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New Jersey Route 13

Route 13 is a short state highway in the communities of Point Pleasant and Bay Head, New Jersey, both of which are in Ocean County. The route consists of the Lovelandtown Bridge, a vertical-lift bridge over the Point Pleasant Canal, and a part of Bridge Avenue, which is mostly maintained by the county as County Route 632 (CR 632). The route was unsigned until new mileposts were installed in 2017. Route 13 was designated in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering as a re-designation of Route 13E from Hollywood Boulevard to Bay Avenue.

The route was first assigned in 1938, when the state took over maintenance of the fifth segment of Ocean County Route 13 built in 1929, intending it to reach old Route 37 (now part of Route 35) in Bay Head from Beaver Dam Road, a distance of 1.76 mi. The takeover did not reach that point, and the bridge and its approaches count for 0.56 mi of the intended length. The original bridge collapsed in 1962, and a temporary structure was erected later that year. Planning for a permanent replacement bridge continued for several years until construction finally began in 1970. This structure opened in 1972, but closed immediately afterward due to a failure of the lift mechanism, which was fixed by the end of the year. In late 2004, the bridge and its approaches received a rehabilitation.

Route description
Route 13 begins at an intersection where CR 632 meets Hollywood Boulevard in Point Pleasant. There, the state-maintenance begins. The route heads eastward along Bridge Avenue, passing to the south of local businesses and to the north of local residences. There, Route 13 begins a curve to the northeast onto the Lovelandtown Bridge approach, passing a marina before reaching the Point Pleasant Canal (part of the Intracoastal Waterway) and heading onto a lift bridge called the Lovelandtown Bridge. After crossing the canal, Route 13 parallels Elm Avenue for a short distance before turning away to the southeast. The route heads into downtown Bay Head, where it reaches an intersection with Bay Avenue, which is its eastern terminus. CR 632 continues eastward to Route 35. Route 13 is concurrent with CR 632 for its entire length.

Designation
Originally, the Lovelandtown Bridge was constructed in 1929 to create a continuous route along Bridge Avenue. Route 13 originated as an alignment of Ocean County Route 13-E, a highway maintained by the county. In 1938, the state legislated a takeover of the fifth segment of the county route, a portion of highway from old Route 37 (now part of Route 35) at Bay Head to an intersection with Beaver Dam Road, including the Lovelandtown Bridge. The route was to be 1.76 mi long, and the designation came into effect on July 2, 1938. However, the extension to Route 37 was never constructed. In the 1953 renumbering, the state dropped the suffix and renumbered the bridge and its approaches as Route 13. (Incidentally, the portion of Route 37 within Bay Head -- running from Point Pleasant to Seaside Heights -- was renumbered as Route 35 during the same highway renumbering.)

Collapse and demands for new bridge (1962–1964)
By 1960, the structural integrity of the Lovelandtown Bridge came into question. The New Jersey State Highway Department felt that the bridge was structurally safe and able to support up to 20 tons (18.14 tonnes). However, local officials felt the bridge was unsafe, especially for vehicles such as school buses. Additionally, the bridge, which was supported by wooden pilings, was starting to fail and erode. The expected failure occurred during the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 on March 5, when the storm and tides on the Intracostal Waterway wiped out a section of the bridge. A temporary structure to replace the bridge opened in May 1962.

In the meantime, proposals were made for a permanent replacement structure. Early proposals noted the bridge would take about three months to rebuild. Point Pleasant Police Chief William Beecroft, who voiced concerns about the integrity of the bridge in 1960 and 1962, proposed a new tunnel across the Intracoastal Waterway to replace the Route 88 and Route 13 bridges. Beecroft speculated that the new tunnel would be cheaper to build in the long run and make things easier for emergency vehicles who would not have to deal with drawbridges. The State Highway Department considered a new tunnel for Route 13, but quickly discarded the idea by October due to excessive costs, though Beecroft would bring it up again as an option if there were a hearing.

In November 1962, the State Highway Department made plans to build a new 45 ft high fixed structure over the waterway. However, this plan was opposed by multiple agencies and individuals because yachts would be unable to use the waterway with a fixed structure. One of these was Assemblyman William T. Hiering, a Republican from Ocean County who asked the United States Army Corps of Engineers to hold a public hearing on such a bridge; this hearing would occur on December 27. However, the State Highway Department also supported an option for a 30 ft high drawbridge that would accommodate yacht users and only have to be opened once in a while. Such a plan would cost about $2 million.

By February 1964, the State Highway Department switched its plan to a vertical-lift bridge. This new bridge would be able to open to as high as 100 ft in the air and allow room for yachts to go through. The delay in action by the Highway Department was being slammed by the borough of Point Pleasant by December 1964. Dr. Ronald V. Crescenzo, one of the members of the borough council wanted a bus ban over the replaced structure until a new one could be built. The borough also wanted to be absolved of any responsibility and liability in case of another structural failure. They did, however, support a new vertical-lift bridge with the 25 ft high lift that could raise to 70 ft in the air.

Added pressure (1965–1966)
More complaints came from higher officials in September 1965, when a resident of Fair Lawn drove off the temporary Lovelandtown Bridge and died. The car crashed through the wooden railings of the bridge and landed in the canal below. The driver's death sparked the attention of State Senator Wayne Dumont and Point Pleasant Mayor Walter B. Brown; they deemed the bridge a traffic hazard and pressured Governor Richard J. Hughes to speed up construction. Dumont also claimed that the previous governor's administration provided money for the new bridge. However, the State Highway Department claimed that no money was ever allocated for such use.

In December 1965, the borough of Point Pleasant noted that meetings between them, Ocean County and the State Highway Department would be conducted on December 9 or December 16, to discuss a new Lovelandtown Bridge. Chief Beecroft, who previously wanted a tunnel crossing, noted buses were taken off the temporary structure for safety. By December 3, Point Pleasant announced that the meeting would take place on December 16.

In January 1966, the New Jersey State Conservation Department approved the plans of the State Highway Department for the construction of a new Lovelandtown Bridge. This new bridge would need a 60 ft horizontal clearance and a vertical clearance of 65 ft to help navigation through the canal. Bridge Avenue would be moved north for the new bridge, with the construction of a new alignment. This would help eliminate curves that were considered dangerous to the old bridge. However, the bridge was still subject to the approval of a United States Engineer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These plans reached the United States Army Corps of Engineers in April 1966, when they announced openings for anyone who had opposition to the project. By the deadline of May 16, no objections were filed with the engineers on the new bridge.

In July 1966, the state announced that they were ready to begin construction of a new Lovelandtown Bridge, but they would have to wait until the Army Corps of Engineers announced their full approval of the project. The state felt that a new bridge would not be finished until 1968, but would at least get approval within a span of four to six weeks. However, the bridge alignment changed in April to have an 80 ft vertical clearance due to new regulations for future expansion of the canal.

Design and funding problems (1967–1968)
However, despite the four to six week timeline, the Army Corps of Engineers did not sign off on the new Lovelandtown Bridge until January 26, 1967. The new bridge would have a vertical clearance of 30 ft when closed and 65 ft when raised. The span would be 80 ft wide for boats and barges to clear. The newly-renamed New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) said design, planning and construction would take about 18 months. Mayor Brown noted that he was happy and was willing to even bring his shovel.

Survey work by the Army Corps of Engineers began in July 1967, for the design of the new bridge over the waterway. NJDOT also hired a New York firm to do the survey work. Less than a month later, the mechanisms to help open the Lovelandtown Bridge to marine traffic broke on August 16, resulting in a seven-hour closure of the bridge and several days of repairs. The Army Corps completed their survey work in the canal in November 1967.

By December 1967, NJDOT moved test borings to the Bureau of Navigation offices to make plans for the new Lovelandtown Bridge ones. The offices would end up being relocated as part of the construction of the new bridge, due to be finished in 1971. The Board of Adjustment chair for the borough of Point Pleasant noted that they should pressure the state to move their schedule up in response to the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. However, the state announced that they did move their timeline up and expected a replacement to be finished now in 1970, since design problems were avoided during that period. The state also noted that the new bridge would require the condemnation of as many as 20 houses. Drilling into the Point Pleasant Canal began on January 2, 1968, when NJDOT inserted borings for new bridge supports.

However, by September 1968, Point Pleasant wanted to know why the $2 million set aside by the state for construction of the new bridge had been shifted to help facilitate the Aldene Plan in Union County. The new bridge, now costing $4 million (1968 USD), no longer was in the funding for the state. The borough demanded an answer from Governor Hughes, which did not come with answers. Hughes noted that if the state voters passed a new bond issue, the Lovelandtown Bridge would be a top priority. This was in direct conflict with a promise by the State Highway Department in 1966, that money for the new bridge would be non-reliant on a bond issue or other strings. The borough demanded that Commissioner David Goldberg meet with borough officials to get the missing answers.

That meeting would be scheduled for October 8, 1968, at the offices for Goldberg in Trenton, with Mayor Brown heading out to discuss the problems. Brown noted to the press that he wanted $4 million of $114 million earmarked for new railcars as part of the Aldene Plan to be shifted to a new bridge. He also noted that multiple members of the State Legislature, including Senator Hiering, along with Benjamin Mabie and John Brown of the Assembly would introduce legislation to help get funding earmarked immediately for the bridge.

