Will Joey Merlino resume his turkey giveaway...

For the homeless and Christmas parties for the kids shelter?

He'll have to find a new Santa seeing Fat Angie Luzt has given up that role

He should get Bobby Bacala to play Santa or go the Les Nessman route and throw them out of a helicopter.

Best episode! We watch it every Thanksgiving.


'As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly'

Hysterical. One of the top 20 funniest television scenes of all time. That's right up there with Jim taking his driver's test on "Taxi," and Chuckles the Clown getting killed on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

Have you seen the CNN series on the 70's? They have one just about TV shows. You might like it.

I'll look for it, Mighty.

You're still a little bit too young to see it. But when you hit true middle age, you'll realize that the year you graduated high school and the ensuing summer was one of the most memorable of your life.

In my case, that was 1977. And it was a particularly memorable summer, aside from the fact that I had just graduated high school. The Bronx was burning, it was hot as Hell, the blackout, the Son of Sam, the Yankees, and a dozen other reasons only added to it for me. Most memorable summer of my life. Hands down.

I watched quite a bit of it Saturday. I thought that it was very good, recommended the TV part to my mother. They had a bit of it on Monty Python, Roots, All in the Family. Great stuff.

Wow you guys are killing me . Those days are gone but not forgotten .
And no doubt how fun or scary or deadly, those were the days...

Pizza, my parents just started dating in the summer of 1977 and they always told me they were Terrified that the Son of Sam would come over the bridge to Jersey and kill them when they were on dates...

and I cant believe I wasn't born until 1984

It was no joke if you lived in the outer boroughs, especially the East Bronx. Spike Lee overdid it in his film, especially the way he portrayed some Italians, but he was correct in that there were dozens upon dozens of us hoping he'd show up. Of course, we were armed like the Israeli army, but that's another story entirely .


See, I have 25 years on you, kid .

I know I seen nino brown doing it in the movie and now every bum rapper does it to look good but I don't remember rappers in the 90 doing it. Biggie tupac or snoop nope. skinny was doing in that murderous city I give it to him but I don't think he'll ever be doing it again.

Soup kitchen down my park gives turkeys to poor peeps but run out quick.

I wasn't even born yet My summer I spent working so I don't have fond memories of the summer after I graduated

"Of course we were armed like the Israeli army" that cracked me the fuck up PB.

I'll tell you a similar story. I remember the day of the Boston Marathon Bombings. My dad and younger teenage brother were in the city that day and every area of the city was basically shut down to look for the then unknown bastards who did it. Everywhere except two areas: Southie, the Irish neighborhood, and North End, the Italian neighborhood, the latter of which my cousin lives in. So they called him and he invited them up there for the night. And when they got there, there were literally about a dozen guys walking around or sitting in lawn chairs with handguns or concealed pistols. These guys were just aching for the terrorists to step foot in North End. Because the minute he tried his ass was grass.

Pizza, I ain't even gonna say how many years ya got on me Paisan.

Spike Lee's first film, "Do the Right Thing" (yeah....'89), I wrote a lengthily essay on regarding the portrayal of race in film. College communications class. I went a bit off topic and wrote deeply of the portrayal of Italian-Americans in film, especially by that hack Spike Lee, and then briefly touching upon how Italians are portrayed as racist, blue-collar thugs....especially by Spike Lee (he must've really hated Italians growing up in NY). I even referenced the mobsters in "New Jack City", but devoted quite a bit of the paper to then-current MTV.......yeah "The Jersey Shore", and then compared it to, what I consider, the unoffensive, unoffensive portrayal of Italians on "The Sopranos".

The professor was a 60 year old black woman. She loved it.

Fuck Spike Lee.

Seriously though, the, by far most damaging image of Italian-Americans, are of blue collar roughs that are poorly educated. See: The Simpson's episode when Homer becomes a tow truck driver, Spike Lee films (all, if not most), etc.

