Am I Supposed to Be Sad About This?

When I saw this e-card I immediately thought of one person: Jared G. He was exactly the person described here. He played football, he was nominally cool, girls thought he was cute and he thought he was hot shit. One time, on the bus back from a trip to Quebec, I was trying to sleep and he was fucking with me. Putting his hands in my face, grazing my nose, so I jumped up, slapped his hands away and told him to cut the shit. He punched me in the face and broke my glasses. While we never had another incident and I seldom was around him, I always felt like he thought he was better than me because he had gotten the best of me that day, and because he was cooler in high school.

Last week Jared G. killed himself. He shot himself in his car in the Village Greens Shopping Center in Arden Heights. He was married with a young child. After college at CSI, Jared opened up a beer distributor on Manor Rd (or bought the existing one) with at least one of his other high school football buddies who also lacked skills translatable to a job in the real world. Evidently that venture failed because in the article about his death the Advance says he was driving a cement truck.

They say living well is the best revenge so I guess it would be hard to deny I got revenge on Jared. Me working where I work and him driving a cement truck is the real world equivalent of me being on the football team and him running track.

I wouldn't say I am happy he's dead, nor that I smiled when I heard that he died, but I don't feel any sadness for him either. I am sad that his young child has to grow up without a father, but other than that nothing. Obviously his life didn't turn out the way he hoped when he was walking around the Susan Wagner hallways in his cool football jacket with the white leather sleeves. Mine did. I don't want to sound angry about an incident from 17 or 18 years ago, because I seldom if ever thought about him, until that e-card reminded me. But it does give me a weird sense of satisfaction. Sort of like Walt, at the end of Season 4, "I won."

This is not the first time I've been insensitive to someone who committed suicide. Read the comments attached to this post to find out what a jerk I am.

Say Yes to the Excess

I recently noticed an increase of hits for a very old post about a creepy cop, which was being prosecuted by fellow Susan Wagner High School alumnus Autumn Levine.
After I did some sleuthing I deduced the interest in Autumn stems from her recent appearance on TLC's wedding show "Say Yes to the Dress."



This video is only a minute long. But we can learn a few things. She still talks like a Staten Islander. She loves dark eye makeup. Her future husband is very rich. And she probably did get fake tits since high school, as rumored.

We're Too Young to Die

I was saddened this week to learn of the passing of Janelle Dotts, a fellow alumnus of Susan Wagner High School Class of 1996.

I didn't really know Janelle all that well during high school, despite her being in many of my classes.

But I do know, age 31 is way too young.

Janelle leaves behind a 9 year-old daughter who heartbreakingly said “Mommy made the best spaghetti,” according to the obituary in the Staten Island Advance.

The Advance reports she died after a short illness, but no word on exactly what she had.

TON's Archfoe on "Beer Money"

During freshman year of high school a kid named Ilan tried to singe TON's ass with a bunsen burner. 15 years later TON refuses to forgive and forget and Ilan still tops TON's Kill List. Now Ilan has appeared on "Beer Money" the SNY show that asks people off the street 3 questions for $10, $20 and $100. The show is becoming a great place to see assholes and retards from Wagner High School.

Here's how Ilan's appearance went (I'll leave spaces after questions for those of you playing along at home.

Sporting a full beard and carrying a messenger's bag Ilan was stopped by host Chris Carlin in Columbus Circle. Ilan introduces himself with first and last name says he's from "New York" and a big fan of the New York Giants.

First question:
What local sports team goes by the nickname "Big Blue?"






Ilan quickly answers "New York Giants". Carlin says that was "the easiest ten bucks ever. Ever!" Then asks Ilan if he wants to risk it. Ilan says "why not?" Carlin says he has to risk it after that easy question and we move on to the --

Second question:
Who did the New York Giants play in their last home playoff game?






Ilan thinks for a while then says "it's been a while, two years ago, NFC, the Eagles."
Carlin emphatically says that is "incorrect," takes the $10 back and calls him ee-LON instead of EE-lon. Then Carlin reminds him that it was the Carolina Panthers. That jogs Ilan's memory somewhat as he says "that's right they got blown out like 41-0 or something like that."
Note: the score was 23-0 and I was there.
Carlin says it wasn't quite that bad, but they did get blown out."
Ilan replies "It was bad, it was bad."
Then Carlin says something that will warm TON's heart, "You know what else was bad? Your performance. That was bad."

So a satisfying appearance for TON, maybe not for Ilan, but I do have to answer "no" to the question TON asked me when I told him Ilan was on the show, "does he get punched in the face at the end of the segment?"

