Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Gerard Marrone | Criminal Defense Attorney Previews Tomorrow Night's Unity Day Gala at Russo’s On The Bay

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Gerard Marrone | Criminal Defense Attorney Previews Tomorrow Night's Unity Day Gala at Russo’s On The Bay · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow night, it's Unity Day Gala.
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  Speaker 2: It's a big deal, big honorees, and who better to
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: speak to than our friend Gerard Maroney.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Gerard, good morning, buddy. How are you?
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: I'm great, Sid. Nice to hear from you. How are
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: you doing?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, and all your buddies are excited about
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow night, Jonah and Giada, and I'm sure Steve Maglio
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  Speaker 2: is going to perform.
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  Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra is going to be a big, big night.
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  Speaker 2: But honoring some friends of mine, one of them, Monsignor,
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  Speaker 2: obviously the Monsignor, David Casado, he's on this.
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  Speaker 1: Show every time, Easter, Christmas.
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  Speaker 2: He's my go-to Monsignor, but he's just one of four
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  Speaker 2: big people you're honoring, including also the great Catherine Narducci.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me about this night, tomorrow night.
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  Speaker 3: This is very correct. So we were going to have
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  Speaker 3: Unity Day back in June, and And really, the problem
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  Speaker 3: was we couldn't get the permits. We wanted to originally
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  Speaker 3: have it in Columbus Circle. We were denied by our mayor.
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  Speaker 3: Then we were going to have it in Holy Square.
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  Speaker 3: And then they wouldn't give us an audio permit. So
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  Speaker 3: we had to shut it down right before we were
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  Speaker 3: scheduled to go. But we regrouped, and we have it
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  Speaker 3: scheduled for tomorrow at Frankie's Place, Russo's on the Bay.
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  Speaker 3: We're very, very excited. We've got about 350 people that
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  Speaker 3: are scheduled, probably more coming tomorrow. We have five wonderful
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  Speaker 3: Italian-Americans that we're honoring. Catherine Narducci, who's a beautiful friend
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  Speaker 3: of ours. Of course, Mancini David Casado, who I go
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  Speaker 3: way back from Mount Carmel. Joe Corzi, which I think
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  Speaker 3: you know Joe.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, the great Joe Corzi, one of the great DJs
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  Speaker 2: in the history of New York radio.
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  Speaker 1: What a super guy.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, and a great Italian-American, Anthony Velos, who's a chef,
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  Speaker 3: and Roberto Davi, who, if you remember the show Goonies.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Davi. Robert Davi. Yeah, he's a great actor. He's
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  Speaker 1: a dear, dear friend of mine. What do you mean?
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is a guy, Robert Davi, not just Goonies,
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  Speaker 2: but he had the very famous line in the movie
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  Speaker 2: Die Hard, helicopters up the ass. I actually made a
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  Speaker 2: movie with Robert Davi. We did a movie about the
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  Speaker 2: real-life story of the Gemini Lounge for Danny A out
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  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, and me and Davi were in the
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  Speaker 2: movie together. But he's a very, very smart guy. He's
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: very pro-Israel, writes a lot of very pro-Trump articles. on
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  Speaker 2: Breitbart and many other publications over the years. Robert Davi's
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  Speaker 2: a great guy.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, great guy.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, like Maglio, he does a very
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  Speaker 1: good Frank Sinatra.
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  Speaker 3: He does.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: He does. And he'll be singing as well. So we're excited.
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  Speaker 3: We've been working hard towards tomorrow night. And tomorrow is
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  Speaker 3: probably the best Italian-American party of the year tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: What is, Gerard, what exactly is Unity Day? What is that?
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  Speaker 1: You know what Columbus Day is? And there I was.
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  Speaker 2: You've been proud of me in the convertible car that
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  Speaker 2: day at the Columbus Day parade. The only Jew being
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  Speaker 2: honored on that day.
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  Speaker 1: I do it every year. I'm too happy to do it.
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  Speaker 1: I love you people. But what is Unity Day all about?
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  Speaker 3: We love you, too. So Unity Day is the original
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  Speaker 3: day that our founder, Joe Colombo, did in the 70s, right?