Here's a link I just discovered, via Google:

https://www.osia.org/documents/Advertising-Report.pdf


PS:
Oh, and I wrote extensively of the race-relations of Italians and Blacks in NYC, especially the several incidents in the 80's; Yusef Hawkins, Howard's Beach, and "an unemployed weightlifter named Gino Bova"
I wrote of "A Bronx Tale" quite a bit

I've been a member of the Sons of Italy for 35 years, Nicholas. You're preaching to the choir, son. But that was a valiant effort on your part. You should be proud of yourself .

@Nicholas

the police killed radio raheem in do the right thing and you're complaining

spike lee doesn't portray Italians as murderous thugs

hell he puts john turturro in almost all of his movies

Radio Raheem? You mean the thug who walked into Sal's Pizza with his ghetto blaster blaring and then assaulted Sal after Sal rightly bashed the hell out of it for disturbing his business? Yeah, he was a real loss to the community. Just like Michael Brown.

Hooah. I gave $100 to the NIAF after I watched them criticzing MTV on the news. Must've been Fox

Thank you by the way Pizza

Thanks Ivy, I wrote quite a bit of how Aiello's character was essentially provoked, and spitefully used the "N-word", out of anger and impulse. My professor didn't mention it in her write up/review of my paper. I was also a bit miffed as to why Spike Lee, wanted to have John Turturro's character so angered over Aiello's character's affection for the young black girl when he was "flirting" with her. Seriously, WTF? If I was Turturro, Lee would've kicked my ass off the set, for my anger, that if I was Turturro would've been raised by Lee's writing of Turturro's character's anger over Aiello flirting with the young black girl.

Seriously, Aiello (in the film, and at that time) was like 60. The girl, about 16-20. Just an old man thinking a girl was beautiful. It ain't like the two of them are gonna hook up. Not where that movie took place in 1989, that's for damn sure.

I'm glad this movie came up. It jogged my memory over something I've wondered about for years. In the movie, about 15 minutes in, they have this establishing shot of "the neighborhood". It's right after Richie first shows back up. They have the overhead shot of the DA Beach Club and then the dead-end up against the Sound where they hang out and deal weed.

Anyway, they make a very specific point of showing the street signs of this intersection where the beach club and the hangout is. Except in the movie, the go out of their way to show LAYTON AVENUE and CLARENCE AVENUE. The only problem is, in real life, that's the corner of RANDALL and CLARENCE -- not Layton.

I've always wondered why they went out of their way to re-arrange these street signs during the taping.

And I'm not crazy. Go back and watch the movie. It's right after the scene where Richie wakes up in his underoos, with 1010 WYNS on and asking his step-dad for 20 bucks.

The only thing I could think of is that at one point, they mention "shutting down" the Layton Avenue bridge. Maybe Spike wanted it to seem like that bridge led directly to the dead-end hangout. In real life, it's actually a few blocks over from Layton. Layton has a similar dead end, but there's a pizza shop, no beach club and not as big of an apartment building.

Anyway, great movie, despite the stereotypes. And I wouldn't get up in arms about that anyway. I'm Irish; show me one piece of Hollywood that doesn't portray us as breaking down in confession, drinking away the last paycheck, getting sun burned every time we walk by a glare through a window, having mothers who cook shitty food, and running fools' errands for someone smarter. The thing is, a lot of it is true. That's why stereotypes exist, and paint a picture of certain people and places in time. If we're going to celebrate diversity -- which I think we should -- then we need to celebrate the differences. Otherwise, we're really only celebrating a homogenized version of what the people touting diversity want to see. Although crude and sometimes unfair, I think Spike's depictions make good movies. They at least spark conversation.

I mentioned that here years ago, Sonny Boy .

It wasn't anything sinister. They were doing heavy construction on the corner of Layton and Clarence in the Summer of '98, especially by the apartment building, when they filmed it. Plus, the beach club made for better scenery.

My daughters were both little girls at the time and were asked to be extras (along with a hundred other locals). I politely declined.

I don't know why I thought there was an off-chance you wouldn't have known this. So then why didn't he just keep it Layton and Clarence? Wanted to make it all seem like it was near the "layton bridge"?

