jeff Hatcher added, “The same thing
happens when we have officers injured on workmen’s comp
cases or something like that and we don’t have enough to go
around. Some guys are better ticket writers than others. If one of
those guys happens to be out, you see the numbers drop.”
The Municipal Court statistics don’t hint at the story behind sud-
den changes. They show that traffic tickets in the borough of
Swedesboro dropped from 542 in one reporting period to 24 in the
next. That’s because the Swedesboro police function was incor-
porated into the Woolwich Police Department and all traffic cases
shifted to the Woolwich Municipal Court.
 On Video
Motorists often travel 35 mph in a 25-mph zone
right in front of Delran Police headquarters!

www.jerseymanmagazine.com
Go to the Jersey Man Magazine website:

to see videos of Delran Police Sergeant Tom Tubic:

• Explaining how radar works
• Spotting cars well over the limit
• Recounting funny excuses from nabbed motorists

Delran Township plops

its speed limit signs right
on the highway dividing
lines on Haines Mill and
Conrow Roads.

“The first six months

that we took over, I told
our guys to take it easy
on the residents,” said
Woolwich Police Chief
Russell Marino. “We’re
a different police depart-
ment and just give them
warnings. We were feel-
ing our way for the first
six months.”
His mayor noticed
and asked “How come
tickets are down?” said
Marino. “I said, ‘We’re
giving them a lot of
warnings and they ap-
preciate it. Give it some
time.’”
In the first six months of this year tickets were up, averaging
62 a month, said Marino. Could his force write more? “You could
hammer people all day, but with the way the economy is you
have to give some leeway, that is your prerogative. Four miles
over the limit, okay, sometimes you go six, seven, and then you
have to give the benefit of the doubt because of the radar.”
Woolwich, which had a population of only a few thousand
when Marino became chief in 1997, is booming, with about 9000
residents now and more coming. As the growth continues,
Marino expects that his DWI arrests, which are “few and far be-
tween,” will rise. “It rises like anything else; crime, shoplifting,
it all picks up.” Hopefully, he said, his manpower will as well.
Municipality ticket statistics will fluctuate also because of extra
funding available for special police traffic programs. Delran was
due to receive more than $30,000 in state money this year from
the Drunk Driving Enforcement Fund.
“As you arrest drunk drivers a certain amount goes into a fund
for the state,” said Delran’s Chief Parente. “The money comes
back to the municipalities to spend on drunk driving enforce-
ment and equipment. At least 50 percent [continued on page 56]