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  Speaker 3: Unity Day, he had 250,000 people in Columbus Circle. Then
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  Speaker 3: the following year, he had 175,000, 200,000 people. And then unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: that's where he was assassinated.
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  Speaker 1: They shot him there, right? That's right.
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  Speaker 3: The American Civil Rights Movement League stopped. It stopped in
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  Speaker 3: its tracks. And we were honored enough to bring the
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  Speaker 3: organization back about four years ago now. So Unity Day
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  Speaker 3: is a celebration of that. But it's also a day
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  Speaker 3: of unification for Italian-Americans. Italian-Americans have to stick together. I
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  Speaker 3: say it all the time. Our values, our family values,
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  Speaker 3: our way of life. In another generation or two, it's gone.
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  Speaker 3: If we don't preserve it, family, pasta on Sundays, things
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  Speaker 3: like that, the little things, it's going to be gone
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  Speaker 3: soon if we don't unite. and preserve our way of life,
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  Speaker 3: our values.
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  Speaker 1: You're right.
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  Speaker 2: So that Joe Colombo assassination, I remember some of that.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was a black guy who killed him. But,
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  Speaker 2: of course, he was hired by somebody. And correct me
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  Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. Maybe it was right. Maybe it wasn't right.
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  Speaker 2: But that's why Joey Gallo was murdered outside Umberto's in
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  Speaker 2: Little Italy, because they thought he was the guy who
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  Speaker 2: had Joe Colombo whacked that day.
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  Speaker 1: Is that true?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the way our research and our chairman, Anthony Colombo,
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  Speaker 3: who's Joe Colombo's grandson, who's an attorney, really, we feel
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  Speaker 3: like it's the FBI that was behind it. Because you
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  Speaker 3: have Greg Scarpa, if you know the whole story of
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  Speaker 3: Greg Scarpa, he was a organized crime guy, but he
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  Speaker 3: was also an active cooperator for 30 years with the feds.
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  Speaker 3: He went down to Mississippi and he did this and
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  Speaker 3: he did that. And he was going to be outed,
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  Speaker 3: they said. He was going to be outed by the
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  Speaker 3: guys in Brooklyn. So they took Colombo out. So our
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  Speaker 3: research shows that it was really the FBI that was
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  Speaker 3: behind it. And this guy that shot him, the black
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  Speaker 3: guy that shot him, really was just a pawn to
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  Speaker 3: shoot him.
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  Speaker 4: It was a patsy.
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  Speaker 1: But we knew he was a pawn.
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  Speaker 3: He was killed instantly, by the way. He was shot instantly,
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  Speaker 3: so there were no witnesses.
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  Speaker 1: Right, there were none.
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  Speaker 2: And it was packed. He was in the middle of
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  Speaker 2: a million people. And we knew he was a pawn.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose the FBI was at Joey Gallo, who.
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  Speaker 2: Was murdered on his birthday. He went to a birthday
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  Speaker 2: party that night with his family. And then he went
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  Speaker 2: to Umberto's, and they took him out there. Either way,
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  Speaker 2: Unity Day Gala, it's going to be huge. As my
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  Speaker 2: friend Gerard just mentioned, five really great Italians.
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  Speaker 1: I love all of them.
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  Speaker 2: We'll be honored tomorrow night. So what did you think
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  Speaker 2: of Columbus Day a couple of weeks ago? I thought
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  Speaker 2: it went great because the mayor wasn't there.
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  Speaker 3: I loved it. I really, I thought they did a
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  Speaker 3: beautiful job. When I was watching on TV, I didn't
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  Speaker 3: go to the parade. I had a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: an injury that day. But I was watching on TV,
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  Speaker 3: and they really did a nice, I got to tell you,
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  Speaker 3: they really did a nice job. They talked about the
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  Speaker 3: old days and the neighborhoods and the traditions, you know,
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  Speaker 3: while the parade was going on. So I have to
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  Speaker 3: say I was really impressed. I was very impressed this year.
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  Speaker 2: Joe Piscopo was a guy you got to honor at
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  Speaker 2: some point. No, I'll have you on him already.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know Joe. I've never had the pleasure of
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  Speaker 3: meeting him, but he's another great Italian American. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: He really is. So can people buy tickets to this
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  Speaker 1: or is it sold out?