Summer of '98 I was 14 years old. Living with my dad Upstate. I was nervous as hell to start 9th grade, but excited as hell to see how big every chick's boobs got. Arturo Gatti and Ivan Robinson I was the fight of the year that August. It was probably one of the last summers before there was ANY form of internet in a house I lived in -- even dial-up. I watched Howard Stern on E!, snuck out to raise hell with my friends, and wasn't even old enough to work. It was my first time getting drunk. My cousin took me to a party and I drank Tequila Rose and Old Mill until I couldn't see straight.

So if you were thinking "This kid was too young/didn't live around here back then" -- you were right.

I turned 39 in 1998. I hate you now. Don't talk to me anymore .

now you know how black folks feel about racial sterotyping ha ha.there is a tons of middle class black folks out there, but that is not what sells. all the old jim crow sterotypes about blacks is what the masses eat up.

Pb was born in the summer of 69.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgpcwYooLO0

Fall of '59. But thanks for trying, Sonny .

Get outta here cook.

Raheem should've gotten his ass kicked by Sal in that movie. Maybe if you'd focus less on rioting and more on changing things you'd be taken more seriously.

Spike Lee is a douche. He hates white people more than some Klan members hate minorities.

Remember that time he bitched about Clint Eastwood's "Flags of our Fathers" film that it had no black soldiers despite the fact that the army was segregated back then and it wouldn't be historically accurate. Luckily Eastwood just told him to fuck off

I am going to be honest only a brain dead black man could be happy with the racial deal in America. All that praying, marching and forgiving shit has not changed one thing. We saw Zimmerman get off for some crap I could never get away with in 1,000 years in the worst ghetto in America plus saw folks reward Zimmerman and Darren Wilson with bounty money for killing unarmed black teenagers.The Zimmerman case made me for the first time in my life say "hey it is time to get a gun" and I am 56 yrs old. My biggest threat is not the hoodlum in the hood but racist cops and everyday racists because they can kill me and lie and folks will let them walk.i had a co-worker say 'MLK would not be happy with folks rioting in Ferguson",I said what do you think he would have said about folks sending Zimmerman and Wilson 1.5 mil for the lying crap they got away with?.The state has no business killing unarmed folks over nonsense like jaywalking and driving without a front tag

Allow me to be honest in return. It's the utter bullshit you posted above that's a prime example of the complete inability of so many black people to look past their own skin color and see things objectively.

I mean, who the hell do you think you're kidding? Zimmerman is no boy scout but Treyvon attacked him and was killed in self defense. Officer Wilson was completely justified in shooting Michael Brown who, let's not forget, bullied and robbed a store clerk not long before he attacked Wilson. The investigation and eye witnesses bore this out and Browns buddy was shown to be a liar. Both Treyvon and Brown were just ghetto thugs who likely would have ended up in prison on the tax payers dime. Their deaths were no loss to society. And before you come here and run your mouth, try doing some research and compare the numbers of blacks killed by other blacks and those killed by cops. There is no comparison. But you have more to fear from the cops? Get the hell out of here.

To paraphrase Warren Beatty in the movie Bulworth, until you people put down the chicken wings and malt liquor and get behind someone other than thugs who rob convenience stores and attack cops, you'll never go anywhere.

@ Nicholas.

Martin Scorsese was once quoted as saying that the most realistic film ever made about Italian-Americans was "Fatso," directed by Anne Bancroft (whose given name was Anna Maria Louisa Italiano), and starring Dom DeLuise. I'm sure you can find the quote on Google.

And I happen to agree with him. It's an hysterical black comedy, and there's not a single cafone or gangster in the entire film. If you've never seen it, check it out. It's all about family, not "The Family."

so what you and others try to do is say there should be no crime in black neighborhoods before something is done about certain bs?Let me tell you that stuff you are talking is apple and oranges.Those dirt poor guys killing each other over drugs is no different than the mob murders that happened in the 1930's over alcohol; poverty drives crime decriminalize drugs and crap goes away. Who gets killed over selling alcohol now? no freaking body!!!.Black folks with well-paying jobs are not committing violent crimes,but they are at risk of getting smoked by a cop or KKK type still.Trayvon got killed in a gated community his father could afford to live in.This website is about stone killers by the way.should i stereotype all Italians? hell no I not better than that.

