Spadea’s daily distraction: Space.com (The Jersey smell version)

This is now my second article related to my new daily distraction/obsession with the website www.space.com. As I explained previously, it all started with the crashing Chinese space station. Now I'm hooked. Today's news was a report from an astronaut who visited the International Space Station expecting to encounter a locker room smell from the inhabitants working and sweating in a closed space. Instead, he reports that it smells...well, actually pretty good.

Our digital director Lou (actually, I'm not sure of his title because he's never said it and I don't check email so I'm missing the digital signature) stopped me on the way out of the studio today asking what I'd be writing about today. Space dot com, obvi. His response? How will you make a Jersey connection to the smell of the space station....easy, it was the first thing I thought about when I read the article.

New Jersey is my home and where my wife and I chose to live, work and raise our family. I'm #DigginIn, as you know, and am proud to tell people when we travel that we're from the Garden State. All good except for a couple spots around the state that have an unmistakable smell. Elizabeth (more accurately the Exit 13 area of the New Jersey Turnpike) and Florence (around Exit 52 on Route 295) are both incredibly consistent with their...how do I put this nicely...bad smell. I know it's not their fault. The smell in Florence is a actually from a land fill in PA and in Elizabeth, as my daughter once said while driving by...smells like jobs. So proud of that comment!

Back to the smell. How many times have visitors traveling into our state mentioned the smell on the Turnpike? Have you experienced it? Have you had friends and relatives from out of state tell you that NJ kinda smells a bit? I have. As someone who for part of my career commuted and traveled nearly every inch of the Garden State, I can say that the smells are real. How about your town? Best smell? Worst smell? Any particular time of year? Let me know on our Facebook page...I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation with you!

Anyway, the good news is that when we're all signing up for that next vacation orbiting the earth, we can at least expect that it's gonna smell great...although it'll cost you around $800,000 a night. Think I'll stick to Jersey. I'm kinda used to the smell.

Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015. Tweet him @NJ1015 or @BillSpadea. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Bill Spadea.

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