The Anatomical Record sheds light on the world of the nasopharynx, a most important, yet underappreciated, realm, in a novel Special Issue

Abstract

New Jersey. In preparing this editorial, we could not help but think about New Jersey. For those of you not up on the United States' states, New Jersey is one of the most important. It lies in the northeast nestled between New York and Pennsylvania, and is the home for major rail and truck routes that carry food, gas, and humans in the super-busy northeast corridor between Washington and New York City. And therein lies the problem: New Jersey is an afterthought, a passageway, lying between the Big Apple, the City of Brotherly Love, and the Capital. As the great comedian Rodney Dangerfield would say, "It don't get any respect!" Examples abound. In most states, great citizens have parks, museums, or stadiums named after them. In New Jersey, they get-wait for it-"Rest Stops" bearing their name and countenance on Interstate Highway 95 (I-95)! We kid you not; on traveling between New York and Philadelphia, one has the option to relieve yourself at "Vince Lombardi," "Thomas Edison," "Alexander Hamilton" (he was not even from New Jersey, he was just shot there by Aaron Burr in a duel in Weehawken!) or (JL's kids' favorite) "Molly Pitcher." New Jersey does not even get its own major TV-station, having to use the bandwidths of those from New York or Philadelphia (as punishment, New Yorkers have to listen to stories about some cat stuck in a tree in Piscataway!). The most famous family from New Jersey is not even real-they are the fictional TV "Sopranos" Mafia crime family. New Jersey has to carry the further ignominy of being the home for the New York Giants football team! To remedy these slights, New Jersey markets itself as "The Garden State" (there might be a few peonies somewhere), but this is sort of like the Vikings naming the frozen rock they found "Greenland" (how'd that work for tourism, Leif?). Poor, unloved, New Jersey! And this brings us to the focus of this Special Issue, the nasopharynx, the New Jersey of human body regions. Like New Jersey, the nasopharynx sits at the nexus of pathways, in this case, those leading to/from the ear, nose, and throat. These are the super-star structures of the head (hence the name of the clinical discipline, otolaryngology, or Ear-Nose-Throat, for those who do not dwell in a