Brown's attitude changed once the meeting with Goldberg ended, feeling that Goldberg had been unsympathetic to their concerns and problems with the change in funding. Brown told the Asbury Park Evening Press that Goldberg gave them a "snow job" and would still force them to rely on the November 5 bond issue of $640 million for transportation work. Mabie, Brown and Hiering noted that they would introduce their response bills once the Legislature reconvened after the election. Goldberg disagreed stating that even if the bond issue failed with the voters, he would have $40 million in funding and the odds of funding would be 5–1 for the project. Mabie, along with Chief Beecroft intended to vote against the bond issue on November 5. Brown, still concerned the bridge was going to fall into the canal again, was refuted by Goldberg who stated it is safe and would close it if he felt it was not.

Funding and land acquisition (1968–1969)
With the money for the Lovelandtown Bridge construction reliant on passing of the public bond issue, Senator Hiering showed his support for the new bond to help pay for transportation projects. Assemblyman Brown, though not public, opposed the new bond issue. He was concerned that Ocean County would be left out of most of its benefits, and he also felt there was voter discontent. Mabie, however, continued to show his support and optimism for the new bond issue, which passed on November 5, 1968, by 502,415 votes. NJDOT then promised a multitude of projects in Ocean County, including construction on Routes 37 and 72 and the Lovelandtown Bridge.

In January 1969, the New Jersey State Legislature approved to spend $242 million of the new bond issue. $110 million would go to the construction of transportation projects immediately, including the Lovelandtown Bridge. In late January, the state started notifying property owners in the way of the new bridge and approach about the condemnation of their properties. Property owners noted they had 90 days to negotiate with the state about proper return values. The Asbury Park Evening Press noted that nine of the properties were on Partridge Run and the remaining 11 would be west of the canal.

However, Goldberg announced to Ocean County officials that there would be more delays in all projects besides the widening of Route 37 through Toms River until 1970. Despite the report by Goldberg, Assemblyman Brown noted in March 1969 that NJDOT was about ready to announce the advertisement for bids on a new bridge. Brown noted that Goldberg was saying they were moving forward rapidly on the bridge. By April, tax assessors were working on estimating tax values for the properties to be acquired for the new Lovelandtown alignment. By August, the borough approved to sell land along Bridge Avenue for construction of the new bridge.

In September 1969, the state noted that they would be ready to advertise and accept bids on the new project starting in late October 1969. NJDOT said they could have shovels in the ground during 1969 if all went well, including property acquisition. 15 houses would be demolished by the project, but only one had been acquired by September 18, 1969, the one at 1644 Elm Street, once owned by the Federal Housing Administration and would be sold at auction in Cherry Hill. They felt construction would be finished by mid-1971 after starting in December 1969. This did not go according to plan as NJDOT had to file a condemnation lawsuit against James Duff, a property owner along the west side of the canal that was in the way of the new bridge. The request was made to get a three-man panel to come to an agreement on what Duff would be paid for the property for the future western approach.

Despite the lawsuit, the state did open advertising on bids in late October 1969. Despite the plan for bid announcements on November 26, within a week of the advertising, NJDOT was in court again, this time of a property on Central Avenue in Point Pleasant owned by William Hall. The borough of Point Pleasant was also named as a defendant as they claimed to have a lien on the property Hall owned. The borough of Bay Head noted that they would only lose one property for construction and that their municipality would not be disrupted during construction of the new bridge. However, the project would take over four parcels in total for the new bridge and approaches in Bay Head.

Construction (1969–1972)
On November 27, 1969, the state announced that they received the lowest bid of $3,344,933.85 (1969 USD) for construction of the new bridge from a joint venture of Mason–Connor, Incorporated of Pennsauken and Thomas Construction of Albany, New York. The new bridge would be 287 ft long and 62 ft wide, with new approaches. Bridge Avenue on both sides would be turned into dead ends while the new Bridge Avenue alignment would fork off of Hollywood Avenue in Point Pleasant and Bay Avenue in Bay Head. The two supporting piers of the bridge would be 80 ft apart from each other. Other bids ranged from $3,386,522–$4,318,141. At that time, NJDOT noted it was studying the low bid and a deal could be made in two weeks.

Point Pleasant announced in December 1969 that they would vacate parts of Central Avenue so construction could begin on the new Lovelandtown Bridge. New road would wipe out parts of Central Avenue due to the new alignment. Point Pleasant also asked in January 1970, that the state widen Bridge Avenue at the southern side instead of the northern side of the roadway so that a costly sewer relocation would not be required.

On January 8, 1970, the state announced that they awarded the contract to Mason–Connor and Thompson Construction for the new bridge. The new bridge would have a deadline of December 15, 1971, to be finished, all to the delight of Beecroft, who began the push for the new bridge a decade prior. Residents of both communities visited a display to see the new renderings of the bridge on January 16 at the Point Pleasant Municipal Building. There it was announced that construction would begin on January 26, 1970. By January 29, demolition work begun on the old marine police headquarters as part of property clearing. However, due to the construction, the work was being done at the station in Monmouth Beach. Fearing lack of police patrol, an officer would be stationed on a boat near the old headquarters to help in the cause. They would end up moving to a new facility on Route 35 in April 1971.

William Hall, who the state had sued earlier to acquire some of his property, noted in March 1970, that the contractors were burning fires at the Lovelandtown Bridge construction site and that the smoke from the fires was polluting the air and his property. Hall noted that the fires were being started by burning old rubber tires and the Point Pleasant Borough Attorney noted that it was a violation of code to do so. Beecroft stepped in and asked the contractor to stop, despite the fact that he saw no burning going on at the property and got assurances that it would stop.

Along with the burning of tires, Beecroft also asked NJDOT in March 1970, to ask the contractor to stop routing their dump trucks over the Route 88 bridge in Point Pleasant. A police officer noted the bridge was being used by dump trucks for the contractor weighing as much as 40 tons. The weight would cause the draw leaves of the Route 88 bridge to shift as much as 12 in, a dangerous amount of jump for the structure. The main concern of the dirt-loaded dump trucks was more of the safety of schoolchildren crossing the bridge at the same time as the dump trucks. If the bridge opened like that and a child got stuck in the leaves, it would mean immediate amputation. The state asked the trucks to slow down on the bridge to reduce the jump in the bridge, but that was still not enough for Beecroft who was ready to make sure they were flagged down Route 35 to reach the bridge instead. However, by the next week, the bridge was still being used by the dump trucks and any thought of the reroute would require changes to the contract in terms of cost.

By late May, the construction on the pilings for the new bridge piers had begun, with the steel bases constructed. However, work was slowed when the cases for the pilings began to have problems without specially-designed seals to keep them in place. The state and the contractor could not come to terms and instead, extra costs would be added anyway under "time and materials". The extra seals would add $50,000–$100,000 to the total cost of the project as contracted. The contractor was confident it would be finished near schedule, but no guarantee of on time. Construction did resume in mid-August.

In November, there were complaints by Bay Head residents about the Bridge and Bay Avenue intersection being ripped up and left unpaved due to construction. While NJDOT said new curbs would be installed soon, no paving of the roads could start until the spring of 1971. They noted they would likely do it in April.

By March 1971, the concrete piers for the new bridge were finished and the supports for the deck of the road spans were being installed. The contractor noted that the work was 50 percent complete at that point. Most importantly, the project was still slated to be complete by December 1971. By May, the state closed parts of Bridge Avenue in Point Pleasant to detour traffic off a two-block section. This was needed to help construct the new western approach to the Lovelandtown Bridge and was to remain in place through the end of construction. However, this detour led to complaints from Point Pleasant about the strain it put on Route 88 in pre-summer traffic. The borough demanded that NJDOT adjust things to help lighten the load.

Construction of the first half of the elevator structure for the bridge began by June 1971, with one side finished by the end of the month. Preparations for the other side of the bridge structure were also taking place. The full structure was up by July 15, with construction of the road deck beginning with the bridge in the elevated position.

In October, the borough of Point Pleasant asked for the work to be amended that sidewalks would be built on the new bridge. The new bridge was not designed to have one, just four lanes of traffic. However, the project was now due to be finished in February 1972.

Opening and bridge failure (1972–1973)
On January 20, 1972, NJDOT announced that the new bridge would open within two weeks (circa February 5) if everything stayed on schedule. However, just four days later, they announced a new delay to the Spring of 1972 due to an issue with the electronic controls for the new bridge. They also said the spokesman from four days prior was incorrect in his announcement about a February 1972 opening. In late March, NJDOT announced they would soon begin testing on the new elevated structure for barge movement. The main control panel had been set in, but some parts had yet to be delivered. Testing continued through April, and NJDOT expected the bridge to open later that month.

On May 10, the state announced that the new bridge would open to traffic after a ceremony on May 23 at 11:00 am. Numerous dignitaries attended the ceremony, including Mayor Valenti of Point Pleasant and Assemblyman Franklin Berry Jr. (R-Ocean). The ceremony commemorated the 12 years of effort to help build a new bridge over the canal. At the same time, local officials used the ceremony to push help for Route 88, which also needed a new span.

As part of the original contract with Mason–Connor and Thompson Construction, the old span would be demolished. However, in mid-June, the state announced the old bridge would be used by motorists once again. The new span needed its opening mechanisms adjusted, resulting in a several week closure of the new span. These adjustments were completed by the end of July. The bridge closed again on August 31, 1972, with the mechanisms requiring more adjustments; detours were conducted through the old bridge. By September 12, it was announced the new span would continue to be closed until the problem of why the bridges was not closing properly was figured out and fixed, resulting in at least another two weeks of delay.

