Romeo Lunch 9-28-10

The Romeo Gang met today at noon for lunch at Aprile’s - European Restaurant in N. Chelmsford. This new restaurant just opened on Labor Day and is owned by the son of the original restaurant owner from the North End of Boston. The old place closed several years ago during the Big Dig construction.

As you may recall the old European Restaurant was on Hanover St., a well known place in the North End of Boston frequented by many people from the surrounding communities as well as the locals. I remember going there as a child in the 1950’s with my family and later with friends. It was a great place for a late night pizza or for a Sunday afternoon dinner. You can see the new restaurant menu and some photos at the link below …… http://www.aprileseuropeanrestaurant.com/

The Romeos attending were Jim Terlizzi, Paul Girard, Joe Pignatiello, Steve Winter, Mark Ryan, John Tweedie and Ed DeShuytner. You can see some photos of the gang at the link below… http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/RomeoLunch92810#

I arrived early at 11:30AM and decided to walk around the old Mill complex that houses the new restaurant and several other businesses. I spotted a store next to the restaurant called the Music Academy and walked in to talk with the proprietor. He was a young man in his late 40s and standing at the counter. I am an amateur piano player and always enjoy picking someone’s brain about the subject. We talked about playing “Fake” Music which is real sheet music with only one staff of notes rather than two where the left hand chords are written as letters above the C-Clef Staff rather than as notes on the Bass-Clef Staff.

After a while I noticed some Romeos arriving and told the waitress that we may expect 10-12 people. After only seven Romeos arrived and we heard why some were not coming, we ordered drinks and read the menu for our dinner choices. Although there were pasta, steak, fish and sandwich selections on the Lunch Menu, most Romeos chose the Scallops, Salmon and Haddock dinners with some bowls of Italian Escarole soup and/or salad.

As we drank and ate, the conversation bounced around the table. Although we sat at a long rectangular table with four on one side and three on the other, it was hard hearing what everyone was saying unless they were next to you.

Jim Terlizzi just returned from a two week trip to Turkey and talked about how great it was to see the historic sites. However, it was exhausting since every morning they were up at 6AM and on the tour bus at 7AM. He went with a local group of several people.

I then told a story about my brother-in-law “Bob” who stopped for coffee in Revere at a D&D. Bob went into the D&D and stood in line. Another short man came into D&D and stood behind Bob and began complaining that Bob took his parking place. Bob said sorry and offered the guy to order ahead of him. The man kept on complaining and getting more agitated, like he was having a fit of “DD Road Rage”. Another man with a pony tail, muscular and with tattoos entered the D&D, overheard the commotion. The tattoo man grabbed the short man by the hair and pushed him to the ground. He then dragged him to the door and through him out and told him not to return. At this point all the employees ducked behind the counter.

The next day Bob returned to the D&D and said he was sorry for the commotion and asked why they all ducked behind the counter. The D&D manager said that a few days earlier another man caused a commotion and pulled a gun but then ran out. No one was shot but they were worried that the current maniac also had a gun.

What is this world coming to? Does everyone have to settle a disagreement with a gun? Ed D. told a related story about his relative who is a policeman in Chelsea. One night, there was a call that gun shoots were heard at Bellingham Square. The police immediately responded and arrested two suspects with no guns. Searching the area, they found 15 guns scattered around that were quickly tossed into the street, alley and trash cans so that no one would be caught with one in their possession. How easy is it to get an unregistered gun?

Today, four people were shot to death in Boston. Is everyone mad at the world? Does life have no lasting value? Are we watching too many TV shows and video games where all the characters come back to life after getting shot a zillion times?

On another note, Joe P. said he recently saw a presentation of “Wicked” in Boston and said it was terrific. The $95 tickets were a gift. We also talked about the theater shows that are available at the Stoneham Theater and cost less. I said that the Stoneham Theater has a deal for patrons to try out the theater on the first Thursday of each month and can pay what ever they want.

Jim then talked about seeing the movie “The Town” with Ben Affleck and said it was pretty good. It has got good reviews online and in the Globe. I said that I saw it too and went to the Showcase Cinema in Woburn on Tuesday where senior citizens can get tickets for the early afternoon show on Tuesdays for only $4.50 each. “I just love the senior citizen discount”.

Ed and John talked about teaching online courses and how the quality of student achievement has gone down. They want an “A” grade but don’t want to study too hard for it. Ed gives exams for each unit he teaches which are strictly timed. There are 80 multiple choice questions including problem solving where the students are given 60 minutes to answer online. Ed can tell how long each student takes to answer a question and also if they are trying to find the answer in the book.

Steve Winter said he was doing better after being stung by angry wasps in his back yard. Evidently he was working at his compost pile where the wasps had made a nest. In a few minutes he was stung by 20 wasps and had a reaction. His wife called 911 and he spent 6 hours at the hospital.

Lastly, I recently bought an IPOD Touch with the new built in camera and wifi. I have been having so much fun with this new gadget. I feel like a kid again exploring all the APPS that it has and all the things that it can do. It’s like having a mini computer in your pocket. I showed some of the Romeos what it does at the lunch.

The cost is about $229 at the Apple Store. The IPod Touch has a touch screen where you tap on applications or flip pictures and screens with your finger. It has over 250,000 applications that you can download from the Apple Store. Some a free and some have a cost.

These APPS include Music, Video, Games, and other applications on the Touch. It also has two cameras that can take stills and videos directed at you or at the scenery you are looking at. It also has a phone application called SKYPE where you can call another computer with SKYPE for free or another phone anywhere in the world for about only $0.02 a minute. The IPOD Touch is like the IPhone except you don’t have a $60/month phone bill. The only draw back is you need to be near open wifi network.

You can get a SKYPE account for free download on the internet. If you have one or get one send me an email. I would love to try out the “video” phone call with others.

Comments and suggestions always welcome….. markryan82@comcast.net