Phillipe and Jorge are wishing a speedy recovery to our old friend, Bob Whitcomb, editor of the Urinal's editorial pages.
Whit informs P&J that he has had some sort of complicated surgery where they remove your heart, decorate it with a variety of decals that resemble those on NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson's ride, put in new strobe lights and a mirror ball, and, hey — bang! — Bob's your uncle and you're ready to run over the Newport Bridge at dawn.
Our favorite BeloJo editor is accused in letters to the editor (no doubt written in crayon on Betty Ford Clinic cocktail napkins) of being both a pinko Communist sympathizer and a conservative, right-wing stooge. Actually, he is a stout libertarian (the real kind, not the faux Tea Party impersonators who can't spell the word) whose views we often share, and whom we greatly respect.
People are often startled to find that P&J enjoy this sort of camaraderie with Fountain Street's editors, but as longtime fans of the wit and wisdom of people like Whit and Froma Harrop, we appreciate what they bring to the intellectual table, even if we ourselves are packing paper bag lunches.
P&J could be aghast and yet laugh at, and along with, former editorial page editor John Hackett's rants. Here's a guy who made J. Jonah Jameson in Spiderman look like a shrinking violet. Jorge once co-hosted a radio talk show with the man and P. enjoyed stopping to chat with him on his sojourns through Edgewood, Hackett stomping along Narragansett Boulevard chomping on a stogie in his beat-up Red Sox cap. We like them folks that make you think, you know?
And as a final item on the Medevac roster, the Other Paper's Peter Lord, one of the best environmental journalists in the US of A, is currently on the mend from a recent bit of ill health. We are constantly asked about where Pete has gone, because he is conspicuous in his absence, and after informing the gullible that he vanished along with Bobby DeLuca into a witness protection program, we are able to report that his lovely wife and Fountain Street buddies continue to send out glowing reports about his comeback.
We'll save the drumsticks off the turkey for you, Whit and Pete. Buck up and make it quick, dammit, your public demands it.
HE WHO SMELT IT . . .
P&J loved the wild and crazy Representative Dan Gordon's comment on his vote on the pension bill last week.
The pol showed off the consistency, solidly grounded behavior, and sound decision-making we have come to expect from him: he was against the bill, he said, but held his nose and voted "yea" because the bill "stinks." (That kind of profile in courage will be appreciated by the pensioners in Tiverton and Little Compton who are taking one in the teeth.) May we give Danny the 411 on those legislators who sit next to him on the House floor and who were also holding their noses . . . it had nothing to do with pension reform.
Pension reform! Huzzah! Cue Judges Judy, Joe, and Wapner, put Nancy Grace back in her dancing shoes and peek-a-boo dress, and get Harry Anderson's robes out of costume, because this baby's going to be in court (with attendant legal fees paid for by our tax dollars) longer than Regis was on TV.