The police killings we have seen on video is the STATE killing people for trivial stuff. The Trayvon Martin stuff? Zimmermann has six different mug shots, how did he get them? and you believe him? You heard the 911 operator tell him to do nothing because the cops were on the way just like I did. Darren Wilson got fired from a police dept(Jennings, Mo) that got disbanded for racism but I am going to believe him?

Dude we played touch football in the street all the time.The cops never told us to get the f out the street like that POS did.Also, I lived(married to an STL girl) in St Louis for six yrs I know way more about the crap that goes on there with the cops than you do, i can tell you some stories.Ferguson has had about one homicide a yr for the last 15 years.that is not a crime riddled town, my inlaws live 5 minutes from there.I never worried about the cops there when i lived there, but I would not drive thru Jennings Missouri where Darren Wilson and those other goons were working before they ALL got fired. How do you know how those guys lives would have turned out? neither had a juvenile record so how can you say that? they were both in school. We saw how Wilson and Zimmermann were acting before those incidents. If they had juvenile records you better believe some low life would have leaked it. So let's agree to disagree, I know the deal with you. Your lil malt liquor and chicken wings statement tells me everything i need to know about where you coming from. Also, I better not see any folks rioting over a football or hockey game again since you talking about riots.

Just to dispel some myths posted here.

1) Poverty has demonstrated a minor correlation with violent crime, but not been shown to have causitive effect. A much higher correlation can be drawn to violent crime between income negligible racial groupings. Is, high income black people still commit higher crimes than whites or Asians of lower income brackets. Your attempt to compare today's black youth associated violence with that of 1930s American mobsters is unjustifiable. Care to compare the rates of crime between Prohibition era mobsters and gang bangers of today? Raheem and Trayvon make Luciano and Capone look like Ghandi.


2) A 911 dispatch(not an officer) has no legal bearing to tell someone to do anything. They are not officers. Should Zimmerman have followed that kid? Probably not. Should Trayvon have smashed his head into the ground after circling back to confront him? Again, likely not. Don't forget, TrayTray reached the safety of his fathers house before turning back. He initiated violence.

3)

I agree with your third point.

Dam Moe does anything get by you ...

You are obviously cookcounty 2.0 so it's futile to even attempt to reason with you. So just a few points...

People may not be killed selling alcool but more die from the effects of it (disease, traffic accidents, etc) than ever did during Prohibition years ago or as a result of illegal drugs today. Blaming digs being illegal, besides being innacurate, is just a cop out.

Your KKK comment is absurd. It's 2015. Not 1915.

And Wison resigned his position. He was not fired. But you obviously don't want to be confused with the facts.

Chill, Ivy. We get it. You're racist.

This is an OC board lets keep it that way.

Okay, now THAT'S was funny .

Stating the facts and not buying into BS makes me racist?

You're right.

We're still lynching Black people. Black people still can't ride the front of the bus or use public restrooms. Black people still can't go on to become professionals or wealthy businessmen. Black people still can't eat in certain restaurants or stay in certain hotels. Black people haven't become BILLIONAIRES in the Hip-Hop industry. Black people can't become President (oh, wait).

You're right. Nothing's changed since Selma .

I've heard of Fatso, and I've seen a bit of it. For a 1980 film, it certainly was a head of it's time. Thank you for the background on Anne Bancroft.


Not to get too off topic, for someone my age, I am a tremendous film buff. Tremendous. I've seen films most people have not, particularly young cinemaphiles who claim they want to be "actors", there's tons out here. Fuckers.


In no particular order my favorite films:

Thief with James Caan (favorite crime film, and when people ask I always say, "Thief. With James Caan."

Three Kings
Top Gun
On Officer and a Gentleman
Navy SEALS "With Charlie Sheen" (1990)
Terms of Endearment....Yeah
Stand by Me

Stand by Me is The Sandlot for kids who grew up in a realistic environment. Interpret "realistic environment" however you like.

sir that first statement is flat out wrong I bet my bottom dollar I know way more skilled black folks across the country than you.i can tell you they are not committing crimes.If I show my friends that stuff they would laugh out loud and say get the F out of here!.You do not know any middle and upper-class black folks if you believe that.Here is a common scenario, the man works at the post office his wife is an RN do you really think folks like that are committing crimes? they can afford a nice house and cars in most places in America easily.I know scores of black people like them because I am a licensed aircraft mechanic who worked at two airlines and those brothers I worked with were married to educated black women.Those mother effers are not committing crimes.