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  Speaker 3: You know, we are sold out, unfortunately. Um, but if
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  Speaker 3: you go on, if you go on our website, Italian
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  Speaker 3: American civil rights league, you know, you can follow what
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  Speaker 3: you've become a member and, um, uh, you know, definitely
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  Speaker 3: come to the next one, but we are, we are
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  Speaker 3: pretty sold out. I mean, uh, the girls that are
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  Speaker 3: running the show, uh, we're driving them crazy with the
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  Speaker 3: seating arrangements. You know, you can't put too many Italians
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  Speaker 3: together at one table.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I wish I was coming to this. I would do.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like it's going to be great. And I
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  Speaker 1: do love Catherine. I love her so much. Last time.
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  Speaker 3: She's amazing.
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  Speaker 1: She is.
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  Speaker 2: Last time I was with her, was on Long Island,
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  Speaker 2: believe it or not, something for Bruce Blakeman. And she
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  Speaker 2: went there with Vinnie Pastore, God rest his soul. He
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  Speaker 2: died a couple of months ago. But I brought up
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  Speaker 2: the guy that she always plays. She always plays Robert
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  Speaker 2: De Niro's wife or Robert De Niro's girlfriend. And I said,
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  Speaker 2: I used to love Robert De Niro. I used to
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  Speaker 2: love the guy. Now I hate his guts. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if he got hit by a bus today, I couldn't
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  Speaker 2: care less.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry. And she didn't argue with me. She did
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  Speaker 1: tell me she loved Bobby. I love Bobby.
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  Speaker 2: But my God, you look at it now. All those
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  Speaker 2: great roles. Narducci next to Bobby De Niro. What a
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  Speaker 2: traitor that guy's turned out to be.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we love Catherine. So we're honoring Catherine. She's our girl.
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  Speaker 1: Would you talk bad about De Niro even though he's
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  Speaker 1: an Italian? He wouldn't do that.
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  Speaker 3: I can't necessarily talk better. I don't necessarily like what
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  Speaker 3: he stands for. We don't like as a league what
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  Speaker 3: he stands for, but listen, everyone's entitled to their opinion.
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  Speaker 3: You know what they say about opinions, Sid, right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I know what they say. I hear it all
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  Speaker 2: the time. Well, listen, you are an amazing guy, man.
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  Speaker 2: I'm really glad that you've been on the show a
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  Speaker 2: couple of times now and.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I love the Italian community. I love them.
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  Speaker 2: I believe that and, you know, like the Jews. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I don't care what it is. This is a hardworking.
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  Speaker 2: They actually, more than the Jews, they built this city.
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  Speaker 2: You guys did skyscrapers and the subway and you're beautiful people.
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  Speaker 2: And the food is great. It's my favorite food, Italian food.
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  Speaker 2: So I can't get enough of you people. And you're
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  Speaker 2: a great guy. You're a great ambassador.
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  Speaker 3: We love you too. And since the low East side,
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  Speaker 3: the Italian and the Jews have been together. So we've
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  Speaker 3: done a lot of things together since the tens and
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  Speaker 3: twenties in the low East side. So a lot of
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  Speaker 3: great people came from there. So the Jews and the Italians,
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  Speaker 3: I've always been strong together. And we have the same
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  Speaker 3: type of moms, you know, the Italian mom and the
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  Speaker 3: Jewish mom.
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  Speaker 1: It's true.
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  Speaker 3: You know, overbearing, loving mom. So it's the same type
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  Speaker 3: of mom, same type of family, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And they can cook. Bottom line is they can cook.
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  Speaker 3: They can cook and they want you to eat all
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  Speaker 3: the time.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. Fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: Gerard, God bless you. I wish you the best of
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  Speaker 2: luck tomorrow night. Say hello to all my buddies out there.
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  Speaker 2: And next time this thing comes around, I promise.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be there. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Sid.
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  Speaker 1: All right, man. God bless you.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great attorney. He's a great attorney, Gerard Maroney
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  Speaker 2: right there. And the Unity Day Gala coming up tomorrow
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: night at Frankie's Place, Russo's on the Bay.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 8:58
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• 9:00
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• 9:12
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• 9:22
  Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?