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 53

 JerseyMan Magazine
FOOD W H E R E W E
REVIEW BY MANFRED PHERONI
I HAD ANOTHER STEAK at this joint, even though I’d been
there, done that. Worth doing again, though. There were a cou-
ple of surprises this time, starting with our entrance, when my
left ear was pounded with a wave of wailing from the side bar
room. An elbow-tight crowd of people wearing plastic name tags
was drinking, clinking and trying to outlaugh each other. The
door should have been closed, but we were whisked away after
two minutes. No problem.
The Capital Grille presents itself as a special occasion and asks
if you are celebrating one when you call for reservations. It was
our anniversary, so our escort smiled and wished us happy an-
niversary. The better half beamed. I was preoccupied with in-
decision: steak or lamb chops?
We were seated in a mostly empty room that whispered steak
– burgundy and cream walls, black tablecloths, I think. (I was
hungry.) The server had a deep, theatrical voice and was courtly
beyond his 30 or so years, bending slightly from the waist and
tilting his head at each appearance. He put the basket of assorted
breads and butter in front of us, gestured with his arms and
commanded: “Please enjoy.” Yep.
A tasty, soft bread slice topped with cooked onion kicked
things off and he returned with the drinks. Please enjoy. (I am.
I am.) Great SoCo Manhattan (dry) with a long strip of lemon
peel. Cold and kicking. A nice crispy roll with a hint of anise
seed or anisette, I forget which.
We talked more than most married couples and I checked the
paintings on the walls, especially the front and center one of a
sad, but pleasant young woman dressed for the ‘20s or ‘30s,
maybe. I told the server I “enjoyed” it and asked who it was. He
offered a name, Alice Paul, but promised more data.
The room, mostly tables for two and just close enough together
to permit eavesdropping, if that’s your thing, began filling up. A
cup of lobster bisque arrived for each of us, together with the
“enjoy” mandate. I forgot to order something different like re-
viewers do. Next time. The pinkish soup was okay, memorable
only because of three thumb-sized lobster chunks (sorry about
54 jerseymanmagazine.com
E A T
Cherry Hill Mall Complex
2000 Route 38, Cherry Hill, NJ
856-665-5252
the imagery). Not bad.
A woman came by with the portrait info: the subject was Alice
Stokes Paul, a suffragist from Mount Laurel, very active in the
fight leading up to the 1920 signing of the 19th amendment
giving women the right to vote. A Quaker who earned a Ph.D.
and law degree, Paul went to jail, fought back with hunger
strikes and suffered considerable abuse in her life. A tough
cookie wrapped head-to-toe in the clothing layers of the day.
Died in Moorestown in 1977. See more here: www.alicepaul.org.
Can a lamb chop be that much tastier
than a good porterhouse steak? On that
night, at that table, believe it.
Soon, in a move charged with anticipation, the large, heavy
steak knives were placed in front of us. I took more bread and
she looked at me. We both knew it was wrong. Then the meat
showed up, along with boats of mashed potatoes and creamed
spinach. It all looked good.
And it was. A fine, aged porterhouse steak ($42), seared cor-
rectly, well-marbled and pink inside. This is a 22-ounce treat, of-
fering plenty to both enjoy there and take some home for the next
day. (The mark of a good steak, it was tender upon reheating for
lunch.) It did not disappoint.
The potatoes were creamy and okay, except for an unmashed
nugget or two. The creamed spinach was tasty but puzzling,
until we determined that it contained a hint of nutmeg. We could
be wrong.
And that would be the end of the entrée report if not for the
critical moment, right in the middle of my meal, when Mrs. MM
took one of her double chops (she was served four of them) and
placed it on my plate. This is when a fine meal became sublime.
“Succulent” was too dreary a word for this lamb. It was the
second best food I ever chewed, first place being reserved for
fois gras served at, of all places, Red Square inside the Tropi-
cana in AC. After I finished one bite, I drank water, sliced a piece
of steak and chewed. I repeated this lamb/steak sequence three
times to conjure up a publishable comparison. The bottom line:
Lamb, High Definition. Steak, analog.
Can a lamb chop be that much tastier than a good porterhouse
steak? On that night, at that table, believe it. I like steak, but my
next Capital Grille night will be a lambchop night ($39). It’s a
wow well worth the price.
A complimentary slice of flourless, chocolate espresso cake
appeared with hand-written well wishes on our anniversary. It
was creamy, rich and filling, even when shared. It was a nice
HD ending to a pretty good night.
Listen. If you go, please “Enjoy”! ■
Pawn
[continued from page 9] white gold or
yellow gold. I don’t know if she’ll like this
length. You think 20 inches is long
enough? Maybe I should bring her in.’ It’s
a 20-minute conversation.
“So I take the gold stuff to Philadelphia,
lay it on the counter. The smelter doesn’t
care if it’s white or pink gold. He can tell
24 carat without testing it, other gold he
throws into a vat of nitric acid, then puts
it into a baking soda solution and then
pours the gold into a strainer and weighs
it. A magnet will pick out steel or iron. By
the color he can tell if it’s 10 or 14 carat.
He pays me and I go home.”
Of course, life in the shop isn’t all gold,
he said.
“Guy comes in, ‘I have a wonderful
bayonet,’ blah, blah, the whole spiel. I
look at it and say, ‘Gee, I’ve seen one like
this before.’ I go behind the counter and
here is mine, four years older than his. I
tell him, ‘I don’t know anybody who
wants to buy this, I’ve had it for years.’”
And then there’s the ingratitude.
“Yesterday this kid from Singapore comes
in with his mother, sees a guitar hanging on
display, the sign says ‘$375 with case.’ Kid
plays it for a half an hour, driving me nuts;
they say ‘yeah, we’ll take it.’ We settle on
$350, tax included. We bring out the case
and one of the locks is broken. The woman
is complaining. I said, ‘Ma’am, we sold you
the guitar. We throw in the case.’”
Not the stuff of pawn stardom. ■

Web Watch
For more on the pawn business, go to:
• NPR interview with Gary Rivlin, author of
Broke USA, From Pawn Shops to Poverty Inc. –
How the Working Poor Became Big Business
Go tp: www.npr.org and search for “Rivlin”.

