My Big Fat Greek Trial

Fans of the Martha Stewart trial can now start multi-tasking: The trial of the Rigas family, the honchos behind the Adelphia cable empire whose Greek heritage is habitually mentioned at the top of any given news story (inlcuding this one), is getting underway.

Comments

[Warren]

So when is Koch going to update the Martha chronicles? I want to see what she has to say about last Friday's alien mind control testimony.

[Emme]

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Kinda like how Gussie Alex's Greek heritage was mentioned on every news report here in Chicago when he was arrested for racketeering. For those of you who don't know, Gussie was a high profile mobster here in Chicago.

[Rick Barton]

"high profile mobster"

Isn't that the definition of; "politician"?

[Critic]

So why is the Rigas family's Greek heritage "habitually mentioned"? Are Greeks the new Italians? Is there a handy slur available, like "dago" or "wop"?

My prejudice is more pragmatic: Adelphia is my neighborhood's cable monopoly. We now have seven Christian Proselytizing Networks, five Lonely Old Lady Shopping Networks, half a dozen UPN/WB clones, all of which I pay for, none of which I watch.

Guilty!

[ewilliam]

Hey, yo, critic...

Yes, Adelphia is awful. They always have been. I've had many horrible experiences with them; for example, they were "upgrading to fiber optic digital lines" for 8 months, leaving nothing but snow on the TV for hours at a time, with no compensation whatsoever---culminating on the morning of 9/11/01. I had to hear about the WTC & Pentagon attacks in a cellphone text message from my girlfriend! Not to mention continually rising prices, even as service stays the same.

But that's the beauty of satellite. Adelphia doesn't hold a monopoly as long as you can see the sky from your house.

[Critic]

ewilliam,

Alas, I am an apartment dweller. No dishes allowed. They are a monopoly in the cable world, but no one is forcing me to subscribe.

To add another "horror" story, one day several months ago I came home from work to find that Adelphia had completely rearranged the listings without any advance warning. Outraged toob-boobs actually stormed the local office! Befuddled employees insisted they had mailed a notice with the new listings.

I received mine three weeks later.