Civilization is a bit less secure this week

Both of my brothers are down in Florida so this is one of the unusual Saturday mornings on which the issues of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, the nation and the world are not getting their proper attention. For almost 20 years John and Sam have come over on at least 90% of Saturday mornings to complain that my coffee is too strong, and then join me in applying our collective wisdom to preserving civilization. Before we began gathering at my place we met in pop's kitchen for most of the 20 years before that.

Al Russo joined us regularly in the flesh for a couple of years until he moved to Florida, and he still joins us via cell phone on many if not most Saturdays. Dave Capone has occasionally joined us over the years to bring a more progressive opinion to the discussion, an opinion that was especially welcome for novelty back before John began his move over to the dark side. Matty Raimo, back before he sadly took his last flight into the wild, wild, blue this spring, would sometimes join us when he was in town to give us the airline pilots' union perspective. Other cousins - Charles Prince, Chubby Jackinski, Sonny Raimo, Bobby Russo - have made cameo appearances over the years, especially before Pop passed away, but I'm not sure any has repeated. Wives and female cousins have also occasionally sat in for as long as they could tolerate the atavistic opinions that pass between men who have known one another well since before the entire world became messed up.