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Weird NJ
''Weird NJ'' (sometimes abbreviated ''WNJ'') is a semi-annual magazine that chronicles local legends, purported hauntings, ghost stories, folklore, unusual places or events, and other peculiarities in New Jersey. The magazine originated in 1989 as a newsletter sent to friends by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, but as it grew in popularity, it became a public magazine published twice a year. It spawned a series of books called '' Weird US'', which chronicle oddities from individual states in the United States aside from New Jersey, which in turn led to a television series that aired on the History Channel. History ''Weird NJ'' began in 1989 as a personal newsletter sent to friends by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. Gradually it evolved from a fanzine into a public magazine published twice a year in May and October. Abandoned places, eerie experiences, unique people, and strange landmarks were and still are common subjects for the magazine. Past issues have covered everything from the ...
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Mark Sceurman
Mark Sceurman is a graphic artist and co-creator and publisher with Mark Moran (writer), Mark Moran of ''Weird NJ'' magazine and a state-by-state series of books. With Moran he co-hosted the spin-off television series ''Weird U.S. (TV series), Weird U.S.'' on the History (U.S. TV channel), History Channel. ''Weird NJ'' ''Weird NJ'' newsletter and magazine Sceurman started the original ''Weird NJ'' in the early 1990s as a newsletter circulated to friends that featured local news items, historical anecdotes, and in particular legends and folk tales little known beyond the locality concerned."Just What Is Weird US" at weirdus.com website
accessed July 2, 2011
After a story about the newsletter was published in the ''The Record (Bergen County), Bergen Record'' in 1992, people began to write as ...
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Project Nike
Project Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory") was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953. A great number of the technologies and rocket systems used for developing the Nike Ajax were re-used for a number of functions, many of which were given the "Nike" name (after Nike, the goddess of victory from Greek mythology). The missile's first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for many types of rocket including the Nike Hercules missile and NASA's Nike Smoke rocket, used for upper-atmosphere research. History Project Nike began during 1944 when the War Department demanded a new air defense system to combat new jet aircraft, as existing gun-based systems proved largely incapable of dealing with the speeds and altitudes at which jet aircraft operated. Two proposals were accepted. Bell La ...
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Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 15,188QuickFacts Asbury Park city, New Jersey
. Accessed June 13, 2022.
a decrease from 16,116 in 2010,
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Palace Amusements
PALACE AMUSEMENTS was a historical indoor, Open-Year-Round amusement park in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was built in 1888 and expanded several times over its history. With Asbury Park falling on hard times, starting in the 1970s, and peaking in the early-to-mid 1980s, the town's "resort feel," as a destination location, simply was no longer there. At that point, Asbury Park was losing the sizzle it once had. Plus, Asbury Park simply did NOT have the fun, "down the shore" beach-town, family-oriented appeal that it did for so many years. With that, fewer and fewer people, other than "locals," and those living relatively near-by, frequented Asbury Park. And, with fewer visitors came less revenue for Asbury Park's Hotels, Restaurants & Bars, Events at the Convention Center, Boardwalk Businesses and, certainly, PALACE AMUSEMENTS. Add in the economic difficulties of the late 1970s/early 1980s and Asbury Park truly took a hard, and direct, hit. A hit like no Hurricane or ...
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Tillie (murals)
Tillie is the nickname of two murals of a grinning figure that were painted on the side of the Palace Amusements building in Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States. Tillie is an amusement park "fun face", painted during the winter of 1955–1956. The name Tillie is likely a nod to George C. Tilyou, owner of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York, which featured the Steeplechase Face, similar grinning face signage. In popular culture Tillie has inspired various products, such as a soda brand. The mural has been featured in movies, ''Weird NJ'' magazine, TV shows such as ''The Sopranos'', and a famous photo of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band early in their career. Saving of Tillie Like many other boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ... area ...
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Demon Alley
West Milford is a township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 25,850, reflecting a decline of 560 (−2.1%) from the 26,410 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 980 (+3.9%) from the 25,430 counted in the 1990 Census. It is the largest in the county by total area, covering and more than 40% of the county. History West Milford started out as New Milford in what was then western Bergen County in the 18th century, having been settled by disenchanted Dutch from Milford, New Jersey (later renamed by the British as Newark). These same Dutch also built a town of New Milford in eastern Bergen County. When both New Milfords applied for post offices in 1828, a clerk in Washington, D.C. is said to have approved the other application first and assigned the name "West Milford" to the New Milford in western Bergen County in order to distinguish between the two locations. West Milford became ...
