Augustin Torres The Jersey Journal

January 21, 2010

Augustin Torres
The Jersey Journal
30 Journal Square
Jersey City, NJ 07306-4101

Mr. Torres,

I left New Jersey in 1996. I left Bayonne in 1965. I check the Irish sports pages to see who has left to go to the “undiscovered country”. I try to keep abreast of Hudson County politics because there was a “moral clarity” there that is not here. “I seen my opportunities and I took’em” was sound advice when Hinnnisy the Publican offered it to aspiring pols.

Down here, while no hot stove is safe and the pennies on a dead man’s eyes are quickly gone, they still want to “pee on your back and tell you it’s rain”.

In your column of January 2, 2010 you mention Dennis McAlevy, Esq. you asked “who picked up the tab at Amanda’s. I know it wasn’t McAlevy.”

Some things never change.

24 years ago I hosted a dinner for 5 at Gerrino’s. He knew two of the people at the table so he sat down and ordered some Irish whisky. There now being 3 lawyers at the table there was no way I wasn’t going to duck that tab. Admission to the New Jersey Bar requires short arms and long pockets. In the course of table badinage a wager with McAlevy was entered into about the identity of the Captain of the R.M.S. Titanic. In due course he left. He offered neither to pay for his drinks nor did he offer to leave something for the waiter.

The next day I sent him photographic evidence supporting my side of the wager.

He never paid.

Some contracts are unenforceable. Those are the ones with markers that you have to cover.

“Nothing lost save honor.” Like I said, some things never change



Kevin Smith