Today's the first of two cable days that will wrap up the summer TCAs, and all day the buzz around the gathered critics was the late-afternoon appearance by the cast of 'Jersey Shore.' MTV Networks cleverly put them at the end of their presentation, making us suffer through presentations for shows like TV Land's 'Harry Loves Lisa,' Nick's 'Fred: The Movie,' and their own mis-reimagining of 'Teen Wolf' (think of the old Michael J. Fox movie without basketball, humor, or basically anything else... It's 'Vampire Diaries' with werewolves) before bringing out Snooki and company to meet the critics.

One thing we learned during the panel, during which the cast stood the entire time, was a new word: "Snookin'." For instance, when a critic asked Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi if she's continuing a rumored relationship, she said "Oh, I'm just snookin' around, checkin' what's going on."

The Snookster later defined the word. "If I'm snookin' for love, I'm lookin' for love. If I snook the night, I took the night." Apparently, she'll be including these in other terms in an insta-book called 'Snookstionary.' Make sure you put it on your Christmas lists now.

Anyway, new cast member Deena Nicole was there, who is a friend of Snooki's. She's from New Jersey -- unlike half the cast -- and Snooki decided to invite her into the house after realizing she was commuting to Seaside Heights all the time.



Other tidbits:

-- The company line for the cast now seems to be that they don't represent New Jersey, they represent the folks from all over the New York tri-state area who would go to Seaside and other parts of the Shore to spend the summer. When I asked Tony DiSanto, president of programming at the network, he said that that's what he used to find when he went down the shore. They did explain where everyone was from when they introduced the cast in the first episode, he said, and that the reason why the kids didn't talk about where they were from when the show debuted is that no one thought to ask.

-- About her arrest for public drunkenness, Snooki said: "Stuff like that happens in Jersey. I was in the drunk tank. I had too many tequilas. What are ya gonna do?"

-- When I asked Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, who actually is from New Jersey, what his favorite non-shore place in the state was, he said, "Atlantic City," which is on the shore last I checked. However, it makes sense if you know the kinds of folks who hang out in Seaside every summer; they go from the beach to the casino and back again, all summer long.

-- Another party line is that, even though not all the cast is Italian-American, it's more about living a certain lifestyle. It does sound like a bit of backtracking to me. "I happen to have spiky hair, a six-pack and green eyes. It's working out for me," said The Situation.

-- One of the critics asked Snooki if she'll be "snookin'" in her 30s and 40s. "I can do this forever," she said.