The New SteveSilver.net

TEFLON GONE: Legendary mafia don

TEFLON GONE: Legendary mafia don John Gotti died of cancer yesterday at the age of 61, and ever since I heard the news I've been looking forward to reading the coverage by the NYC tabloids. The Post and Daily News both devote large sections (13 in the Post, 15 in the NYDN) to the Dapper Don's death, and while the Daily News provides a more balanced look at Gotti's life and death, the Post treats him like some sort of hero in their coverage. Yes, the same paper that on a daily basis refers to ghetto criminals (as well as terrorists) as "animals" and "monsters" lionizes Gotti as a "gentleman" and a "man of honor." This same bizarre morality is also evident in the mythology of "The Sopranos" (especially in the Big-Pussy-as-informant story arc)— murder, assault and extortion are one thing, but there's nothing more contemptable than betrayal of loyalty. Of course, the Post even employs Gotti's daughter Victoria as a Sunday "society" columnist (who had nothing to say, curiously, about last week's indictment of several relatives on RICO charges)- and after firing legendary local columnist Jack Newfield last year, they gave her Newfield's desk.

"DOES 'ANAL RETENTIVE' HAVE A HYPHEN?:" Also in the Post (not online), there's a fluffy "lifestyle" piece about the trend towards women hyphenating their last names after marriage. Now, I appreciate many of the gains made by the womens' liberation movement of the '60s and '70s, but the hyphenization thing pretty much just sucks. Not only does it ensure that peoples' names will no longer fit on their drivers' licenses or Social Security cards, but an entire generation of children have been cursed with extra-long, extra-ugly, and hard-to-remember hyphenated monikers. I have no problem with women retaining their maiden names upon marriage, but subjecting their children to it is another matter entirely— as the last remaining male Silver (besides my father), I feel an obligation to keep the name alive. I don't ask a lot from my future wife, but I insist on that.

YOU, AND YOUR RACIST DOG: I thought I'd heard them all, but then there was this: Dolpho, the trusty drug-sniffing dog who comprises the K-9 unit for the McKees Rocks, PA, police department, is being accused of racial profiling, after multiple incidents in which he bit African-American suspects while ignoring nearby white people. So now a local councilwoman is calling for the dog to be put to sleep. Now even if the dog is racist, there's no way of knowing that for sure, and why should he die for it? Are they now calling for racist people to be put to death too? Where are the PETA people on this? I mean, my grandparents' dog once ate my mother's shoe right off of her foot— and nobody ever called him an anti-Semite.