Sopranos and Alito
At the Frank J. Guarini Public Policy Forum on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, hosted by the National Italian-American Foundation, we asked Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who represents parts of northern New Jersey, what he thought of how the show portrays Italians.
“NIAF deals with reality, not myth, not hype,” Pascrell said.
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“That’s that about the weekend.”
Ditto NAIF President Salvatore J. Zizza. “I personally do not watch the show,” he said. “That’s not what [Italian-Americans] stand for. It is art, and it is what it is. The rest of America gets a distorted picture of our people.”
Justice Samuel Alito, another New Jersey native, gave the keynote address. His daughter Lauren blushed in embarrassment when her dad spoke of her recent cell phone usage.
“Judging by her bill every month, she communicates with her 5,000 friends by text message,” Alito said. “So if I say ‘jk,’ it means that I’m just kidding.”
At the luncheon, Alito took the opportunity to address the issue of salary increases for federal judges whose workloads have been increased to what he says is “beyond the tipping point.”