Why would you defend a liar like that guy.there is no freaking way I can do what he did and walk, that same jury would have convicted my black behind.Are you willing to tell me why we constantly hear about some black man getting out of jail after being falsely railroaded into prison?Those numbers are well over 100, who lied on them?


George Zimmerman has had seven situations where the police were involved, all but one (a traffic stop) involved violence, four involved guns, three involved domestic battery, two which involved guns, and one resulted in the death of someone.
Zimmerman is now officially self-identified as a racist. Not that it was a big secret. But now there is no way the killer of Trayvon Martin can pretend. He is now selling confederate flag art

http://time.com/4001437/george-zimmerman-confederate-flag-painting/

Pizza you know better than that lol. Those same folks you named can get blown away by a racist or crooked cop still, hell they killed MLK. I will not argue with you about what can be done in this country.My old man left my moms with seven kids; we were poor as shit. But we all got our educations and have good jobs; no jail, drug or teen pregnancies. But anybody who tells me there is not a ton of racism in America is lying.Every white person in America knows a racist white. I can tell you a ton of stories about racist crap. i am 56 yrs old just like you and not saying the KKK is behind every tree, but i would be naive as hell to think there are not a gang of racists still out here doing dirt

I have had 200 laborers work for me over the years of all races ,and without a doubt they were all equally racist . Every flavor under the rainbow !

I'm only racist against police and
Jews.

A small point off my fence sitting:




This is a serious problem with Americans, generally the right.

The reduction of the value of life to a monetary amount.

The above statement implies it is better they were killed due to their resultant probable incarceration and its associated costs being a negative loss on society.

What a truly horrendous thing to say.

And I'm fond of and respect Ivy but this is a poor attitude.

Sonny well said.

In the eternal sense it's a big loss. And certainly a loss to their families in the here and now. But in terms of our society at present, sorry, but it's just not a loss. Both were on a one way trip to prison. Forget about the cost to tax payers, what about their likely victims in the future? The only negative result of their demise was other blacks making them out to be martyrs, demonizing the police, and using it all as an excuse to throw their typical tantrums of rioting, looting, and attacking cops and innocent people.

Notice how little to nothing has been said about the underlying problems in the black community that gave rise to all these shootings by police. It's an unspoken admission by both the media and the black community itself that this is what we should expect from blacks and it's the cops who have to change.

But enough has been said about Treyvon, Brown, and a dozen others put down by the cops.

Back to Joey Merlino...

This is the same dangerous argument Ivy. You can throw in all the 'buts' you want, its very dangerous ground.

What about the childrens cancer ward at your local hospital. What do they, have they ever contributed to society? Nothing but a financial burden for society. And most of them will just continue to do so then die.
Wouldnt society be better off without them?

Or are their deaths not a loss?

What about the old, the physically disabled? The mentally disabled? The sick etc etc?


Measuring life in monetary context is a slippery slope. One you dont want to go down.
No matter the 'ifs' or 'buts'.





I think thats best...

And I can bet you the same people can show you a racist black too. Quit making it out like we're the only racist mf'ers out here!

To try to steer it back, I think it brings too much heat on Joey. Anyone ever see footage of Joey's Christmas party for kids where the kid comes up and says to Joey " Your my Idol"? Jim Maher (FBI)apparently shit a brick over this after seeing it. May try to be a litte quieter this time around, then again this is Joey Merlino we are talking about.i

You are not ,whites and blacks they are all equally racist . And if blacks ruled the USA the whites would be the race crying "racist"
It's just the way it is ! and it will not change till all the kids in this would are all the same color.

So till then ,what are you going to do , be the majority and be called a racist !

http://articles.philly.com/1999-10-17/ne...ny-joey-merlino