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| Stupidity's bipartisan...
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...or so texts my best friend.
At 11:35 this morning, Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned his office, consumed by the scandal surrounding his involvement with a prostitution ring. Over the past several years, he's spent a good $80,000 on call girls. The one he contracted for services on the 13th of February received, from Client Number 9 (as Spitzer was identified in the investigation), upwards of $4,000.
$4,000!
"There are motels here he coulda spent $50 and be very happy," says Angelo Covelli, over his pork roll, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. "What moron would spend four grand on a hooker?
"Actually," I say, spreading cream cheese on my onion bagel, "what kind of moron would do what he did and so carelessly leave a footprint the way he did, when he's the Governor of New York?"
The Palmetto's crowds have thinned today, after the lunch rush. The service duties are covered by Frisco, and by a very young, very large girl named Angel. She's a five-eleven, two hundred ninety pound Latino with eyeglasses and a thick, black, wiry pony tail. Angel and Gladys, I'm aware, work on differing days. They hate each other with a purple passion.
"I don't know, politicians get so fucking arrogant, they think no one's ever gonna catch them doing anything and then there you see them, standing next to their wives, talking into microphones." Angelo puts ketchup on his sandwich. "Like McGayvey. His wife was having a nice day that day, right?"
"Oh, God," I reply. "Don't bring up that schmuck. I'm eating."
Angel comes by. "So, how you been, George?"
"I'm fine. Looks like I'm going back to school. Time to start a new career. This one I have now's been so fruitful."
"Congratulations!" Angel's voice is somewhat deep. "I wish I could, but there's this, there's kids."
"Yep." I love a good toasted bagel any time of the day. "The wife wants kids, before her biological clock says 'tilt'."
"Do you remember that?"
"What?"
"Our Gayvenor."
"You know," I say, sipping my coffee, "that afternoon, this guy at work says to me, 'McGreevey's resigning.' And, I'm thinking, well, there you go. Federal prosecutor's got imminent indictments. So, I'm looking for a radio covering this, and I wind up listening in a customer's car. So, McGreevey gets up, he starts mouthing the usual meaningless platitudes. Then, he says, 'I am a Gay American!"
Angelo nods.
"I'm looking around, with this stupid smile on my face, because this sounds like I stumbled into one of Howard Stern's unfunny skits. It's so completely ridiculous, that the whole moment's unreal. But, a minute later, I'm listening more, and I realize that Howard Stern has nothing to do with this. It occurs to me, like, 'you son of a bitch! You ingenious son of a bitch! So, THIS is how you escape being indicted! You just threw the kitchen sink!'"
"Yeah." Angelo sips his own coffee, as a buxom, gorgeous brunette sits on the stool next to him. "It was a joke."
"And the joke was on all of us. Mostly on his wife."
"Yeah."
It's a shame. Hubris is truly a terrible thing. Hubris coarses through all the threads that make up our national being. Hubris can be a destroyer. Hubris is a word that is NOT in George Walker Bush's vocabulary. Nuke-yoular is.
"So, whaddaya going to school for?" Angelo asks.
"Massage therapy."
"Growing market. Good idea."
"Right. I mean, I could've opened a VHS video store, but..."
"Uh-huh."
"I do need a change, though. I ain't gettin' any younger."
"Neither am I."
"I wanna have something ready to jump into when we get ready to move south."
"I've been thinking the same thing."
"Really?"
"I'd like to move down to Myrtle Beach, with my IT thing, work nine to five on it, and shoot a round before dinner."
"Just like my Dad," I say.
"I'm getting tired of being here. They're gonna tax me to smithereens."
"Aren't they already?"
"Yeah." Angelo's finishing his sandwich. "Politicians fuck up, or they steal you blind, and YOU have to bail them all out."
"Such is life."
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Posted by Knoxxie03 on 2008-03-12 13:53:34 | Rating: | Views: 80
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| Blog Comments
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I need a change too. I'm not getting any younger either. But, all I keep finding are dead end roads that say "No Trespassing" As you said, Such Is Life...
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Posted by crydun2004
on 2008-03-12 21:58:33
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Interestingly I just applied to go to university this fall, finally... 10 years later than everyone else.. it's nice to see that I'm not the only one out there going back after a long time in the workforce. ;) Of course I still need to get accepted into the program and scrape together the cash. :) Fingers crossed.
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Posted by hairytoad2005
on 2008-03-13 02:22:45
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Oh, me too. I'm gonna hear either today or tomorrow if the loans have been approved.
I'm nervous, a bit scared, and very excited. This has been long overdue.
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Posted by Knoxxie03
on 2008-03-13 09:20:43
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