Then Junior fishes for information about the Perrilyn situation, but Tony won't take the bait and says he has to go. He shakes Jackie's hand and hugs Junior; after he leaves, Junior leans over to Jackie and grumbles, "A smoke he hires, for his own mother." Oh, that's a nice way to talk. Unfortunately, it's also true to form. Some of the most virulent, unconsidered racist twaddle I've heard in my life came out of the mouths of North Jersey Italian-Americans. You know that stereotype of Italians hating people of color? It doesn't come from nowhere. And don't write to me all "don't generalize about Italians, Little Miss Waspypants," because I know that not all Italian-Americans hold racist beliefs, but let me tell you, some of the trash I heard Italians talk about black folks would curl your hair, and they didn't confine it to black folks -- Jewish folks, Asians, the Irish, women, gay people, and pretty much anybody else not straight, male, and Italian. One time, this Italian-American kid I barely knew asked me, "So is 'Bunting' a hebe name or what?" I mean, "hebe"? I didn't even know what "hebe" meant, for god's sake, so I said, "What -- 'hebe'? What?" and he went, "Y'know, like a kike or whatever," and then his friends started making fun of him for thinking I had a "hebe" name -- not because using the word "hebe" is laughably wrong, but because "Bunting" doesn't end in "-stein." I could give you a dozen more examples like this, but let's just leave it here: the Italian-American characters on this show say a lot of bigoted crap, and sad to say, that's pretty realistic.

Okay, back to the show. We see one of Junior's guys, Mikey, in a car smoking a cigarette. Tony comes over to bust his chops. Referring to the DVD hijacking, the guy asks Tony if Christopher is "retarded," and Tony wonders what would happen if Jerry Lewis heard Mikey talking that way. "That's muscular dystrophy, Tone," Mikey corrects him, and Tony comments that "it's too bad they don't have a telethon for fuckface-itis, huh? They find a cure yet?" and I make a note to remember that line and use it on the idiots at my bank one of these days. Mikey just stares at Tony, his smile fading, and Tony makes hearty "hardy har har, just kidding" noises and shakes Mikey's hand, and then he goes on his way, and Mikey sighs and rolls his eyes.