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SubTitle: by Tornado Charlie
Posted by: CharlieJ (cjoseph@eagle1.eaglenet.com) on 5/09/1998@00:27hrs:
I'm baaaack!! After travelin' 6K miles (round trip) I find I have a new nickname. Oh well , guess it's better than 'What hosptial wuz ya' borned in'.
Well here's da' straight skinny on the trip. Apparently I did bring a tornado. One struck in Sunnyvale just a few hours before I arrived in Palo Alto on Monday evening. Their first in some 30 or 40 years (or more). Obviously I added to the mass confusion of the area when I arrived.
After a busy schedule (remember it was a working trip) in Silicon Valley for Tue and Wed, I stole some time on Thurs morn and shot North on 101, looking for the Bryant Street exit which I knew was where 101 and 80 split. Guess what. No Bryant Street exit, even though my handy Avis map sure made it look like an exit came out on Bryant. But there was one for 7th Street. So I cut across several lanes of traffic in my best SI style and lunged down the ramp. Sure enough, came down on Bryant, right at 7th street. And what should I see, right in front of my big baby blue eyes, but this massive store front proclaiming Caffe Roma.
Eagerly, I circled the block looking for a parking place. Then I circled 2 blocks looking for a parking place. Then I circled three blocks looking for a parking place. I began to wonder if this guy rs was worth this circling. But finally, I said what the heck and pulled into one of those $5 park for a minute, park for a day places. (Probably owned by the rs SI/Cal conglomerate).
I sauntered in to the Caffe Roma, but it was obvious there were no SI'ers seated about, there wasn't a crumb bun to be seen on any table. So I asked Joyce (didn't know her name then) if she knew a shyster named Sheridan. She said (this is true!!), "An older gentleman?" When she said gentleman, I thought we weren't talking about the same guy. So I said, 'About my age', figuring she'd think of someone more suave and debonair. She said, "Yeah that's what I said, older" With my bubble burst by that young chippie, I told her to point me out to him, when he comes in.
So I sat down and nursed a cup of coffee. Shortly, this distinguished looking lawyer type wandered in, looking like he just stepped off the set of LA Law. That must be rs, I thought. But it wasn't. I guess he really was some distinguished lawyer. A liitle later, this guy came in wearing a Fedora. When he removed it, there was this shock of white hair. (I ain't the only one gone white). Joyce called him over and pointed at me. I was too slow in ducking under the table, so I gave in and stood to greet him instead. He said 'CharlieJ'? and I said 'rs'? (Eloquent ain't we.)
Anyway we shook hands and proceded to discuss such electrifying topics as 'is there really a Blaine or is he a virtual Blaine, how guilty is OT, is JR and oldnacl akin to Dr Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, is Art and his camera dangergous and liable and how foxey Gina is. We literally raked everybody on the Gathering over the coals, while agreeing we were the coolest dudes doing postings. We even agreed that mis-locating St. Vincents Hospital was an honest mistake anybody could make. We reminisced about a whole buncha' SI stuff.
With my time and his time running short, rs still took time out of his busy schedule of harassing judges to show me some of the major sights of downtown SF. Treated me to lunch at Little Joe's for some outstanding Veal and Ravioli. Actually, he was just less adept than me in looking the other way when the the waitress brought the check. He told me he brought me there to ogle the waitresses, but being a clean minded, honorable guy, I only ogled with one eye. (Doesn't count that way).
However, the bottom line is (and I know I will totally destroy the reputation rs has worked so hard to build), he's actually a nice guy. I know it's hard to believe, but despite everything you've read and heard, rs is really a nice guy. And dat's da troot!
Thanks for the tour and the lunch, Bob. I owe you one - seriously. I enjoyed the short visit!!
CharlieJ