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Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Who needs Tony Soprano?

As much as I hate to see "The Sopranos" come to an end -- Sunday's season finale has us fans waiting for the eight final episodes to be aired next year -- I realized I can get a "fix" by just reading over transcripts from the Operation Bid Rig indictments and trial articles. Maybe the "Sopranos" writers, on a lazy day, can lift a few lines. They're doozies.

Coming back from a weekend in the Poconos, I caught up on my newspapers from the weekend and was struck by the similarity of the news stories and the show. Check this out: How many times before, during or after a trial does a witness or defendant suddenly take ill? Didn't Uncle Junior pull that a few times? Tony's talk about no-show jobs, well, it is a New Jersey show, isn't it? As fascinating as I find the characters, when I read articles about New Jersey politicians, sometimes it's kind of sad to watch them seem to come to life on HBO every Sunday. And the wads of cash tossed around on the show: read over our Operation Bid Rig stories. There are a lot of envelopes stuffed with cash to be found.

Here are some lines "The Sopranos" writers might want to consider for the final episodes. There are plenty more to be found, complete with expletives, in the transcripts from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"You know, Tony, I live ... my life by a couple of things. You can trust a thief, but you can't trust a liar. I've never lied to you. You never lied to me. You know, we've been straight up and down together. That's how our relationship works." -- former Middletown Committeeman Raymond O'Grady to county superintendent of bridges (his no-show job) Anthony Palughi.
"And ... we're both thieves." -- Palughi.

"What kind of pull would you have to get some of that emergency type work in the town." "See that is where we bang." "That is what we want cause we are going to sub it out to, Duke wants to help this kid out. This kid gets under the emergency threshold, hits it with the back charges, everybody makes a cut. You know what I'm saying?" -- two undercover FBI agents to O'Grady.

"I wouldn't say anything to Broderick 'cause I think he might be wired. If Broderick, if, he's the rat, he's wired. If Steve's the rat, he's wired. So we don't know which one it is, so I wouldn't say too much to either one of them, Tony." -- O'Grady to Palughi.

"Well I'm glad you got a brain, because sometimes I'm stupid, you know," Palughi to O'Grady. "... stupid, you just got to be smarter than them. You know what I mean? You don't (expletive) stick your head into the lion's den." -- O'Grady's response.

And, saving the best for last:
"I could smell a cop a mile away." -- O'Grady.
"We need you like those dogs that go through luggage." -- The undercover FBI agent O'Grady was speaking to.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many times I have felt obliged to remind my Soprano-watching colleagues in Chicago that the show is all fantasy, and it was set in New Jersey just by whim. Now I'm wondering.

6/09/2006 11:35:00 AM  

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