Coda

Even though I give the best advice of anyone I know (I always agree with it and take my own advice), the people who work with me don't always act on my advice.

Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at gbean@gmnews.com. My kids didn't always take my advice, and sometimes they even acted in direct opposition to my suggested wisdom. My wife certainly doesn't always take my advice. And to tell you the truth, before she went to the great doggie biscuit factory in the sky, my dog didn't take my advice very often either.

Although I'm pretty generous with advice in this column, politicians seldomtake the advice I dole out here, and that's a pity.

I don't think the New Jersey State Appeals Court judges who are currently considering an appeal in the Long Branch eminent domain case are likely to take it either, but I really wish they would.

My advice would be this: Tell the politicians who have made Long Branch the national poster child for eminent domain abuse that enough is enough. Tell them they can't take honest, hard-working peoples' homes so a big money developer can put up high priced condominiums. Tell them it's time we take a stand against the abuse of government power, and that oppression and coercion are never good things, or acceptable in a society that believes in the notion of private property and the rights of individuals. Tell themthat unless this sort of thing is stopped, right here, right now, then the home of every homeowner in this country is at risk to a local government who'd like to take it and put a high-end coffee franchise or a gas station in its place.

Longtime readers of this column know that I've been railing about eminent domain abuse in Long Branch for years. They know that in that divided community, the government is trying to take the homes of a number of private citizens in a beachfront neighborhood so that a private developer can put up 187 ugly, cookie-cutter condominiums that they hope will bring in more tax revenue. They know that the Long Branch story has become prominent on the national stage, that it has been told on the pages of national publications and by national news outlets. They know that so far, the courts have generally ruled against the homeowners, in spite of the fact that even the state's public advocate has gone on record supporting them. They know that the homeowners finally gained prominent and powerful representation for their cause, when the Institute for Justice, which argued the famed Kelo eminent domain case before theU.S. Supreme Court, agreed to take on the fight.

They know, as I've mentioned before, that in the current climate in this state, even the governor's mansion at Drumthwacket is not safe frombeing taken by eminent domain, unless laws are changed.

What they might not know is that on May 14, attorneys for both sides argued their cases before a three-judge panel in state appeals court before a packed audience in Trenton.

The judges heard the evidence, and will rule in their own good time. They could rule in favor of the town and the developers. They could throw out the eminent domain condemnations and chastise the town for abuse of power. They could send the matter back to trial court so that the homeowners can at least present evidence the trial court refused to let them enter.

My advice is to throw the bloody thing out and let these good, oppressed people get on with their lives, in the comfort of their beloved homes.

If they throw it out, the town is likely to appeal, and the matter may eventually wind up before the New Jersey Supreme Court, or even the U.S. Supreme Court for adjudication. But at least the homeowners could fight on with a badly needed win in their pockets, and the support of three impartial appeals court judges who say their cause is just.

I don't know what those judges will eventually decide, but I know what I'd advise them if they're waffling. From where I sit, it looks like a no-brainer. • • • In the news business, I'm sometimes amazed at what gets people's motors running, what gets them excited.

In a couple of our newspapers, there's been a bit of a back-and-forth dialogue recently over whether we ought to take the sex out of Middlesex County.

The whole thing was started by a guy named TajAhmad who lives in Parlin, and wrote a short letter to the editor that said, "I would like to urge lawmakers, senators, politicians, if they can think about changing the name of Middlesex County to 'Middle County' instead of keeping Middlesex. The word sex in the current name looks weird and does not look appropriate in our society."

I know enough about the evolution of the English language to suspect that the "sex" in Middlesex has nothing to do with sex. Best I can determine (and I'll defer to the expertise of professional linguists if I'm in error), the sex started out as sax, in reference to the Saxons who invaded England and took most of it away from the Welsh and Celts. The word was originallyMiddlesax, being a place where Saxons lived, and it somehow transmogrified over the generations into Middlesex.

Mr. Ahmad's letter generated some amusing responses. My favorite was from Joel Henkin of East Brunswick, who said that, "over 30 years, I have been to all parts of the county and I find very little evidence of sex anywhere."

While the notion of changing the county's name toMiddle County was interesting, Henkin thought that maybe we ought to go even further and call it Mid County. Or better yet, change it to Middlesexy in an effort to create more interest in the area and "reach out to the hot businesses that exist in other communities."

I don't know about you, but thatmay be the best idea I've heard in years.

I would absolutely, flat-out LOVE to tell my out-of-state friends and relatives that I live inMiddlesexy County,New Jersey.You know, I'd explain to them, it's the middle part of the state, right between Uppersexy and Lowersexy, right next door to Sussexy, Essexy and Monmouthsexy, and just a tad north of Oceansexy where we go down the shore in summer.

We don't get that many out-of-state visitors to our home now ("What, you're inviting us toNew Jersey? On vacation?Are you out of your bleedingmind?"), but if we lived in Middlesexy County, I'm pretty sure they'd be climbing over each other to get here.