On October 16, 1972, it was announced that NJDOT engineers would have to submit plans by October 25 to fix the broken lift structure. By this point, there was no certain day on when the new bridge would reopen. Engineers announced on October 27 that the bridge was likely failing to close because of lack of weight on the structure. Their proposals were to add weight to the structure to help it close properly. They were not sure how long this project improvement would take, requiring continued use of the old bridge. These problems were finally corrected in December 1972, and the bridge finally reopened to traffic on December 14 at 3:00 pm.

The old Lovelandtown bridge was swung open and process began on demolishing the old structure in January 1973. As demolition continued on the bridge, the United States Coast Guard put out buoys noting the locations of the old pilings for the bridge, located 45 ft apart from each other just under the surface. The work continued into May on removing the piles from the site of the piers, which had been blasted apart in the demolition process.

Modernization
The Lovelandtown Bridge and its approaches underwent a structural rehabilitation in October 2004. The lift mechanism was replaced to allow for quicker and more efficient raising and lowering of the bridge deck. The construction was completed by Carr & Duff Inc., which had received the project in June of that year. NJDOT and Governor James E. McGreevey forwarded $2.4 million (2005 USD) to the company for construction, which was completed by mid-2005. The project was part of the governor's "Fix-it First" initiative, which prioritized repairing existing roadway capacity throughout the state over building new capacity.

title: New Jersey Route 13


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New Jersey Route 12

Route 12 is a state highway located in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. It runs 11.69 mi from the Uhlerstown–Frenchtown Bridge at the Delaware River border with Pennsylvania in Frenchtown east to an intersection with U.S. Route 202 (US 202) and Route 31 at the Flemington Circle in Flemington. The route is mostly a two-lane undivided road that passes through rural areas of woodland and farmland. It intersects Route 29 and County Route 513 (CR 513) in Frenchtown, CR 519 in Kingwood Township, CR 579 on the border of Delaware Township and Raritan Township, and CR 523 in Raritan Township.

The route was designated in 1927 to run from Frenchtown to Raritan, Somerset County, running along its current alignment to Flemington and following present-day US 202 between Flemington and Raritan. By the 1940s, US 202 and Route 29 replaced Route 12 east of Flemington, and the route was officially designated to end in Flemington in 1953. There are currently plans to modify or eliminate three traffic circles along the route in Flemington to ease traffic congestion.

Route description
Route 12 begins at the Uhlerstown–Frenchtown Bridge over the Delaware River in Frenchtown at the Pennsylvania / New Jersey border, where it connects to Pennsylvania Route 32. The bridge and short portion of its eastern approach is maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. The route continues through the downtown area of Frenchtown as county-maintained (designated and signed by Hunterdon County as County Route 610) two-lane undivided Bridge Street. Here, it intersects Trenton Avenue which is also the northern terminus of Route 29 before turning north onto Race Street and intersecting the southern terminus of CR 513. Route 12 heads east on Kingwood Avenue and passes through residential areas. The route crosses into Kingwood Township, where it becomes maintained by the New Jersey Department of Transportation with two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane. As Route 12 climbs into the Hunterdon Plateau, it heads through a mix of woods and farms with intermittent residences, narrowing to one lane in each direction at the top of the plateau before crossing CR 519 in Baptistown.

Route 12 continues southeast through rural areas, crossing the Lockatong Creek before intersecting CR 615, where it becomes the Samuel Hill Highway. A short distance past this intersection, the route briefly passes through the southern corner of Franklin Township before entering Delaware Township. Here, the road crosses Wickecheoke Creek before coming to an intersection with CR 579. Past this intersection, Route 12 enters Raritan Township, where it continues through rural areas with some residences. The residential development along the road increases before it reaches the Dvoor's Circle (a traffic circle) with CR 523. Past the traffic circle, the route crosses a small stream and enters Flemington. Here, Route 12 passes businesses and heads south of a park and ride lot serving Trans-Bridge Lines buses before crossing the Black River and Western Railroad and coming to the Main Street Circle, a modern-designed roundabout, where it intersects CR 611 and Reaville Avenue. From here, the route continues east a short distance as a four-lane divided highway before ending at US 202 and Route 31 at the Flemington Circle.

History
Route 12 was legislated as a new route in the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering that was to run from Frenchtown east to Route 28 in Raritan borough, running along its current alignment to Flemington and following present-day US 202 to Raritan. By the 1940s, US 202 and Route 29 were designated along the alignment of Route 12 between Flemington and Raritan, cutting the route's eastern terminus back to Flemington. In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 12 was officially legislated to run from Frenchtown to US 202 and Route 69 (now Route 31) in Flemington. There are currently plans to modify or eliminate the three traffic circles along Route 12 in Flemington in order to ease traffic congestion along the route. The Main Street Circle was converted to a modern roundabout in 2010 while plans are still being thought out for the other two traffic circles.

By Joint Resolution No. 1, approved April 22, 1940, the New Jersey Legislature designated Route 12 from the junction with present-day Route 31 to Croton as the Samuel Hill Highway, in memory of local industrial pioneer Samuel Hill.

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title: New Jersey Route 12


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New Jersey Route 15

Route 15 is a state highway in New Jersey, spanning Morris and Sussex counties, which travels for 19 mi from U.S. Route 46 (East McFarland Street) in Dover to an intersection with U.S. Route 206 in Frankford Township. It becomes a divided highway in Wharton Borough until becoming a freeway bypass near Sparta. Route 15 was originally Route 6A from 1927 until 1953, when a renumbering occurred and the route was given its current number. Since the finishing of the Sparta Bypass, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority have considered more bypasses and alignment changes for Route 15.

Route description

Route 15 currently exists in two disconnected segments. The southern segment begins in downtown Dover at an intersection with U.S. Route 46 (US 46). It follows Bergen Street south a short distance to Clinton Street, then turns west along Clinton Street through downtown Dover. This segment, which is signed in downtown Dover, was disconnected from the rest of the route when a new intersection between US 46 and Route 15 was constructed just northwest of downtown Dover. Route 15 formerly passed under US 46 along the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad at the location of this new intersection. The southern segment ends at a dead end just southeast of the new intersection, with the northern segment of Route 15 starting again at US 46 almost directly above the rail line.

From the new intersection with US 46, Route 15 continues north, exiting Dover and entering Rockaway Township. The road remains two lanes past the turn for the Rockaway Townsquare shopping mall. For a very short distance Route 15 becomes a freeway as it crosses the Interstate 80 (I-80) interchange. A mile north, the road becomes a four lane divided highway with exits for a few businesses and Picatinny Arsenal. At that point, Route 15 leaves Rockaway Township and enters Jefferson Township. In Jefferson Township, the northbound and southbound lanes become about a quarter mile apart as it climbs up a steep mountain. The southbound lanes have businesses, easy access to them, and a speed limit of 40 mph as these were the original lanes of Route 15 when it was only a two lane highway. The northbound lanes are nearly a freeway with limited access to businesses on the southbound lanes. The northbound lanes have a speed limit of 50 mph as well. These two lanes were built in the late 1960s. Slightly farther north, Route 15 becomes a freeway and the northbound and southbound lanes come closer together. At this point, the original two-lane Route 15 breaks off into Route 181, heading through Jefferson Township and into downtown Sparta. Several miles north, the freeway leaves Morris County in Jefferson Township and enters Sussex County and Sparta Township, bypassing downtown Sparta. After bypassing downtown Sparta, Route 181 ends and merges onto Route 15. The freeway then ends and Route 15 becomes a two-lane road before crossing a New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway branch line. After Route 15 leaves Sparta and enters Lafayette Township, it merges with Route 94. Routes 15 and 94 run as a concurrency until Route 94 turns off to the southeast while Route 15 heads northwest. It continues into Frankford Township and comes to an end at U.S. Route 206 and County Route 565.

History
Route 15 follows the course of an old Lenape trail running from what is now Ross's Corner to Dover. In 1804, this road was legislated as a part of the Union Turnpike, which ran from Morristown north to Dingman's Ferry in Montague. In 1938, Route 15 was designated as State Highway Route 6A. In the 1953 renumbering, the current designation was assigned. Originally, Route 15 was a two-lane road for its entire length. The road originally went through downtown Sparta and today that road is known as Route 181. In the mid-1960s, plans were made to widen Route 15 to four lanes through Jefferson Township. However, businesses were on both sides of this road, thus making a widening difficult. As a result, the additional two lanes were built behind the businesses on the east side of the road. In 1974, a freeway bypass was built around the Sparta Business district and into Jefferson Township. The freeway began in northern Sparta and extended to Lake Hopatcong. In Sparta, New Jersey Department of Transportation commissioner Jack Lettire and state senator Robert Littell announced the completion of a project of restructuring the Route 15-Houses Corner Road intersection, which began ground breaking in 2002 by James E. McGreevey, then-governor of New Jersey. The project was completed in August 2004. The original intersection was a signalized intersection with a blinking light and no left turn-off lanes from Route 15. Because of heavy traffic, turning left onto Houses Corner Road became dangerous for motorists. The intersection now has a full traffic light. The project cost a total of $15.5 million.

Wilson Drive and White Lake Road were also realigned to form one signalized intersection, with completion originally expected in 2008. The intersection was improved, with construction finishing on June 1, 2009, after eight months of work starting in October 2008. The project cost the state $2.3 million (2009 USD) to fund for construction by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. Studies are being made to improve the Route 15 corridor from I-80 to U.S. Route 206. Concepts include widening, the addition of climbing lanes, and a potential bypass of Lafayette.