Blast from the Past

Susan Wagner High School sports mascot during my time there was a developmentally disabled 21 year old student, affectionately known as Nick Tooth.
Without going into great detail about him, I'll just relate one quick story.
When Danny Anderson became the first basketball player in Wagner history to score 1,000 points in his career, I was there and so was Nick Tooth.
When the basket when in, I stood on the sidelines and applauded. Nick ran on the court with a sign comemmorating Danny's accomplishment. The sign said Danny was the "frist" player in Wagner history to score 1,000 points.
I haven't seen Nick Tooth since high school, until he appeared on SNY's sports trivia show "Beer Money."
His first question was "how long is the NYC Marathon?" He said he ran it in 2005 so he knows that it.s 26 and a half miles. Even though it's 26.2 miles, they gave him the $10.
His second question was "who did the Knicks beat in the 1970 NBA Finals?" He quickly said Lakers and moved onto question 3.
This was a hard one "what was the proposed name for Shea Stadium before they decided to name it after William Shea?" Nick Tooth had no idea. When he got a hint ("where is Shea Stadium?") he said "Queens." Not Queens Stadium, not Queens Park, just Queens. The answer was Flushing Meadows Park.
But Nick represented himself well and I got a kick out of seeing him again.

11 Years Ago

11 years ago, a group of high school seniors planned a houseparty to celebrate their impending graduation.

Who showed up at this party:
A green haired freak
Nana
All of Wagner High School (seemingly)
The cops

The party that has been known since then as DaminoFest is still remembered fondly by those who were there.

Wagner High School Scandal

The investigation of Regents exam tampering at Susan Wagner High School has expanded to include unrelated allegations that an assistant principal siphoned thousands of dollars in school funds for her own use, the Advance has learned.

Former assistant principal of organization Rita Spitzer, who retired from the Sea View school over the December break, is being investigated for "financial improprieties" by the Department of Education's investigative arm, according to a department spokeswoman.

Those alleged improprieties include filing an exorbitant amount of overtime hours, known as per session pay, for time that she did not work, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Reached by phone last week, Ms. Spitzer acknowledged that she put in a lot of overtime at the school, but she insisted that those hours were legitimate and approved by principal Gary Giordano.

"I was there days, I was there nights, I was there working all the time," said Ms. Spitzer, who added that she often oversaw the school's afternoon and Saturday programs. "If I was there, then I'm the person who got paid for it. If I wasn't there, then another [assistant principal] would be paid for it. There's a whole document trail."

Giordano has himself been at the center of a Department of Education investigation since November, when more than a dozen teachers came forward with accusations that he had directed them to bump up Regents exam scores that were as much as 15 points below the passing mark of 65.

Since that investigation began, related allegations have emerged that an assistant principal at the school re-graded Regents exams in her office, and that another assistant principal -- Giordano's girl friend, assistant principal Mary Incantalupo -- helped re-grade tests at home, sources said.

Ms. Incantalupo, who transferred in September to a middle school in Brooklyn, could not be reached for comment.

The Regents tampering is the latest of several investigations of Susan Wagner High School administrators conducted by the Office of Special Investigations in recent years. Past allegations of impropriety have not been substantiated.

But the number and nature of complaints suggest an administration often at odds with its teaching staff, as well as opposing opinions about the ethical boundaries that govern Staten Island's traditionally close-knit education community.

Investigations have been spurred by questions about:

Whether Ms. Incantalupo's promotion to assistant principal after five years of teaching was influenced by her relationship with Giordano.

Whether Giordano's purchase of a home in Westerleigh in 2005 -- which his parents had bought from Nancy Ramos and her sisters in 2002 -- was a conflict of interest, since Ms. Ramos had become Giordano's supervisor as district superintendent in the interim.

Investigators also dismissed questions about Giordano's per-session pay, according to Giordano's lawyer, Mark Fonte, and about Ms. Spitzer's daughter's part-time work at the school last year, according to the Department of Education.

"Mr. Giordano's character is pristine and these anonymous allegations are totally unfair," Fonte said.

The latest inquiry of Giordano -- by far the most extensive of the lot -- has further soured the mood inside the school, according to teachers, and has at least partially trickled down to students.

"I do think it effects the students indirectly because it does directly affect the teachers who have been working under this cloud for a while," said a teacher at the school, who did not want to be identified. "The principal, his presence isn't nearly as strong as it was in the building. There has been some division among the staff as well, which doesn't lend to a good working environment."

He was one of several teachers who said that after six months of waiting, any resolution would be welcome.

"Whatever the case may be -- if the administration is found innocent, so be it," he said. "Move on."

But another teacher suggested that if Giordano's name is cleared, moving elsewhere could be an easier option than moving on.

"It sounds good to say it: 'Should he stay, then we move ahead with respect for one another; it will never go back to the way it was,'" she said. "[But] my sense is that a lot of people will transfer because they really don't believe that."