Get Pat

There is a great juxtaposition of events sometimes. At the present, I am reading Elmore Leonard's books and about the ceasefire in Lebanon. So, why does Pat Robertson come across like a wiseguy? Why does Pat Robertson think the war in Lebanon ended too soon? Not enough kill? The right guys weren't whacked? So, I'm sittin' with Pat Roberston in Scarelli's, the little pasta joint down by the docks, ya know? And Joey the Gimp comes up and sez, hey, Sticky Thumbs! Like, ya know, they call Pat Sticky Thumbs from when he used to count the collection money after services. He would throw the collection money in the air and say, What stays up, Lord, is yours. What falls is mine! So Pat sez, You talkin' to me?. Right from Taxi Driver, this Robert de Niro thing. So the Gimp gets legs, quick. And there's Sticky glaring at him. So he sits down. It's a shame, he sez. It's a shame. No respect. Like in the Middle East. A bunch of schmarters and towelheads and they can't even get Armageddon right. So I nod like I know what the hell he's talking about. The pasta's good, so what the hey? Now me, he sez, I'd nuke 'em all, get J-Town ( what Sticky calls Jerusalem ) and kick all the bastards out, Arab and Israeli both. They're both Semites, he sez. He sits backs in his chair, smilin'. He beamin' like a lightbulb. Then he points at me with his fork and gets all serious, like, and sez, We gotta go to the mattresses! Show 'em what war is! So I sez, what's my vig?, figurin' that if we go to the mattresses, what's in it for us? So Sticky's eyes sort of glaze over and he goes all quiet. The biggest pay-off ever, you small minded schmuck! The Second Coming! O.K. So I'm thinkin' who's backing Pat on this? The guys in Chicago? Or New York? Maybe the D.C. mob. When did Christiano-celebrities start being Wiseguys ?