The project to construct a new intersection at US 46 in Dover began in 2008; the project also entailed the replacement of bridges on US 46 over the Morristown and Erie Railway (now Dover and Rockaway River Railroad) and Rockaway River. A temporary intersection was completed in January 2010 utilizing a former US 46 westbound–Route 15 northbound ramp. The permanent intersection was completed in August 2011.

There is an ongoing local grassroots movement to honor the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan by renaming Route 15 after him. Most recently on February 2, 2012, a bill was introduced in the New Jersey General Assembly by Assemblymen Michael Patrick Carroll, Gary R. Chiusano, Jay Webber and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose to designate Route 15 as the "Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway".

title: New Jersey Route 15


text:
Dewey

Dewey may refer to:

In the United States

 * Dewey, Arizona, a former unincorporated town, now part of the town of Dewey-Humboldt
 * Wasco, California, formerly Dewey, a city
 * Dewey, Idaho, a ghost town
 * Dewey, Illinois, an unincorporated community
 * Dewey, Indiana, an unincorporated community
 * Dewey, Missouri, a ghost town
 * Dewey, Montana, a census-designated place
 * Dewey, Oklahoma, a city
 * Dewey, South Dakota, an unincorporated community
 * Dewey, Utah, a ghost town
 * Dewey, Skagit County, Washington, an unincorporated community
 * Dewey, Wisconsin (disambiguation), various places
 * Dewey County, Oklahoma
 * Dewey County, South Dakota
 * Dewey Lake, Kentucky
 * Dewey Lake (St. Louis County, Minnesota)
 * Dewey Marsh, Wisconsin
 * Dewey Mountain, in Saranac Lake, New York

Canada

 * Dewey, a former railway station near McGregor, British Columbia

People and fictional characters

 * Dewey (given name)
 * Dewey (surname)
 * George Dewey, Admiral of the US Navy
 * John Dewey, American philosopher and educator
 * Melvil Dewey, American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification
 * Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer, prosecutor and governor of New York

Other uses

 * USS Dewey, various ships
 * Dewey (deer), the first cloned deer
 * Dewey Readmore Books, a library cat in Spencer, Iowa, and subject of the 2008 non-fiction book
 * Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, a 2008 non-fiction book
 * Dewey (hill), a classification of hills and mountains

title: Dewey


text:
Louie

Louie may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

 * Louie (American TV series), comedy drama television series created by and starring comedian Louis C.K.
 * Louie (French TV series), animated series about a young rabbit who draws pictures which come to life
 * "Louie" (song), by Blood Raw
 * Louie (album), a 2022 album by Kenny Beats

People

 * Louie (given name)
 * Louie (surname)

Fictional characters

 * Louie, one of Donald Duck's nephews
 * Louie De Palma, dispatcher in the television series Taxi
 * King Louie, in the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book (1967 film)
 * Big Louie, a gangster-mafia boss in the 1987-1996 animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
 * Louie, in the soap opera EastEnders
 * Louie, a character in the strategy video game series Pikmin
 * Louie, a comic strip created and drawn by Harry Hanan
 * Buzz Saw Louie, a character in the VeggieTales video, The Toy That Saved Christmas

Mascots

 * Louie the Bear, the St. Louis Blues mascot
 * Louie the Laker, the Grand Valley State University mascot
 * Louie the Lumberjack, the Northern Arizona University mascot
 * Louie the Fly, the mascot for Australian insecticide Mortein

Other

 * "Louie", a slang term for a Second lieutenant in the U.S. Army

title: Louie


text:
New Jersey Route 17

Route 17 is a state highway in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, that provides a major route from the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel and other northeast New Jersey points to the New York State Thruway at Suffern, New York. It runs 27.20 mi from an intersection with Route 7 and County Route 507 (CR 507) in North Arlington north to the New York border along Interstate 287 (I-287) in Mahwah, where New York State Route 17 (NY 17) continues into New York. Between Route 7 and Route 3 in Rutherford, Route 17 serves as a local road. From Route 3 north to the junction with U.S. Route 46 (US 46) in Hasbrouck Heights, the road is an arterial road with jughandles. The portion of Route 17 from US 46 to I-287 near the state line in Mahwah is a four- to six-lane arterial with all cross traffic handled by interchanges, and many driveways and side streets accessed from right-in/right-out ramps from the right lane. For three miles (5 km) north of Route 4, well over a hundred retail stores and several large shopping malls line the route in the borough of Paramus. The remainder of this portion of Route 17 features lighter suburban development. The northernmost portion of Route 17 in Mahwah runs concurrently with I-287 to the New York border.

Prior to 1927, the route was designated as Route 17N, which was to run from Newark to the New York state line. This route had followed various local streets, including Franklin Turnpike north of Hackensack. In 1927, Route 17N became Route 2, which was designated along the portion of Route 17N between Route 7 in North Arlington to the New York border near Suffern, New York. This route was moved to a multilane divided highway alignment north of Rutherford by 1937. Route 2 became Route 17 in 1942 to match the designation of NY 17 for defense purposes during World War II. The entire Route 17 corridor was once planned to be a freeway until the 1960s, and later plans to extend the route south of Route 3 to I-280 in 1972 and to the New Jersey Turnpike in 1987 both failed. Over the years, the portion of Route 17 north of Route 3 has seen many improvements, including the widening of much of the road to six lanes and the removal of most at-grade intersections in the 1950s as well as more recent improvements to the interchanges with Route 4 in Paramus in 1999 and Essex Street/Maywood Avenue on the Lodi/Maywood border in 2008. The route is currently undergoing improvements between Route 3 and US 46 and is expected to see improvements from Williams Avenue in Hasbrouck Heights to south of Route 4 in Paramus.

Route description
Route 17 begins at an intersection with Route 7 and CR 507 (Belleville Turnpike) on the border of Kearny, Hudson County and North Arlington, Bergen County. It heads north through North Arlington on Ridge Road, a two-lane local street that passes by businesses and the Holy Cross Cemetery on the east side of the road. It intersects CR 26 (Jauncey Avenue) and crosses into Lyndhurst at the Lincoln Avenue intersection. In Lyndhurst, Route 17 intersects CR 28 (Kingsland Avenue) and passes over NJ Transit's Main Line at Kingsland station. At the intersection of CR 30 (Rutherford Avenue), which runs along the border of Lyndhurst and Rutherford, the route turns east onto Rutherford Avenue to parallel the Route 3 freeway to the south and head for the edge of the New Jersey Meadowlands, widening to a four-lane arterial road at the intersection with Orient Way. Route 17 makes a curve to the south, crossing entirely into Lyndhurst, and makes a hairpin turn to the north, widening to a divided highway. The road then crosses into Rutherford and comes to the Route 3 interchange.

Past the Route 3 interchange, Route 17 continues north as a six-lane arterial road with intersections featuring jughandles. It passes through residential and commercial areas of Rutherford, intersecting CR 32 (Meadow Road) before crossing under NJ Transit's Bergen County Line and into East Rutherford, where it intersects CR S32 (Union Avenue) before interchanging with Route 120 and CR 120 (Paterson Plank Road). The route runs through Carlstadt, where it crosses into Wood-Ridge. Route 17 comes to an interchange with CR 36 (Moonachie Road) before entering Hasbrouck Heights. With the exception of a short stretch in Rutherford with a median strip, this section of Route 17 is divided by a Jersey barrier.

In Hasbrouck Heights, the lanes split with the Bendix Diner located between the traffic lanes at the intersection of CR 40 (Williams Avenue), the northernmost traffic light on Route 17. At the interchange with US 46, which only features access to the eastbound direction of US 46, Route 17 drops to two lanes in each direction and continues north with the lanes merging back together as the road interchanges with CR 55 (Terrace Avenue). The road enters Hackensack with the lanes splitting again for the long interchange with I-80. Along this strip, the road is again three lanes in each direction and includes an interchange with CR 57 (Summit Avenue), crossing into Lodi and heading across the now-defunct New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's Lodi Branch line. The lanes rejoin upon splitting from I-80 with a lane dropping in each direction at the CR 56 (Essex Street) and CR 59 (Maywood Avenue) interchange on the Maywood border. This portion of the highway is subject to frequent congestion. Route 17 continues north through commercial areas, crossing into Rochelle Park where the route passes over New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's New Jersey Subdivision line and interchanges with CR 62 (Passaic Street) before entering Paramus.

At the CR 61 (Farview Avenue) interchange, the road regains a third lane in each direction. Route 17 passes by the Westfield Garden State Plaza shopping mall on the west side of the road before coming to an interchange with Route 4. Route 17 is flanked by businesses and shopping malls for most of its length in Paramus. Following Route 4, the road interchanges with Century Road. Route 17 comes to a partial interchange with the Garden State Parkway, with access limited to northbound-to-northbound and southbound-to-southbound movements between the two roads. North of the Garden State Parkway, Route 17 features interchanges for Midland Avenue, the Paramus Park shopping mall and an industrial park, and CR 80 (Ridgewood Avenue) just north of the Fashion Center shopping mall.

Route 17 crosses into Ridgewood and interchanges with CR 110 (Linwood Avenue), where the penetration of businesses along the side of the road lessens dramatically. In Ridgewood, the road interchanges with CR 62 (Paramus Road), crosses the Saddle River, and intersects a separate segment of CR 62 (Franklin Turnpike) and West Saddle River Road. This intersection, along with other at-grade intersections along this portion of Route 17, is a right-in/right-out (RIRO) intersection with cross traffic blocked by a Jersey barrier. Past here, there is a park and ride lot serving Short Line commuter and intercity buses accessible from the southbound direction. There is another RIRO intersection for CR 112 (Race Track Road) on the Ho-Ho-Kus border. Upon crossing into Ho-Ho-Kus, the businesses stop along Route 17 and it comes to an interchange with CR 502 (Hollywood Avenue). The route enters Waldwick and interchanges with CR 77 (Sheridan Avenue). It enters Saddle River, continuing north to an interchange with CR 90 (Allendale Avenue).

