The Soprano's vs MTV's Jersey Shore?

Okay - I'm back on the beam!! I logged over 7,000 steps on my Virgin HealthMiles GoZone Monitor this morning! Went to Ocean Family Care for my blood pressure and weight check-in and all is good! :)

There has been a lot of buzz about MTV's Jersey Shore which was filmed to the chagrin of many Italian-Americans. I live in Pt. Pleasant and the house they filmed last season in is a mere eight miles from our home in Seaside, NJ! Fa-get-about-it because the beach scene being depicted by The Situation, Snooki, Pauly D and the rest of those muscle-heads is not the Jersey Shore we know.

If you were watching the 11 p.m. Channel 4 Newscast last night - MTV's Jersey Shore house made the news again!! There was a Sweet 16 party thrown by another over-the-top, over-indulgent, but well meaning local mom (No offense to this mom because it takes one to spot one!). This woman beat me to it and rented MTV's house for her daughter who attends Pt. Pleasant Borough High School and yes - the tall, handsome dancing man cutting up the rug with friends on television was none other than our Scott Ferguson!!

Think about it: It means we too could rent this house to celebrate Kate's NEW Jersey Girl Blog (katecferg.blogspot.com) or have a wild canoli party for Aunt Nonnie's 85th birthday party! Her 85th is still a couple of years away but - rumor has it - that's how long it will take to raise the funds to rent this place!!!

Speaking of funds, I hear the MTV cast have until close of business today to agree to $10,000.00 per episode for reading laugh lines that go something like "Question: What's an innuendo? Answer: An Italian suppository." or they will all be replaced!

Hey, I could recite those scripts! 35 more pounds and some baby oil and maybe I'll get discovered for an upcoming season in a casting call. I can go riding in on a disco ball, bring back my 1980's big hair, apply some good freckle remover, call in my girls from Rutgers, (Karenola, Suzanne and Linda - Grab the Grease album and let's shake IT again!). Afterall, John Gandolfini from the Sopranos used to eat in the same Cook College Cafeteria with us!

Finally, when they find out that Kate and Scott's Grandma Ceil actually dated La Cosa Nostra mobster John DiGilio when she was in high school - I'll be a shoo-in, right? DiGilio, was born December 5th, 1932 to first generation Italian-American immigrants. John Joseph DiGilio Sr. a.k.a. "Johnny Dee", was a New Jersey mobster with the Genovese crime family who became a powerful organized crime leader in New Jersey. He was also called the the Bayonne Boss of Hudson County.

DiGilio became involved in and eventually the boss of illegal gambling, loansharking, labor racketeering and extortion in the Genovese crime family. In the mid-1970s, Digilio took control of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588 in Bayonne, New Jersey, which had been under Genovese control since the 1960s. Digilio used his position to extort payments from shipping companies in exchange for smooth labor relations. In 1986, Fortune Magazine named DiGilio as number 39 on its list of the 50 biggest and most powerful Cosa Nostra bosses in the United States. My mother dated him before he became this famous!

Louis Auricchio, formerly of Holmdel, was a Genovese crime family soldier looking to increase his power at the time that DiGilio’s body was found floating in the Hackensack River on May 26, 1988. When my mom read in the Newark Star Ledger that he had been killed, she stopped and recalled a nice young man from the early years. It's amazing how close we can be to danger or dangerous people/families without even picking up a clue. What was written about him seemed unbelievable to say the least. DiGilio had been shot five times in the head and had been missing for three weeks. In March 1994, Auricchio pleaded guilty to first-degree state charges of aggravated manslaughter and racketeering.

Auricchio admitted that he conspired with other members of the crime organization to kill DiGilio. He said he shot DiGilio several times in the back of the head with a .38 caliber handgun from the back seat of his own black Lincoln Continental, driven by George Weingartner, a former Bayonne police officer.

Honestly, I don't love how the communities lining the Atlantic Ocean are being portrayed on MTV's Jersey Shore, but I was surprised that so many Italian-Americans got so vocal and so up in arms over this show. How come we heard so little from them during The Soprano's reign?

Think about it: The Soprano's versus Jersey Shore? Are you more offended by a foul-mouthed snapshot of real people who live or lived in the Italian-American community (like John DiGilio) who chose to embrace a life of organized crime laced with murder which made them lots of money while bringing shame to their heritage and families? Or are you more offended by seeing very tan egotistical twenty-somethings with raging hormones and a very 'distinct' dialect looking for action? This answer is easy.

Snooki, and Pauly D are a light-hearted gift to their heritage when compared to Tony Soprano and Italian- American's like the late John DeGilio. Put on the Irish Channel if you don't like the show.

Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish
Score: 16/51

Quote of the Day: "A four-letter Italian word for good-bye...BANG" - Archie Bunker