Armpit of America

I've always known Newark NJ as the armpit of America but now it seems its gotten a little shittier.

Random Craigslist Story

A funny thing happened the other day as Suzanne and I are grilling out in the driveway. A young couple pulls into the driveway and get out of their car. Suzanne is busy with yard work, so I introduced myself and made some small talk. I assumed they were friends of Suz or new to the neighborhood (and wanted to introduce themselves). Then after a brief moment of awkward silence, I asked "Whats up?" They said they were here for the Dressers. My initial assumption was incorrect and I made another assumption that Dresser was a last name and yelled to Suz, "Which of your neighbors are the Dressers?" At about this time one of the two was frantically looking for an address while the other explained they were here for some Craigslist items. Turns out they were a block off. I wished them well with their Craigslist adventures and off they went into the sunset......

Fake 'American' Rappers Pretended to be from Hemet, CA!

Hemet (my birth place) has a new 15 mins of fame in American pop culture via this NPR podcast:
The Fake 'American' Rappers Who Fooled Everyone
This podcast is worth listening to just for the story, but I am still puzzled by why they picked Hemet as their fake home town. I find that part of story very humorous.
From the transcript.....
Interviewer: "You'd never been to America, right?"
Rapper: "No, I'd never, ever been. Billy had cousins in Hemet, California. So the backstory basically was we were raised in Hemet, we were, you know, bad asses at school. We always got kicked out of school. Our dad worked in insurance.
Hemet was also the fictitious home town of Brad Pitt in one of my favorite movies, Spy Game.