Friendly Connection

Long time readers of Frail Deeds will remember the affection I’ve always had for my former Most Excellent Boss. It had been a few months since we last got together so I reached out to him and arranged a get together for last night. My assistant GM and I set out through the height of the greater Boston evening commute morass and after some broken field running arrived in Wakefield to link up with my former boss at Sabatino’s, a favorite Italian restaurant of our target.

With My Excellent Boss (r)

Our former excellent boss is something of a legend in the town of Wakefield and as soon as I told the maître d' who we there to link up with I could see that we immediately were elevated in her opinion. I’ve kidded my former boss about his clout from his long time in politics in that region, even nicknaming him the “Pope of the North Shore”. We were directed to the bar where he was holding forth with a couple of friends he ran into while awaiting our arrival.

It was a great reunion as we caught each other up what had transpired since the last time we got together. He was most interested in how some of his former nemeses were doing back in Worcester. Even though he’s nearly seventy years old he’s found another job and happily working in his favored field of maintenance. He proudly proclaimed that he’d already told his new boss, who he described as “an insolent imbecile”, to “F” off twice. You can see how he became my former boss as his toleration of ineptitude is legendarily short.

Screen Capture from Wife's Video

The food was great and the company even better. I’ve stated before that there is something almost medicinal about hanging out with old friends after a long hiatus and that certainly applied last night. During our time together there was a constant stream of people stopping by our table kiss the ring of the pope. As we were walking out he was called back to the bar where even more friends wanted to buy him a drink. I miss that guy. The drive back to Worcester was a lot faster and more direct after the dinner. I arrived home for a nice long conversation with my tropically displaced Favorite Panamanian. She’s spent the last few days alone in our condo and has enjoyed the solitude and the rest that has meant. She sent me a long video showing her rushing into the waves. I was expressly forbidden from putting that video up here.

I watched the movie LBJ last night after getting home. He’s one of the more interesting characters from the 1960s and never given enough credit for his role following JFK’s assassination. Woody Harrelson is fantastic in the heavy makeup they layered him with to resemble LBJ. I couldn’t help staring at the huge fake ears he was equipped with. The story about his journey to the vice presidency and the assassination is told in workmanlike fashion. There was an interesting sub-plot about his contentious relationship with Robert Kennedy wit the younger Kennedy not emerging with a lot of sympathy. LBJ will always take a lot of blame for Vietnam but this film rightfully points out he was historically relevant in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other aspects of the Kennedy agenda despite his deep Southern roots.

I finished the next in RW Peake’s excellent Marching with Caesar books, with Civil War. The hero Centurion Titus Pullo is promoted to increased responsibility due to his battlefield prowess and becomes a favorite of Caesar. We follow Pullo as he takes part in Caesar’s campaigns against Pompey and then onwards to Egypt where we meet Cleopatra along with all the associated silliness of that era. Pullo then fights his way across North Africa and his native Iberia. This continues to be a fascinating look at the inner workings of the Roman legion viewed foerm within through the eyes of Pullo.