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Atlas Obscura
''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated content. The articles on the website cover a number of topics including history, science, food, and obscure places. History Thuras and Foer met in 2007, and soon discussed ideas for a different kind of atlas, featuring places not commonly found in guidebooks. They hired a web designer in 2008 and launched ''Atlas Obscura'' in 2009. Sommer Mathis (formerly of '' The Atlantic's'' CityLab) was the site's Editor in Chief from 2017 to 2020. She was succeeded by Samir Patel, formerly of ''Archaeology'' magazine, who became the site's Editorial Director in 2020 and Editor in Chief in 2021. David Plotz remained as the site's CEO for five years (October 2014 — November 2019). Warren Webster, former president and CEO of digital publisher ''Coveteur ...
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New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in tabloid format. It reached its peak circulation in 1947, at 2.4 million copies a day. As of 2019 it was the eleventh-highest circulated newspaper in the United States. Today's ''Daily News'' is not connected to the earlier '' New York Daily News'', which shut down in 1906. The ''Daily News'' is owned by parent company Tribune Publishing. This company was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through Digital First Media, in May 2021. After the Alden acquisition, alone among the newspapers acquired from Tribune Publishing, the ''Daily News'' property was spun off into a separate subsidiary called Daily News Enterprises. History ''Illustrated Daily News'' The ''Illustrated Daily News'' was founded by Patters ...
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Clinton Road (New Jersey)
Clinton Road is located in West Milford, Passaic County, New Jersey. It runs in a generally north–south direction, beginning at Route 23 near Newfoundland and running roughly 10 miles (16 km) to its northern terminus at Upper Greenwood Lake. The road and the land around it have gained notoriety over the years as an area rife with many legends of paranormal occurrences such as sightings of ghosts, strange creatures, and gatherings of witches, Satanists, and the Ku Klux Klan. It is also rumored that professional killers dispose of bodies in the surrounding woods—with one recorded case of this occurring.Moran, Mark and Sceurman, Mark; ''Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best-Kept Secrets''; Barnes & Noble Books, New York, New York, 2003, p. 206 It has been a regular subject of discussion in ''Weird NJ'' magazine, which once devoted an entire issue to it. In the words of a local police chief, "It's a long, desolate stretch and makes the imaginati ...
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Shades Of Death Road
Shades of Death Road is a two-lane rural road of about in length in central Warren County, New Jersey. It runs in a generally north–south direction through Liberty and Independence townships, then turns more east–west in Allamuchy Township north of the Interstate 80 (I-80) crossing. South of I-80 it runs alongside Jenny Jump State Forest and offers access to it at several points. The road is the subject of folklore and numerous local legends. In 2013, the SyFy channel's ''Haunted Highway'' series did a segment on the road. According to ''Weird NJ'', these rumors have drawn more visitors to the area, to the annoyance of residents, who have in the past gone so far as to smear the pole holding the street sign (pictured) at the road's southern end with grease or oil to prevent theft (Other signs along the road are in vertical type on poles and thus harder to remove and less desirable to display).Sceurman, Mark and Moran, Mark; "Shadowy Past: The Long and Winding Story of Shad ...
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Midgetville
Midgetville (also known as "tiny towns") refers to real or legendary communities of "midgets", people with forms of dwarfism who are normally proportioned, or collections of small "midget-sized" houses. Real or legendary, they are at times given fanciful qualities (see Little people (mythology)). Some "real" ones may play on mythology for tourism purposes. Hence some descriptions are not meant to imply anything concerning ordinary or real people with dwarfism. Fairfax County, Virginia The "Midgetville" in Vienna, Virginia, visible from the W&OD Trail, was a collection of six small cottages that were torn down in 2008. In 1882 the site was a small summertime resort that people visited when they wanted to escape the stressful lifestyle of Washington, D.C. In 1892 the area was purchased by Alexander Wedderburn. In 1901 the hotel burned to the ground, but a normal-sized two-story building was built around the same time at the corner of the property. In 1930, one of Alexander Wedder ...
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Evil Clown Of Middletown
The Evil Clown of Middletown is a large outdoor sign in Middletown Township, New Jersey. Originally built by and for Food Circus grocery store, which later became known as the regional supermarket Foodtown (United States), Foodtown, it is now a roadside display and de facto advertising sign for a nearby Spirits Liquors. Much of the clown's notoriety stems from its sinister-looking face, which might be described as bearing a vaguely amused sideways scowl. History It was originally constructed in 1956 by Joseph Azzolina to advertise his Food Circus grocery store (the predecessor to today’s Foodtown supermarket chain). In its early years it rotated continuously by electric motor, a then-common ad gimmick that went out of style (or economic practicality) by the mid-1970s or so. The clown has long since been fixed in place. The clown is the work of Road Ad Sign Company painter Leslie Worth Thomas who also created the mural Tillie (murals), Tillie, at the Palace Amusements building in ...
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