There's a Hungry Howie's in Co-Op City. Swear to God .

Oh god.. well in a city the size of NYC you'll get a bit of everything. But at least back in NY we have all those nice italian spots to go along with hungry howies. Down here its either that or papa john's. The Chinese takeout spots here look abandoned too. There are rumors that a place called Mellow mushroom has good pizza. I tried a meatball sub there and the cheese didn't exactly smoke my doors. The south does have its strong points for sure, but forget about that massive ethnic blend we have in NY.

Edit- Co op city, eh, I'll pass....

I've never tried it. I only know it's there because when traffic is bad on the Hutch I'll sometimes jump off there and scoot up Boston Road up to Westchester when I'm picking up or dropping off my Pop. Other than that, the only reason I'll ever go into Co-Op City is for the Barnes and Noble. And even then, half the time I'll pay the toll and use the one on Bell Boulevard in Bayside.

Hey pizza have you tried eating at kyklades yet? There was a story in the news about bill murray taking George clooney there to eat. It says murray is a regular. I only mention that because it was already super popular before, but now it might be a madhouse. I hope you made it before the story broke ...

Blacksheep shoot me a PM and I'll tell you what city I'm in if you'll tell me. I'm interested in wondering how big of a culture shock you got......LOL. Or we can trade "counties" if you don't want to get too personal. There are certain parts of Bama I consider too redneck for me to live in, much less a fella from NYC.

You might be closer to me than I thought. There is a Mellow Mushroom about 20 miles North of me. Was the one you ate at near a Harley Davidson shop by chance?

Nevermind I think I have an idea where you are now. You are West of me. Check your PM's.

Hey I sleep late man. But I answered you. Check your replies

Apparently hungry howies is big in bama...

Edit - we should probably move this post to the food and drink section at this point

Ok since it raised some interest I decided to tell the FBI story. First, keep in mind while I write LCN guys that's just one slice, I also write gangsters of various stripes (cartels, bikers, prison gangs etc) and political cases of various stripes, along with some random others, I am not so much into writing serial and random spree killers like most people in the hobby.

Anyway as I'm being dropped off I see some people who just look like govt employees leaving and I think they are there for something unrelated that was going on so we make eye contact, one calls me name questioningly I'm like "Yeah!" and walk over and that's when they both flash their badges and say "Agent so and so and Agent so and so Newark FBI office!"

Well....I won't even lie I stop dead in my tracks and must have looked pretty worried. Right away the male agent goes "Oh you're not in trouble! You're not in trouble! We just know you talk to some VERY interesting people in prison and we would LOVE to know what they say back to you." At this point I'm relieved and say "Oh that's just a hobby, I really have nothing to say about that. I'm sorry to make you travel all the way from Newark for nothing." They were polite and told me to give them a call if I changed my mind.

Later on I found out the agents evidently work counter-terror (quite possibly domestic terror in particular). I still have the one agent's business card they left with my father while they were looking around for me in case anyone wants to call BS on my story. To my knowledge this is the 2nd time I've had a run in with federal law enforcement, the other time was DEA in 2004.


EDIT: In hindsight I wish I had given a nazi salute as they left and said "Hail Staino!"

That doesn't make sense on their part tho. If they want to know what they write back to you they can simply open the mail. They're allowed to read outgoing mail too. Seems like beating around the bush for nothing

Edit- seeing as how they can read or hear any communication in or out of prison, maybe they were just stopping by to shock you out of your hobby?

I won't get on you for your hobby, I'll leave that to the other guys, but just remember 2 things... One is I hope you're using a PO Box. Number 2 is you should think twice about doing something that invites feds and gangsters into your life. A few of us here that really were touched by that life just couldn't understand in a million years why someone who has no underworld connections would do that. If the feds came to your house they probably wanted to look into you. Don't invite those people into your life

best advice ive ever heard on this site. great post!

You should find a safer hobby. Maybe try javelin catching.

Does it make any sense to anyone else that feds would bypass reading outgoing mail that they have every right to read, send 2 agents to someone's house just to ask a simple question and politely walk off? Something stinks in that story. I'm not saying you're lying, I'm saying maybe they wanted to check you out personally... you may have ended up on their radar with these letters. That's never a good thing dude

Holy shit that is funny.



Does sound weird. I'm fairly certain they probably even photocopy outgoing letters so chances are they knew exactly what was being said so I doubt they would have wondered too far away from Newark just to shake someone up over a gangster that is serving life isn't he? Granted they might be seeing if he was trying to extort the kid out of money to put on his books so they could cut his communication like they did with Frankie Breeze.