Whoever renamed these Parkway rest stops needs to be fired (Opinion)

Take a deep dive into Dino Flammia’s article ‘GARDEN STATE PARKWAY REST STOPS RENAMED AFTER 9 NJ ICONS.’

See if your takeaway is my takeaway.

Go on. I’ll wait. Just meet me back here.

So what have we learned? That the New Jersey Turnpike Authority Board of Commissioners voted to rename nine rest stops on the Parkway after New Jersey Hall of Famers. That in and of itself isn’t the problem.

It’s that there seems to be zero consistency.

First of all, how is Jon Bon Jovi taking over the Cheesequake rest area but Bruce Springsteen isn’t being recognized whatsoever? Is it because Jon spends more time than a woman in the bathroom primping that pretty hair?

Also, if you’re going to go with big names like him and James Gandolfini and Whitney Houston and Frank Sinatra this all would have made sense.

But inexplicably they also picked people like newswoman Connie Chung. No offense, but when’s the last time you thought about Connie Chung? She’s a longtime resident of Middletown so she’s got the Jersey cred, but, Connie Chung?

Or weirder still how on earth did Celia Cruz take over the Forked River rest stop? If the name is drawing a blank it’s because like most people you don’t have a favorite salsa artist. Cruz is, I’m told, one of the 20th Century’s most popular salsa artists. Good for her! Oh and also, very few care! Remember when Gov. Whitman promised Howard Stern a rest stop named after him if he supported her candidacy in 1993? THAT made more sense than Celia Cruz!

Okay finally, not to keep griping about Springsteen, but for the love of God could they at least have named the Monmouth service area after him considering it’s proximity to Freehold? But they didn’t. Instead they named it after Judy Blume, the children’s and young adults author.

Are you there God? It’s me, common sense. And I say they could have done better.

How about Danny DeVito? What about Jack Nicholson? Bruce Willis? Jon Stewart? John Travolta? Meryl Streep?

All New Jersey Hall of Famers! But to be fair, I guess they just suck at salsa.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.