Quonset Point: Partners in crime?

No big surprise that the Bankruptcy Boys of Quonset Point Partners (QPP), those duplicitous carpetbaggers looking to roll Rhode Island for millions of bucks and destroy Narragansett Bay, will again come up short in the necessaries. Chip "Belly Up" Norton, one of QPP's principals, has announced that when QPP submits its plan (for what will no doubt be a megaport that ignores the wishes of the stakeholder group), it will lack carrier commitments from "one or more steamship lines," as required by the preliminary development agreement. Instead, it will include "letters of interest" from cargo carriers. Wow. Bow-wow. Naturally, the fact that the Bankruptcy Boys are dealing with smoke and mirrors seems to have no effect on the thinking of Governor Bigfoot or EDC honcho John "What Clean Water Act?" Swen, still sporting his official QPP kneepads.

But perhaps they will consider yet more disturbing news about "Belly Up" and Martin Grasso, his partner. Grasso is a 1978 graduate of Harvard, which must no doubt make all Crimson alumni incredibly proud. After graduation, we understand, Grasso worked in a management position at a small real estate firm, Boston Equity Property Investments, which was owned by a fellow '78 Harvard grad, John E. Christian. A sharp-eyed informant provided P&J with an interesting August 16, 1991, Boston Globe article by Lawrence Edelman, from which we'll share, knowing the inquiring minds of our beloved readers, so you get to know a bit more about the kind of company Grasso keeps:

From boom to busted. Real estate losses spawn alleged bank robber

He pulled open the door to the small Bank of Boston branch on a sunny afternoon last September, striding past the teller machines and three charcoal prints on the wall. Dressed in a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, he carried a tan plastic bag in one hand and a small silver gun in the other.

Through the surgical mask that covered his face, he spoke quickly and nervously as he ordered the teller to fill up the bag with money. His hands shook. His body twitched. A minute later he was outside again, fleeing down the brick-paved sidewalk of Boston's Charles Street with $6113 in the bag, the FBI alleges.

It was on that gorgeous fall day that John E. Christian traded in his Harvard education and nearly 10 years of experience in the real estate business for a brief career as a bank robber, the FBI alleges. Over the next 10 months, the FBI alleges, he walked into 20 more banks around Boston and on Cape Cod and left with a total of nearly $235,000.

Man, you just can't make this stuff any better than it is. Yep, Grasso's good old Harvard drinking buddy was a bank robber. Not to mention having what an FBI agent described as "a very severe cocaine habit." (According to a July 1992 Globe report, Christian was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston to nine years and nine months in prison for a string of 21 robberies that netted him $238,000.) Boy, that's a shocker for a yuppie developer with a Beacon Hill penthouse, a Mercedes (still Bankruptcy Boy Norton's choice of wheels), whose favorite book was Bonfire of the Vanities, decked out in suits from Louis, Boston, and took friends on vacations to Cancun and the Kentucky Derby. Too bad he couldn't take the pressure. All Grasso had to deal with was a lien on his house, while Norton reportedly lost almost 10 times as much as Christian's $500,000, before he weaseled down the amount he owed the IRS. The commonwealth of Massachusetts, however, decided to guarantee the payments with a lien on his house as well.

Well, you know what they say, birds of a feather? Aren't you (and the biz leaders at GoPort) glad we've got QPP as potential major players in the state's economy? Stick 'em up! Sorry, Big Linc, just kidding. Or is Vo Dilun being held up by QPP?

Take by LIFEstyles, please

Stunning debuts for the Urinal's two new feature sections, Live and LIFEstyles. After reading the debut issue, we think Live's editor may actually not be, although we liked the use of "It's a Complex World" as the headline on their feature piece, no doubt trying to curry favor with P&J and old Young Adults fans (oxymoron there?).

LIFEstyles is the regurgitation of "Hers," the abysmal Stepford Wife-oriented insert on which the plug was pulled. And as a word to the wise for Pam Thomas, who is chief editor of this fluffernutter, one would think that starting your first editor's note with the line, "If I had to make a choice, I would rather have my bathroom cleaned than go out to dinner at Pot au Feu" might not draw rave reviews from the all-important advertising sales department. We'll bet leading La Prov restaurateur Bob Burke, owner of Pot au Feu, is just delighted by that, and will be plunking down big bucks for ads in future editions.

But, oh, we forgot, LIFEstyles has the Big Pink One, Mark Patinkin writing for it. This is definitely the final step before free-fall from Fountain Street. He obviously is clueless he's being pushed out, forced to write for a section no one will read and losing his Sunday space to Lonnie Love Kerr. Perhaps when Joel Rawson takes away his men's room key and tells him to use the McDonald's across the street, the light bulb will come on.

Just connect

Blood-and-guts video games; Hollywood sex and violence; the relentless proliferation of images of violent crime on the news; the easy availability of guns in American culture; weird goth hair styles and attire -- you name it. When an event as horrific as what happened at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, last week occurs, we are immediately hit with the question "why?" There is never any shortage of culprits in the search for what has desensitized us, to the point of nihilism.

In our desperation to understand, there are always those who would aggressively pursue the symptoms. Along with Marilyn Manson concert tickets, repeated viewing of The Basketball Diaries and 666 T-shirts, add to the growing list of "things to look out for," German industrial rock CDs and teenage boys in black trenchcoats. But what of the millions who have seen Marilyn Manson perform, dyed their hair blue and neglected to tie their sneakers, but haven't killed anyone?

When P&J were in junior high school, there was a notorious murder case in Pawtucket, where the high school class vice-president and football team co-captain was ultimately convicted of raping and murdering a woman he had apprehended in a department store parking lot. It was revealed that he had worked himself into a homicidal-sexual frenzy by repeatedly leafing through Playboy magazine. Did that mean that we had to protect ourselves from Playboy? Is the problem the 1st Amendment or the 2nd Amendment?

The fact is, we're not going to stop the flow of information, especially now in what we're calling "The Information Age." Nor are we likely to rescind the right to bear arms. But we should be aware that freedom of speech and the right to bear arms carry awesome responsibility. Yes, we've become enamored of depraved "entertainment" and we (here in America, anyway) are far too bullish on our guns. Carrying a musket in 1776 does not readily translate to toting an Uzi in 1999.

But the essence of our problem is the reluctance or inability of parents to be more involved in their children's lives. Whether it is a lack of concern, a desire to access more of the pleasures available to adults or a sense that children should be given more space and privacy, too many parents seem to know less and less about what their kids are up to. Until we figure out how to connect with each other, these tragedies will continue to crop up on a regular basis. They could be wearing trenchcoats or leiderhosen and turbans; they could be listening to Puff Daddy or be part of an underground Louis Prima cult; they could have blue hair, no hair or crew cut out of the '50s. Until there is an intimate connection, borne of curiosity and concern for what kids are doing, parents will find their children can become too easily lost in a sea of thrills and chills. Relentless marketing works, and it will not go away. The only effective countermeasures can be found in creating and nurturing a world of human connections, values and responsibilities.

Around town

We don't know about you, but we certainly feel a lot safer here in Our Little Towne knowing that the head ramrods of the Providence police are meticulously dusting for fingerprints on cartoons appearing on the bulletin board at that the substation. That some rank and file officers have shown such promise as budding illustrators and graffiti artists also seems to defy the stereotypical view of the law enforcement community. One of the many fine art galleries in Providence should jump on the idea of sponsoring a show of "Cop Art." And after the last of the brie and merlot has been consumed, maybe the whole gang -- the Bud-I, Chief Prignano and the FOP -- can commandeer a local grade school for a little remedial instruction on how to be a grown-up.

---

The P & J archive

---