• List of New Jersey Pawn Shops:

http://www.pawnshoplistings.com/ New_Jersey/
and click on “New Jersey”.

• Details on Cash America, which started out

with one pawn shop in Texas and grew to narly
600 locations.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-
histories/Cash-America-International-Inc-
Company-History.html

Inaugural Issue • JerseyMan Magazine 55

McMansion Top Ticket Towns
[continued from page 49] businesses to [continued from page 53] of the funds And by the way, said Pennsauken Op-
match the demographic – computers, have to be earmarked for overtime drunk erations Captain Tom Connor, “We don’t
telecommunication, pharmaceutical, driving patrols. We target between mid- want to give the impression that we hide
maybe some light manufacturing creat- night and 2 a.m., generally the time behind billboards, because we’re not hid-
ing laptops, whatever works. And you there’s drunk drivers on the road.” ing. We don’t use unmarked cars for pa-
bring in retail stores to provide them Pennsauken has two officers on drunk trol and we encourage the use of overhead
with everyday needs.” driving patrol between midnight and 4 a.m. lights so the image sticks with people. We
He said his proposal will create con- every Friday and Saturday night, said Sgt. want to modify driver behavior and if we
Sulzbach. “They just go out there and stop can do it without ticketing, that’s fine.
struction jobs, revive towns along the river
cars, stop cars, stop cars, looking for drunk We’re proud of our traffic division here.”
line, protect farm territories, and create a
driving. And we usually have four check- The public sometimes gets angry about
"farming" system for new economic
points a year on the major highways.” the effort police put into traffic patrols,
growth through Gen Y.
(There are a lot of them in the 12-square- said Sgt. Tom Tubic, the officer in charge
“It would not create any new taxes, just of the traffic team in Delran. “They say,
mile town: Routes 73, 70, 38, 30 and 90.)
redirect existing funds into a better use for “We also have a lot of crashes, between ‘Why worry about stopping us, go stop
today’s economy. Developers aren’t look- 2,000 and 2,500 a year, so every one of the speeders.’ You stop the speeders and
ing to buy open lands, where there is no the traffic team has gone to advanced ac- they say, ‘Go stop the drug dealers.’ You
water and sewer and it’s very expensive cident investigation courses. We are all stop the drug dealers and they say, “Go
to develop. And we’ve already saved all accident reconstructionists, which is hard stop the burglars,’” he said with a laugh.
these thousands of acres.” to become. We make a judgment on every “But the majority of our arrests proba-
If the county spends to prepare the cor- accident, whether it is minor or fatal. bly stem from traffic stops. People say po-
ridor project lands for developers, they “There is no such thing as getting lice are stopping cars, big deal. But if we
will come, Brown said. And, if the county away with DWI in this town; we have stop a car for speeding, if the people in
can persuade the Gen Y residents to stay, zero tolerance. I’m very familiar with that car are wanted criminals and have
take those new jobs and prosper, will they DWI tickets, but you probably know warrants out on them, they may think
eventually move into those McMansions more than I do about the cost of a day- that’s why we are stopping them.
that will be sold by the Baby Boomers? to-day traffic ticket. That’s for the court “That’s why traffic stops are one of the
“They’ll want them if we drive eco- and they do a good job.” most dangerous things we do.” ■
nomical development, if they’re making
money,” said Brown. “If we get more en-
trepreneurs here in Burlington County
who are making the bigger dollars and can
afford these kinds of homes and those
types of taxes.”
They’d better, said Brown, a member of
Generation X, Class of 1971.
“There are 80 million Baby Boomers,
there are 55 million generation Xs and 70
million Generation Ys. There are not
enough of us, the Generation Xs, to filter
out into those homes.”
But it won’t happen overnight, reminds
economist Jaroff. He said the Boomers
will be retiring over a 20-year period and
the generational wave will take a while to
have an impact.
In the meantime, what happens to the
McMansions?
“Fords and Chevys, which to me are in
the $200,000 to $300,000 range, will always
sell,” said Brown. “But the McMansions
were overbuilt. Now the McMansions that
originally were in the $500,000 range,
they’re coming down to the Ford and
Chevy ranges.
“You will see in the next five to 10 years a
continued price decrease on those homes.”
Dollar-menu lunch, anyone? ■

56 jerseymanmagazine.com