Route 17 enters Allendale, with businesses resuming along the road. It enters Upper Saddle River before running through Ramsey, where the road crosses back into Upper Saddle River. The route comes to an interchange with CR 81 (Lake Street/Crescent Avenue), where it crosses back into Ramsey. In Ramsey, Route 17 turns to the northwest and features a RIRO for CR 83 (Airmount Avenue), an interchange with CR 507 (Franklin Turnpike), and an interchange for Island Avenue/Spring Street. The route passes over NJ Transit's Bergen County Line/Main Line near the Ramsey Route 17 station and enters Mahwah. In Mahwah, Route 17 interchanges with CR 85 (Island Road) and CR 100 (Ramapo Avenue). North of Ramapo Avenue, Route 17 features an interchange with US 202 (Ramapo Valley Road) and crosses the Ramapo River. Route 17 has an interchange with Mountainside Avenue and Crossroads Boulevard where it becomes a six-lane freeway just before merging with I-287, which it follows to the New York border, where the road continues into Hillburn, Rockland County as I-287 and NY 17, intersecting I-87 (New York State Thruway) shortly after the state line.

History
Route 17 follows the course of the Haginsack Trail, an old Lenape Trail running north from what is now Newark to Suffern, New York, and possibly beyond. The Franklin Turnpike was legislated in 1806 to run from Hackensack north to the New York state line at Suffern. This road was incorporated into two auto trails: the Liberty Highway, signed in 1918 to run from Cleveland, Ohio, to New York City; and the West Shore Route, which ran from New York City to Albany. Both routes followed the same roads in New Jersey, coming in from Suffern, along the Franklin Turnpike, Paramus Road and Passaic Avenue, and local roads through Teaneck and Englewood before taking a ferry at Englewood Cliffs to New York.

Route 17N was defined in 1923 to run "from Newark, by way of Kearny, Rutherford, Hackensack, Ridgewood and Ramsey to the New York State Line". However, only the road north of Route 10 (Essex Street) in Hackensack was shown on the 1925 New Jersey State Highway Department Official State Map, running north along existing roads - First Street and the Franklin Turnpike (now partly called Passaic Street and Paramus Road) - to the state line. The 1927 Tydol Trails Map shows the route running south to Newark, continuing south across Essex Street on Polifly Road, Terrace Avenue and Hackensack Street to East Rutherford, where it followed Meadow Road, Rutherford Avenue, Ridge Road, Kearny Avenue, 4th Street, and the Newark Turnpike to Newark. In 1924, New York had numbered its state routes, and the extension of NY 17N north and west to Westfield, New York was numbered as NY 17, as shown in part on the Tydol Trails Map.

In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 17N received the Route 2 designation, and was defined to run from Route 7 in North Arlington to the New York border near Suffern, New York. By 1937, the whole old road north of Rutherford was bypassed by a new four-lane divided highway with the exception of the 1927 bridge over the Saddle River in Ridgewood, north of the Paramus Road interchange. This old alignment joins at Paramus Road and leaves just north of the bridge at Franklin Turnpike, which only has access to the southbound lanes through a RIRO intersection. A short-lived spur of Route 2, Route 2N, was defined in 1938 to run from Route 2 (Ridge Road) in Lyndhurst west along Kingsland Avenue and over the Passaic River on the Park Avenue Bridge into Nutley, where it would end at Union Avenue (west of Route 7). In 1930, New York had renumbered its state routes; the extension of Route 2 north and west into New York had remained NY 17. New Jersey had not assigned a Route 17 in the 1927 renumbering, and so in March 1942, Route 2 was numbered Route 17 to match and provide a single number for military caravans during World War II.

Since at least 1936, Route 17 (then Route 2) was planned for upgrading to a freeway, not only north of US 46, but also south to the Newark area. The first plan for a freeway along the length of the route was halted due to World War II, and the second plan for a freeway in the 1960s was cancelled due to the disruption it was projected to cause to businesses and residents along its path. In 1972, there were plans to extend Route 17 past Route 3 to I-280 in Harrison. The plans for this 5 mi, $50 million extension were cancelled due to the defeat of a transportation bond that would have funded the proposed freeway. The interchange at Route 3 was built to allow for this southern extension. Another extension of Route 17 to the New Jersey Turnpike was brought up in 1987, but was ultimately scrapped.

The road north of Route 3 was gradually rebuilt to higher standards between 1953 and 1960; most of this portion of Route 17 was upgraded to six lanes and most at-grade intersections were removed north of I-80 in Lodi. The northern 0.39 mi of Route 17 in Mahwah was incorporated into Interstate 287 in 1994. The Route 4 interchange in Paramus was rebuilt at a cost of $120 million in 1999, replacing the 1932 cloverleaf interchange by adding several flyover ramps. In 2008, construction was completed at the interchange with Essex Street on the Lodi/Maywood border, which involved replacing the Essex Street bridge over Route 17 and improving the interchange ramps, at a cost of $68 million. On January 14, 2008, Governor Jon Corzine announced plans to reduce congestion and improve safety along the portion of Route 17 between Williams Avenue in Hasbrouck Heights to south of Route 4 in Paramus by making it a consistent six lanes. Also, a $14.7 million effort, begun in September 2008, was undertaken to improve safety and reduce bottlenecks along the section of Route 17 between Route 3 and US 46.

Route 17 has been the object of several studies exploring a Bergen BRT, a bus rapid transit system that would potentially alleviate some traffic congestion and decrease automobile dependency. While funding has not been identified, the potential routes of the system have centered around the vicinity radiating from the malls of Paramus.

On December 8, 2014, the portion of Route 17 in Ramsey was named the Staff Sergeant Timothy R. McGill Memorial Highway in honor of a Ramsey High School graduate, Marine Corps veteran, and local firefighter. On May 11, 2015, the portion of Route 17 in Waldwick was named the Christopher Goodell Memorial Highway in honor of a Waldwick police officer who died when he was struck by a tractor trailer on the highway in July 2014.

title: New Jersey Route 17


text:
BowLingual

BowLingual (バウリンガル), or "Bow-Lingual" as the North American version is spelled, is a computer-based dog language-to-human language translation device developed by Japanese toy company Takara and first sold in Japan in 2002. Versions for South Korea and the United States were launched in 2003. The device was named by Time magazine as one of the "Best Inventions of 2002." The inventors of BowLingual, Keita Satoh, Matsumi Suzuki and Norio Kogure were awarded the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize for "promoting peace and harmony between the species."

The device is presented as a "translator" but has been called an "emotion analyzer". It is said to categorize dog barks into one of six standardized emotional categories. BowLingual also provides a phrase which is representative of that emotion. The product instructions state that these phrases "are for entertainment purposes only" and are not meant to be accurate translations of each bark.

Features
BowLingual has bow functions which include dog training tips, a "Bow Wow Diary," tips on understanding a dog's body language, a medical checklist and a home alone bark recording function. The device consists of a hand-held receiver that contains a LCD information screen and functions as the controller and a wireless microphone-transmitter which is attached to the dog's collar.

When a dog barks, the microphone records and transmits the sound to the hand-held unit for computer analysis by a database with thousands of dog barks pre-recorded into it. The unit then categorizes the bark into one of six distinct dog emotions (happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive, needy) and displays the corresponding emotion on the screen. After displaying the emotion, BowLingual then displays a phrase which has been categorized to fit within the range of each emotion.

Versions
Regional versionals of BowLingual have been released in Japan, South Korea, the US and Canada. The versions for South Korea, the US and Canada have different modifications in comparison to the Japanese version. In May 2003, at the request of the Japan Foreign Ministry, Takara provided Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi with two prototypes of the English version of BowLingual several months before it had been released in North America. Koizumi then presented these to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for each of his dogs (Tosca, a standard Poodle, and Connie, a Labrador Retriever), at ceremonies celebrating the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

Effectiveness
BowLingual uses customized voice-print analysis technology which has been adapted for dog barks. The accuracy of this product can be affected by varying conditions and situations. Sound interference can occur when the wireless collar-microphone picks up noises made by chain collars and collars with dog tags attached. As a result, the dog owner may believe that the device is malfunctioning and not registering the dog bark correctly.

In windy conditions, the microphone will sometimes interpret a gust of wind as a bark. Electrical equipment and certain radio signals may trigger false readouts. Due to improvements with the US and Canadian versions of the products, these problems are more common with the Japanese and South Korean versions.

One reviewer of the product, vet Sophia Yin stated "it's not very useful because the translations aren't trustworthy and most don't make sense."

Csaba Molnar and colleagues at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary proved by computer-based machine learning algorithms that there are consistent differences in the acoustics of dog barks according to the behavioural context and individuals.

Related products
In 2003 Takara launched a follow-up product for cats called Meowlingual (ミャウリンガル). It functioned similarly to BowLingual; however, it did not use the wireless microphone system. Instead, the microphone was contained in the main hand-held unit so that the user had to be close enough to, in effect, "interview" the cat. Without the wireless component, Meowlingual was considerably cheaper than BowLingual. Meowlingual was never launched in the U.S. or any other countries, so only Japanese language versions exist. The iPhone version of BowLingual similarly listens to the dog through the iPhone's microphone.

title: BowLingual


text:
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the debut studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was produced from June through October 1972 by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos at the budget-priced 914 Sound Studios. The album was released January 5, 1973, by Columbia Records to average sales but a positive critical reception.

Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. first charted in the United Kingdom on June 15, 1985, in the wake of Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. tour arriving in Britain; it remained in the top 100 for ten weeks. In 2003, the album was ranked at No. 379 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list and in 2013 the same magazine listed Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time". On November 22, 2009, the album was played in its entirety for the first time by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York, to celebrate the last show of the Working on a Dream tour.

Recording
Springsteen and his first manager Mike Appel recorded the album at the low-priced, out-of-the-way 914 Sound Studios to save as much as possible of the Columbia Records advance, and cut most of the songs during the last week of June 1972.

There was a dispute not long after the record was recorded—Appel and John Hammond preferred the solo tracks, while Springsteen preferred the band songs. As such, a compromise was reached—the album was to feature five songs with the band ("For You", "Growin' Up", "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?", "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City", and "Lost in the Flood") and five solo songs ("Mary Queen of Arkansas", "The Angel", "Jazz Musician", "Arabian Nights" and "Visitation at Fort Horn").

However, when Columbia Records president Clive Davis heard the album submitted on August 10, 1972, he felt that it lacked a potential hit single, and rejected it. Springsteen quickly wrote "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night", and recorded both on September 11, 1972. Because pianist David Sancious and bassist Garry Tallent were unavailable, a four-man band was used—Vini Lopez on drums, Harold Wheeler on piano, Springsteen on guitar, piano (on Spirit in the Night only), and bass, and the previously missing Clarence Clemons on saxophone. Columbia accepted the revised album, and Davis was personally pleased with Springsteen's response.

Critical reception
Reviewing for Rolling Stone in July 1973, Lester Bangs hailed Springsteen as a daring new artist who sets himself apart from his contemporaries with songwriting that either has a serious meaning or showcases his uninhibited gift for verbose, overloaded lyrics and rhyme schemes. "Some of [his words] can mean something socially or otherwise", Bangs said, "but there's plenty of 'em that don't even pretend to, reveling in the joy of utter crass showoff talent run amuck and totally out of control". Peter Knobler wrote in Crawdaddy that "he sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone' ... the album rocks, then glides, then rocks again. There is the combined sensibility of the chaser and the chaste, the street punk and the bookworm." Creem magazine's Robert Christgau said Springsteen's songs are dominated by the kind of mannered emotional transparency and "absurdist energy" that made Bob Dylan "a genius instead of a talent". In Christgau's Record Guide (1981), he wrote that despite the grandiloquent, unaccompanied "Mary Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel", songs such as "Blinded by the Light" and "Growin' Up" foreshadow Springsteen's "unguarded teen-underclass poetry", while even the maundering "Lost in the Flood" is interesting.

In All Music Guide to Rock (2002), William Ruhlmann gave Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. five stars and said that it combined the mid-1960s folk rock music of Bob Dylan, accessible melodies, and elaborate arrangements and lyrics: "Asbury Park painted a portrait of teenagers cocksure of themselves, yet bowled over by their discovery of the world. It was saved from pretentiousness (if not preciousness) by its sense of humor and by the careful eye for detail ... that kept even the most high-flown language rooted." In 2003, the album was ranked number 379 on Rolling Stone ' s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. They ranked it 37th on their list of greatest debut albums.

Personnel
The E Street Band Additional musicians Technical
 * Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboards, handclaps, bass guitar on “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night”
 * Clarence Clemons – saxophone, backing vocals, handclaps
 * Vini Lopez – drums, backing vocals, handclaps
 * David Sancious – piano, Hammond organ, keyboards
 * Garry Tallent – bass guitar
 * Richard Davis – double bass on "The Angel"
 * Harold Wheeler – piano on "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night"
 * Louis Lahav – engineer
 * Jack Ashkinazy – remixing
 * John Berg – cover design
 * Fred Lombardi – back cover design
 * Steven Van Zandt reportedly provided sound effects on "Lost in the Flood", although Van Zandt denied having any involvement on his official Twitter page.

title: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.


text:
This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap (also known as This Is Spın̈al Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi) is a 1984 American mockumentary comedy film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as members of the heavy metal band Spinal Tap, who are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands". Reiner plays Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows them on their American tour. The film satirizes the behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands and the perceived hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries such as The Song Remains the Same (1976) and The Last Waltz (1978), and follows the similar All You Need Is Cash (1978) by the Rutles. Most of its dialogue was improvised and dozens of hours were filmed.

This Is Spinal Tap was released to critical acclaim, but its initial release found only modest commercial success. Its later VHS release brought it greater success and a cult following. In 2002, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. It has been credited with "effectively" launching the mockumentary genre.

Plot
Filmmaker Martin "Marty" Di Bergi is filming a documentary about English rock band Spinal Tap's 1982 United States concert tour to promote their new album, Smell the Glove. The band comprises childhood friends David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on vocals and guitar, bassist Derek Smalls, keyboardist Viv Savage, and drummer Mick Shrimpton.

The documentary shows Spinal Tap's early days as the skiffle group The Originals; they renamed themselves the New Originals when it was discovered another band was already called The Originals, only to change it back when the original Originals broke up. They later had a hit as the Thamesmen, "Gimme Some Money," before changing their name to Spinal Tap and achieving a significant hit with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People"; they subsequently began performing heavy metal music. Several of the band's previous drummers died under strange circumstances: John "Stumpy" Pepys died in a "bizarre gardening accident" that police said was better left unsolved, Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs died choking on someone else's vomit, and Peter "James" Bond exploded on stage. Nigel shows Marty his extensive guitar collection, as well as a custom-made amplifier that has volume knobs that go up to eleven; Nigel believes this makes the amplifier "one louder" than most other amplifiers, which have "ten" as the highest volume setting.

Tensions rise between the band and their manager, Ian Faith, as several shows are canceled due to low ticket sales, and major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove because of its sexist cover art. David's girlfriend Jeanine, a yoga and astrology devotee, joins the group on tour and participates in band meetings. Nigel and Ian dislike Jeanine's ideas for Spinal Tap's costumes and stage presentation. Without consulting Spinal Tap, the band's record label releases Smell the Glove with an entirely black album cover. Despite Ian's assertion that it could have a similar appeal to the Beatles' White Album, Smell the Glove fails to sell.

Nigel suggests staging a lavish, Druid-themed glam rock show and asks Ian to order a Stonehenge megalith. However, Nigel mislabels its dimensions, and the resulting prop is only 18 in high rather than 18 ft, making the group a laughingstock. The group blames Ian, and when David suggests Jeanine should co-manage the group, Ian quits. The tour continues, rescheduled for much smaller venues, and Jeanine and David increasingly marginalize Nigel. At a gig at a United States Air Force base, Nigel is upset by an equipment malfunction and quits mid-performance. At their next gig, in an amphitheater at an amusement park where the band is billed below a puppet show, the band finds their repertoire is severely limited without Nigel. At Derek's suggestion, the band improvises an experimental "Jazz Odyssey," which is poorly received.

On the last day of the tour, David and Derek consider ending Spinal Tap and exploring other projects, such as a musical about Jack the Ripper called Saucy Jack. Before they go on stage, Nigel arrives and tells them that Spinal Tap's song "Sex Farm" has become a major hit in Japan and that Ian wants to arrange a tour there. David bitterly refuses, but later, as Nigel watches the band performing from the wings, David relents and invites Nigel to join the band onstage, delighting the crowd but infuriating Jeanine. During the performance, Mick explodes on stage. Ian is rehired as the group's manager, and Spinal Tap (now with Joe "Mama" Besser as their drummer) performs a series of sold-out shows in Japan.

Cast

 * Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins
 * Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel
 * Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls
 * Rob Reiner as Martin "Marty" Di Bergi
 * Tony Hendra as Ian Faith
 * R.J. Parnell (drummer for Atomic Rooster) as Mick Shrimpton
 * David Kaff as Viv Savage
 * June Chadwick as Jeanine Pettibone
 * Bruno Kirby as Limo Driver Tommy Pischedda
 * Ed Begley Jr. as John "Stumpy" Pepys
 * Danny Kortchmar as Ronnie Pudding
 * Fran Drescher as Bobbi Flekman
 * Patrick Macnee as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg
 * Julie Payne as The Mime Waitress
 * Dana Carvey as The Mime Waiter
 * Sandy Helberg as Angelo DiMentibelio
 * Zane Buzby as Rolling Stone Reporter
 * Billy Crystal as Morty the Mime
 * Paul Benedict as Tucker "Smitty" Brown
 * Howard Hesseman as Terry Ladd (Duke Fame's Manager)
 * Paul Shortino as Duke Fame
 * Lara Cody as Duke Fame's groupie
 * Andrew J. Lederer as Student Promoter
 * Russ Kunkel as Doomed Drummer Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs
 * Victory Tischler-Blue as Cindy
 * Joyce Hyser as Belinda
 * Gloria Gifford as The Airport Security Officer With The Security Wand
 * Paul Shaffer as The Incompetent Promoter Artie Fufkin (Polymer Records)
 * Archie Hahn as The Room Service Guy
 * Charles Levin as Disc 'n' Dat Manager
 * Anjelica Huston as Polly Deutsch
 * Donald Kendrick as A Background Vocalist
 * Fred Willard as Air Force Lt. Bob Hookstratten
 * Wonderful Smith as The Janitor
 * Robert Bauer as Moke, Spinal Tap's Roadie
 * Fred Asparagus as Joe "Mama" Besser

Background
Michael McKean and Christopher Guest met while in college in New York City in the late 1960s, and they played music together. They worked with Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner on a TV pilot in 1978 for a sketch comedy show called The TV Show, which featured a parody rock band called Spinal Tap. During production of that sketch (while being burned with oil from an on-stage effect) McKean and Guest began to improvise, inventing characters that became David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel.

