Sharpie and the Profile
stopped by
for a visit.
They are on tour with
THE IMPLEMENTS.
I asked my niece to pose for a close-up.
"No go, Uncle Paul, not with this goddam skin condition."
She is very excited about her full scholarship to Fairfield University.
Her sister was there–Class of '99–and graduated
magna cum laude.
But Lina commit a federal crime on March 13, 1996.
"But that was cool, Uncle Paul."
"Your sister stole something from a school library!"
"Which is exactly why the CIA hired her..."
"Because she was a thief?"
"Because, she had an uncle who was a personal friend
of Pythagoras...and understood
rap music."
"The CIA wanted Lina because of
me?"
"Exactly. She stole the
LA Times from the library because the newspaper
could not be purchased anywhere in Fairfield, Connecticut."
"The date was March 13, 1996."
"Exactly one year before I was born."
"The D.I. Syndrome struck again."
"You really believe in Divine Intervention, Uncle Paul?"
"That's not the question, Sugar."
"Then what is the question?"
"The question really is
What day of the week do I believe
there can not be Divine Intervention?"
"What day of the week is that."
"I'm not sure. Ask your mother and have lots of fun in Brooklyn."
"Yeah. I'll be there soon because our last concert is at the new arena
for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team."
"Brooklyn is where it's at! England's most controversial–and probably
best–
novelist just moved there. His name is Martin Amis."
"Yeah, I know that. My brother, Anthony, already met him."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And Anthony hates him."
"Why?"
"The first thing Martin did was hit on Gia."
"You mean my stunningly beautiful niece-in-law?"
"One and the same."
"Ha! Martin is true to his character. Hey, Sugar,
what original songs are the band doing these days?"
"Well, we did
Used Carlota,
Hey Judas,
Little Man, and
My Obligation."
"Will Jack* be at the Brooklyn show."
"No. He has to work."
"Well. Somebody's got to drive the bus."
Sugar and her band
brought me flowers.
The band is gone
but the flowers
are still here.
*All of the songs listed
were written by
Jack McCarthy.
He is–indisputably–the best singer/songwriter/ guitarist
in the history of New York City Mass Transit.
I have known Jack since 1961.
Since 1958, I have referred
to the other man
in this photograph
as
FATHER FRANK.
My Uncle attended his first baseball game in 1936, "When Joe Dimaggio was a rookie."
The day this photograph was taken, I took Father to his last baseball game
at the stadium where his brother–my Uncle Tony–used to work.
On that day in the summer of 2007,
Father Frank wore his priest collar:
our passport to stadium privilege.
To avoid stadium parking lot trauma,
McCarthy drove my rental car two miles
from Bowne Park to Shea Stadium.
Half of the parking lot was then
the construction site for the new ballfield.
Because there was a priest in our car,
we were allowed past security gates
that would have been impassable
were Father Frank not present.
Jack dropped us off on the
stadium-adjacent sidewalk.
A security guard escorted the clergyman
and his nephew to the press gate.
We rode in the press elevator.
After the sixth inning of a day game–when the sun was merciless–
another security guard went out of his way to relocate us
from a left-field box seat to six rows behind home plate.
After the game, my Uncle and I rode an overcrowded subway
with five seated passengers reflexively rising in order
for the elderly priest to have a seat.
A photograph of Father & his nephew was taken by a New York Mets'
photographer during the seventh inning stretch of a game
where the Mets defeated
the Atlanta Braves, 7-2.
Blogger's Note
In this youTube video, Jack McCarthy sings and plays the jazz standard
All of Me.
