OK. I finally did it. I watched 15 minutes of "Jersey Shore." [View all]

My son (genetically approximately 1/4 of his genes are of Italian origin) has a new girlfriend, a fellow nuclear engineering graduate student. On learning that he's from New Jersey, where she's never been, she asked if it's really like "Jersey Shore."

We never saw the show, so I rented it, and watched 15 minutes of the first episode with my wife (who grew up on Staten Island).

We laughed a bit, then turned it off.

It was apparently about being proud of being a "Guido," or a "Guidette," body building, considering one's self as incredibly sexy, and drinking. The show is about being young, clueless Americans of Italian extraction who happen to congregate in New Jersey.

Of course, when I was growing up on Long Island, I thought of New Jersey as some kind of hellhole, an opinion I continued to hold when I lived in California, until I moved here.

We were embarrassed because we actually brought our kids to Seaside Heights for family vacations. Trust me, it wasn't like that.

I suppose somewhere in this state there is this kind of reality, but no, that's not us.

New Jersey is a kind of heaven. It takes a while to realize this, but it's true.