Guest had previously played guitar under the name "Nigel Tufnel" on Michael McKean and David Lander's album Lenny and the Squigtones.

Development
The entire film was shot in Los Angeles over a period of about five weeks on handheld 16mm cameras. The visit to Elvis Presley's grave was filmed in a park in Altadena, with a mock-up of the grave site. The band sings "Heartbreak Hotel" because that was the only Elvis song for which producer Karen Murphy could obtain rights.

Rob Reiner procured $60,000 from Marble Arch Productions to write a screenplay with McKean, Guest and Shearer, based on the Spinal Tap characters. They realized after a few days of writing that no script could capture the kind of movie they wanted to make, so they decided instead to shoot a short demo of the proposed film. They shopped the demo around to various studios but had no takers, until television writer-producer Norman Lear decided to back the project, providing them with a budget of 2 million dollars.

Virtually all dialogue in the film is improvised. Actors were given outlines indicating where scenes would begin and end and character information necessary to avoid contradictions, but everything else came from the actors. As often as possible, the first take was used in the film, to capture natural reactions. Reiner wanted to list the entire cast as writers on the film to acknowledge their contributions, but the Writers' Guild objected, and so only he, Guest, McKean, and Shearer received writing credit.

Veteran documentary cameraman Peter Smokler worked as cinematographer on the film. Smokler had great instincts for camera placement on set, according to Reiner, and is responsible for the film's handheld cinéma vérité style —although the cinematographer did not understand what was supposed to be funny about the movie. With Smokler behind the camera, the film was shot not as a feature film, but as a documentary, without a script or traditional shooting schedule. So much footage was filmed (over 100 hours) that it eventually required three editors to complete the film.

Inspirations for the film included the documentaries Dont Look Back (1967), which was made about Bob Dylan, and The Last Waltz (1978), which was about The Band. The scene where Spinal Tap becomes lost backstage was inspired by a video of Tom Petty at a venue in Germany, walking through a series of doors trying to find the stage, but ending up on an indoor tennis court. Rob Reiner also went to see the English heavy metal band Judas Priest in concert as part of his preparation for the film. He later said, "It physically hurt my chest. The reverberation in the hall was so strong that I couldn't stay there any longer." According to Harry Shearer in the Criterion edition DVD commentary, keyboard player John Sinclair had just returned from touring with Uriah Heep when principal photography was about to begin, and told them how they had been booked to play an Air Force base. They subsequently used the story in the film.

In post-production, Christopher Guest was very concerned with the verisimilitude of the finger positions on the band's instruments during the concert scenes, and even re-shot some footage after the movie was edited to ensure their hands appeared in sync with the music.

The character of Jeanine, David's disruptive girlfriend, was added during the production to provide a storyline to the material—in part to mollify studio executives who worried the movie would be plotless. Actress Victoria Tennant was briefly considered for the role, but June Chadwick won the part, thanks to her chemistry with the cast and her improvisation skills.

Robert Bauer played the same character, Moke, in another Rob Reiner movie, The Sure Thing (1985).

Critical reception
This Is Spinal Tap is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1984. The film holds a 96% rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 8.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smartly directed, brilliantly acted, and packed with endlessly quotable moments, This Is Spinal Tap is an all-time comedy classic." On

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four and wrote "This Is Spinal Tap is one of the funniest, most intelligent, most original films of the year. The satire has a deft, wicked touch. Spinal Tap is not that much worse than, not that much different from, some successful rock bands." Ebert later placed the film on his ten best list of 1984 and would later include it in his Great Movies list in 2001 where he called it "one of the funniest movies ever made". Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also awarded four out of four, writing, "It is so well done, in fact, that unless you are clued in beforehand, it might take you a while to realize that the rock group under dissection in This Is Spinal Tap does not really exist." Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised it as "a witty, mischievous satire, and it's obviously a labor of love." In 2002, This Is Spinal Tap was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Critics praised the film not only for its satire of the rollercoaster lifestyles of rock stars but also for its take on the non-fiction film genre. David Ansen from Newsweek called the film "a satire of the documentary form itself, complete with perfectly faded clips from old TV shows of the band in its mod and flower-child incarnations".

Even with cameos from Anjelica Huston, Billy Crystal and Patrick Macnee, Spinal Tap still managed to trick many of its moviegoers into believing the band existed. Reiner observed that "when Spinal Tap initially came out, everybody thought it was a real band... the reason it did go over everybody's head was that it was very close to home".

Reactions from musicians
The film resonated with many musicians. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jerry Cantrell, Dee Snider and Ozzy Osbourne all reported that, like Spinal Tap, they had become lost in confusing arena backstage hallways trying to make their way to the stage. When Dokken's George Lynch saw the film he is said to have exclaimed, "That's us! How'd they make a movie about us?" Glenn Danzig had a similar reaction when comparing Spinal Tap to his former band the Misfits saying, "When I first saw Spinal Tap, I was like, 'Hey, this is my old band.'" Rock Mountain lead vocalist Patty Albigese-Robbins left the theater after seeing Spinal Tap, and remarked, "I feel like my whole life just flashed before my eyes."

Lars Ulrich told a press conference crowd that the 1992 Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour seemed "so Spinal Tap." This tour was in support of Metallica's own "black album". Shortly after the tour started, Metallica's James Hetfield suffered third-degree burns on his arms after he stood too close to a pyrotechnic device. Earlier in that tour, backstage at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Metallica met with Spinal Tap and discussed how their "black album" was a homage to Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove. This was captured on the Metallica DVD A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica.

In a 1992 interview, Nirvana explained declining an offer to be part of the film Singles. Kurt Cobain goes on to say, "There's never really been a good documentary on rock and roll bands." Dave Grohl then cuts in saying, "Except for Spinal Tap, [that] was the only rock movie worth watching," which Cobain agreed with, as well as mentioning Dont Look Back, by D.A. Pennebaker.

According to a 1997 interview in Spin magazine with Aerosmith rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, "The first time Steven [Tyler] saw it he didn't see any humor in it." When the film was released, Aerosmith's then-latest album, Rock in a Hard Place, depicted Stonehenge prominently on the cover.

U2 guitarist The Edge said in the documentary It Might Get Loud that when he first saw Spinal Tap, "I didn't laugh: I wept," because it summed up what a brainless swamp big-label rock music had become.

In a 2023 interview Chris Frantz of Talking Heads said "we watched Spinal Tap and I thought, ohh, I can never take myself seriously again."

Use of Spinal Tap as a descriptive term
It became a common insult for a pretentious band to be told they were funnier than Spinal Tap. As George Lynch put it, the more seriously a band took themselves, the more they resembled Spinal Tap. After seeing a 1986 performance by metal band Venom, singer Henry Rollins compared them to Spinal Tap. In their respective Behind the Music episodes, Quiet Riot's Rudy Sarzo and Ratt's Robbin Crosby compared their own bands to Spinal Tap to some extent. For example, as a parallel to the "Shit Sandwich" incident, Quiet Riot's fourth album Condition Critical was given the two-word review of "Prognosis: Terminal" by J. D. Considine in Musician magazine. His review of the short-lived band GTR's eponymous debut LP in the same magazine was "SHT". R.E.M.'s Mike Mills described the band's early tours as "very Spinal Tap", citing, among other things, they had played at a United States Air Force base.

Judas Priest, the heavy metal band that Rob Reiner saw in preparation for the film, has had many drummers in its career (eight in total), which the website Ultimate Classic Rock described as "positively Spinal Tap-worthy". Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery later described the run of five drummers in a year between his band's first two albums as "like Spinal Tap". In the Pearl Jam documentary Pearl Jam Twenty, the members jokingly refer to the fact that while the core lineup of the group has remained unchanged (singer Eddie Vedder, guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, and bassist Jeff Ament), the band has had five drummers. They describe this as "very Spinal Tap of us". In the documentary, a mock silent film called The Drummer Story is shown explaining what happened to their previous drummers. In it, one of them is almost eaten by a sea monster, only to be rescued by Eddie Vedder, playing a lifeguard.

The Canadian heavy metal band Anvil, whose drummer is named Robb Reiner, have been called "the real Spinal Tap" based on the misadventures depicted in their documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil.

Accolades
In 2008, Empire magazine ranked This Is Spinal Tap #48 on its list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The New York Times placed the film on their list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. In January 2010, Total Film placed This Is Spinal Tap on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. When Entertainment Weekly compiled their list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, the publication included the film as "just too beloved to ignore". In 2011, Time Out London named it the best comedy film of all time. In November 2015, the film was ranked the 11th funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of 101 Funniest Screenplays. Stephen Sondheim listed it among his favorite films of all time.

