Thursday, October 22, 2009

President Obama Comes to Hackensack

President Obama made an appearance at the cis-Hackensack outpost of Fairleigh Dickinson University1 to raise campaign funds for our governor, Jon Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs chief. I was going to post about this yesterday, noting that, if memory served, this was the first presidential visit to Hackensack since President Uribe of Colombia made a state visit here a couple of years ago. Then I wasted a half hour trying to find a good photo or article to link to about the Uribe visit, got frustrated, and gave up. Part of the problem with that search is that we've had a Colombian-American mayor here, so articles about him popped up. And we also have an annual Colombian Day celebration here, so that comes up too.

Fortunately, I missed the inevitable traffic snarls yesterday, but Cheryl wasn't as lucky; she got stock in gridlock on Hackensack Ave. on her way back from the Hackensack Financial District. She had to make an Italian illegal U-Turn (all the police were occupied with motorcade security, so she didn't get a ticket for this) and loop around Hackensack via the highways. In any event, thanks to the magic of YouTube, here is some Hackesack residents' brush with the motorcade of the Imperial Presidency2:




1This school was derided as "Fairly Ridiculous" when I was growing up. Most of its "Metropolitan" campus is on the trans-side of the Hackensack River, which divides the City of Hackensack from the Township of Teaneck.

2By way of contrast, I recall a photo of French President Sarkozy jogging in Central Park last month when he was in New York for the annual UN festivities. Exactly one security guard was visible in the photo.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's an "Italian U-Turn"? Your non-bigoted readers might like to know.

DaveinHackensack said...

No offense intended to my Italian readers. I'm sure in Italy, it's called something else (an Albanian U-Turn?). What I was referring to was an illegal U-Turn in the middle of a two-way street.

Hans W. Sloderbach said...

Well, then that would be a Mexican U-turn, wouldn't it?

Use Italian as an adjective for true mafia-like activities, such as an 'Italian accident', aka a "hit and run" accident.

DaveinHackensack said...

It might have been a Mexican U-Turn if she were riding a boy's Mongoose dirt bike, which is the vehicle of choice of Mexican illegal immigrants here. Thanks to our Real ID driver's licenses, our Mexican illegals are consigned to bicycles. They are the only ones riding them in the middle of January here.

Hot Sam said...

I grew up in Teaneck. We called it Fairly Ridiculous too.

San Francisco is famous for its illegal U-turns, the "California Stop", motorcycle wheelies and lane-splitting, and just about every other dangerous maneuver in a motor vehicle.