And if you ever get the chance, try to find the videotape of Vinny's fight against Joe Frazier Jr. at the Providence Civic Center, which Paz won on a TKO. With lighting like a George Wesley Bellows painting of a boxing match, the crowd is invisible, but you hear an absolutely visceral roar when Vinny wades into Joe Frazier's son — the equivalent of feeling, not necessarily hearing, a bomb go off, that hits you right in the gut. Vinny engendered that favorite son support by his sheer will and determination, and we know it has always been fight or die for him. Saludo to the Cvanston boy who got into the fight biz after watching Rocky at the Park Cinema.
Tip of the week
Keep your eye on that Narragansett Indian tribe land grab on Aquidneck Island, which is being knocked back to Great Swamp for not even coming close to what the Navy wants to see as plans for its excessed acres along the island's west side. P+J greatly respect the Narragansett's heritage, but as long as the tribe's John Brown — aka Walking Eagle: He's so full of shit he can't fly — who is alternately described as the tribe's "historian" or "medicine man in training" (and boy, would P+J like to see that curriculum) is in charge, it will be perceived as just another shakedown number.
Class acts like chief sachem Matthew Thomas and Randy Noka have to realize that blatant b.s. stunts like Brown's can only damage them in the public eye, especially when the initial media attention only draws more looks into the incompetence that Walking Eagle epitomizes.
Will halitosis hall wise up?
Is the Vo Dilun House Finance Committee out of its mind? As of this writing, there is still a committee-approved budget plan that would wipe out the office of the Health Insurance Commissioner in order to save $700,000. Given that the office is currently occupied by the more-than-capable Christopher Koller and that the state's health insurance giants are currently rattling their sabers for substantial increases in health premiums proves to anyone with a brain the shortsightedness of getting rid of a vital and effective public advocate to save chump change.
Quick, someone check to see if HFC chair Steven Costantino's brain has turned into ricotta cheese! Even Governor Don "Laughing Boy" Carcieri gets it (although he's not willing to push the issue to the extent that Lt. Governor Roberts and Atty. General Patrick "Great Power and Great Spider Webs" Lynch are), and so do Representatives Deb Ruggiero and Frank Ferri. Your superior correspondents only hope that this whole dumbass idea has already been scotched before you picked up this issue.
Poll this!
We'll take most polls dealing with the issue of same-sex marriage with a grain of salt (actually, make that a king-sized block of salt lick). Wording of the questions asked can be dubious, and the age of respondents is also a factor; everyone knows there is a giant gulf between the views of under-30s and over-50s on this issue — a fact that makes your superior correspondents embarrassed to be over 50.