This Is Spinal Tap at 35: Tribeca Film Festival (The Guardian)

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in this list:
 * 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #29

Lawsuit
On October 17, 2016, actor Harry Shearer filed a $125 million fraud and breach of contract lawsuit against both StudioCanal, who owns the film's rights, and Vivendi, which owns the studio. Shearer claimed that he and the other co-stars of the film received only $179 for sales of merchandise and music over the prior three decades. Shearer's lawsuit was specifically directed at StudioCanal by ordering the studio to terminate the copyright to This Is Spinal Tap. In February 2017, Shearer's co-stars Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, as well as the film's director Rob Reiner, joined the lawsuit against StudioCanal and Vivendi, seeking $400 million in damages. In the same month, Vivendi made an attempt to move the court to dismiss the case. In September 2017, a judge dismissed Shearer, Reiner and McKean from the case. In October 2017, Spinal Tap revised their case by adding Universal Music Group (UMG, another division of Vivendi, whose Polydor label released the film's soundtrack) as a defendant, as well as the right to reclaim their copyrights to the film, its songs and characters.

In August 2018, another judge ruled that Guest, Reiner, McKean and Shearer could pursue the fraud claim against Vivendi.

The case related to sales of the soundtrack was settled out of court by November 2019, with UMG retaining the distribution rights but with the music rights eventually returning to Shearer, Guest, and McKean in the future. A settlement between Vivendi, StudioCanal, and the cast on the merchandising aspect was reached in September 2020 with final details to be resolved in the following months.

Home media
This Is Spinal Tap was first released on VHS in 1984 by Embassy Home Entertainment, and in 1994 as part of the Criterion Collection on LaserDisc under the title This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition. It has also been released twice on DVD.

The first DVD release was a 1998 Criterion edition in letterbox format which used supplemental material from the 1994 Criterion LaserDisc release. It is the only double sided DVD in their catalogue, and it is now out of print. It included an audio commentary track with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer; a second audio commentary track with Rob Reiner, Karen Murphy, Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda; 79 minutes of deleted scenes; Spinal Tap: The Final Tour, the original twenty-minute short they shot to pitch the film; two trailers that feature Rob Reiner showing a film about cheese rolling (because "Spinal Tap" itself was still in the editing room); a TV promo, Heavy Metal Memories; and a music video for "Hell Hole". Sales of this edition were discontinued after only two years and the DVD has become a valuable collector's item. Much of this material had appeared on a 1994 CD-ROM by The Voyager Company that included the entire film in QuickTime format.

In 2000, MGM Home Entertainment released a special edition with more or less the same extras from the Criterion edition, plus a new audio commentary track with Guest, McKean and Shearer performing in character throughout, commenting on the film entirely in their fictional alter-egos, and often disapproving of how the film presents them; 70 minutes of deleted scenes (some of which were not on the Criterion DVD); a new short, Catching Up with Marty Di Bergi (where it is revealed that the members of Spinal Tap were very disappointed in Di Bergi for making a "hatchet job" of their film); the Heavy Metal Memories promo and six additional TV promos; music videos for "Gimme Some Money", "Listen to the Flower People" and "Big Bottom"; and segments of Spinal Tap appearing on The Joe Franklin Show. The special features were produced by Automat Pictures. However, this version of the film was missing the subtitles that appear throughout the film (for example, introducing band members, other personnel, and location names) and did not include the commentaries from the Criterion edition. The MGM DVD is missing the subtitles burned into the film; they have been replaced with player generated subtitles.

A 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc release was released on July 28, 2009. It includes all bonus features from the MGM DVD, plus an interview with Nigel about Stonehenge, as well as the performance of "Stonehenge" from the band's Live Earth performance. It does not include the commentaries from the Criterion Collection DVD, even though MGM had stated that they would be included in the earliest press release for the Blu-ray version (most likely due to legal issues), and does not feature a "create your own avatars" element teased in publicity. However, this version does restore the subtitles that introduce band members/locales/events/etc. that were missing from MGM's DVD. The alternative, Region B, UK edition of this version additionally features a new hour-long documentary featuring famous fans, the "Bitch School" promo, the EPK for the "Back From The Dead" album, an interview with the late Reg Presley discussing the influence of the Troggs tapes on the film, and the first hour (ending with an abrupt edit) of The Return Of Spinal Tap. It does however lose the Di Bergi short and the Joe Franklin clip.

Sometime in the 2000s a workprint version of the film was uploaded online. This version is 270 minutes long. It includes many scenes never released in any home media release.

Appearances in other media
Harry Shearer, who played Derek Smalls, went on to become one of the main voice artists on The Simpsons, providing voices for Principal Skinner, Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders and many others. The members of Spinal Tap reprised their roles in "The Otto Show", first playing on a concert attended by Bart and Milhouse which escalates into a riot after the band's early exit, then having their tour bus run off the road by Otto in the school bus.

The Internet Movie Database normally allows users to rate films only up to ten stars, but specifically for Spinal Tap, the site allows users to rate the film eleven stars, referring to the "Up to eleven" scene. On IGN, This Is Spinal Tap was the only DVD—and seemingly the only thing reviewed on IGN—to get 11 out of 10. This scene was also used in some news reports on the death of James Charles "Jim" Marshall, founder of the famous amplifier company whose equipment is featured in the scene. Richard D. Titus, UX&D Controller for the BBC, adopted a Spinal Tap-inspired suggestion from a colleague that the BBC iPlayer should have a volume control that goes to eleven. The term has entered the vernacular, as with an autistic's description of sensory overload vis-à-vis a neurotypical's routine filtering.

Fran Drescher reprised the role of Bobbi Flekman during the fifth season of her hit television sitcom The Nanny; it was the season's third episode, titled "The Bobbi Flekman Story". In the episode, Flekman is now a record label producer for The Brian Setzer Orchestra, and an ex-business partner of character Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). Drescher's regular character Fran Fine believes Flekman is attempting to seduce Sheffield, and impersonates her to stop it.

Outside the world of music, J. K. Rowling cited Spinal Tap's series of drummers as an inspiration for the Harry Potter series, in which something bad happens to every teacher of Defence against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, causing them to leave the job without completing a full school year.

A biographical comic book was released in 2018, That Was Spinal Tap, telling both the fictional story of the band and the real-life tale of the actors and others who created the characters and music. It was scripted by Rock 'N' Roll Comics co-creator Jay Allen Sanford.

Sequels
A sequel, The Return of Spinal Tap, was broadcast and released on video in 1992 to promote Break Like the Wind. It consisted mostly of footage from an actual Spinal Tap concert at the Royal Albert Hall. In it the "Stonehenge" joke from the original movie is referenced, as the new, large prop is instead too big to get into the venue.

In May 2022, director Rob Reiner announced that he is working on a sequel to the film, which will include him returning to play DiBergi, and McKean, Shearer, and Guest as the members of Spinal Tap. Cameos will include Elton John, Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Questlove and Trisha Yearwood.

The film will be Castle Rock Entertainment's first film following its revival in 2021. Filming started in February 2024 and Reiner plans to release the film in "late spring or early summer" of 2025.

Related works

 * "Christmas with the Devil", 1984 follow-up single.
 * Inside Spinal Tap (1985), a rare companion book by Peter Occhiogrosso. In 1992 this was revised and expanded exclusively for the UK market.
 * Both Michael McKean and Harry Shearer appeared in character as David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls as part of the all-star charity group Hear 'n Aid. The group issued the single "Stars" in early 1986 which charted in the UK, hitting #26. St. Hubbins and Smalls were two of the dozens of well-known heavy metal artists who participated and were credited on the record, and can be seen in the video.
 * Break Like the Wind (1992), album.
 * "The Otto Show", a 1992 episode of The Simpsons which features Spinal Tap.
 * This Is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion (ISBN 0-7475-4218-X) was published in 2000. It featured a "Tapistory", full transcript of the film (including outtakes), a discography, lyrics and an A–Z of the band. This book largely recycles material from the Peter Occhiogrosso book and Criterion DVD commentaries.
 * Back from the Dead, 2009 album and DVD.
 * Unplugged and Unwigged, 2009 live DVD of Guest, McKean, and Shearer performing songs from their various works.
 * Smalls Change (Meditations on Ageing), 2018 solo album by Shearer as Derek Smalls.

title: This Is Spinal Tap


text:
Talk:Jamie Lee Curtis

Personal life
They have two adopted daughters: Annie, born in 1986, and Ruby, born in 1996.

This is false they adopted a daughter named Annie and son named Thomas. You can add the Thomas transitioned and now calls themselves Ruby but to omit all reality, and change factual history, is contrary to the purpose of an encyclopedia.

Record Facts. Thank You. Zzvicezz (talk) 04:43, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

 * Refer to MOS:GENDERID. Wikipedia is written under a neutral point of view respecting living people's lives. (CC) Tb hotch ™ 04:58, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * At the same time she was a bit public about Thomas becoming Ruby. Saxophonemn (talk) 07:00, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree. If he wants to call himself a woman now, fine. But that doesn't change history. Jamie and her husband adopted a boy and a girl, not two girls. 76.202.192.102 (talk) 02:11, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Neutrality could read as"They have adopted two children,one of them came out as transgender". 2600:8801:FB13:6B00:3944:8E92:58F5:54EB (talk) 21:21, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 February 2024
Jamie Lee Curtis is a baroness. Baroness Haden-Guest 149.135.0.227 (talk) 22:46, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting wait.svg Already done This is covered in the personal life section. Jamedeus (talk) 00:03, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Books link
At, there's a link to Jamieleecurtisbooks.com. Currently, that's a redirect to https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/childrens and I suggest modifying it (Jamieleecurtisbooks.com) to https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/jamie-lee-curtis-880000013293 which is HarperCollins Publishers' page about Curtis' books. Also, probably better to drop the Official website template there. --Talky Muser (talk) 18:40, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅   [[User:CanonNi ]]  (talk • contribs) 11:33, 3 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks. --Talky Muser (talk) 17:17, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Jamie Lee Curtis