The waiting game sucks, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos

I'm beginning a long layover at Newark. I'm here so early that I can't check in for my flight for the next two hours. It wasn't worth it to go into the city. But, I got my Sam Adams Light, and I put my figurative nickel in the internet, and I'm all set.

I had a burrito at "Mex and the City" in the jetBlue terminal in JFK, and then took an airport shuttle bus between JFK and EWR. I'd never done that before, and was a little surprised to realize that we didn't have to go anywhere near Manhattan. We took the bridge from Long Island to Staten Island, and thence over another bridge into the wilds of New Jersey.

On the first bridge, crossing the mouth of New York Harbor, it occurred to me that for every one of my six great-grandparents and four great-great-grandparents who came over from Europe, this was more or less their first view of America, the harbor and the still-far-off Statue of Liberty (for some of them, it probably wasn't even green yet) and Manhattan skyscrapers...even then I believe Manhattan had skyscrapers of the day.

Anyway, I'm glad they all took the trip.

Another new thought: Staten Island (never been there before) is a lot more like New Jersey than it is like Manhattan. Amazing that Staten Island qualifies as a borough. If I were Manhattan, I wouldn't let it in. Though maybe Manhattan is just pretending Staten Island is its friend because it needs the landfills.

Ok, I was doing fine with the Yankees license plates on the way over here, but now the guy next to me just ordered "clam chowder," and it came out red, not white. This is clearly bizarro-land.