2003-05-30 - 9:42 p.m.

Man, you think I'm not tough. You think I'm not "street", just 'cause I didn't even grow up on a street, more of a half-mile strip of dirt. Well, I'll tell you - I'm third generation gangster. My grandfather - my graduated high school at age 16, MBA Harvard, reading quantum physics for fun grandfather - was in a gang.

Way back in the 30s, in Jersey, my grandfather and his younger brother Carl were in a street gang. I'm confused as to what their gang's name was, I remember it as being "The Buccaneers" but my father says it was "The Silver Cannons." Maybe The Buccaneers was the name of their rival gang. I dunno, everyone had a few beers in 'em when I heard this story. I do remember Carl's wife saying something about how one of her friends, Cookie, still claims that she was a Buccanette, to which Carl said solemnly, "Cookie was never a Buccanette."

Anyway, the Silver Cannons/Buccaneers roamed the streets and terrorized the population by: holding basketball games. Not just any basketball games. Basketball games that they sold tickets for. I'm not sure how this made them a gang; maybe they went around threatening to beat up people unless they bought tickets for their gangland basketball games.

So.. yeah, that's my family's sordid past. So don't mess with me. I got gang blood in my veins.