Whaddaya hear, whaddaya say?

All is almost right with the world again! It seems like Paulie Walnuts' wings have flown south for at least 5 winters since the last new episode, but Tony and the Family come back in just a few hours. I'll do a season premiere review afterwards; until then I'll be watching some of my favorite episodes for calisthenics. Here are a couple of the ones I'll be warming up with:

1. 46 Long (Season 1): Tony's Chirikawas rob a truck line protected by Uncle Jun... twice. The second time Brendan acts alone after a sit-down between Tony and Uncle Jun where they are ordered to make restitution and stay away from the trucking company. Best line is delivered by Tony to Mikey Palmice. "Too bad they don't have a telethon for fuckfaceitis. They find a cure yet?"
   
2. Full Leather Jacket / From Where to Eternity (Season 2): Full Leather Jacket ends with the hit by Drinkwater and Gismonte on Chrissy and fades to black with the hospital respirator sound effect. I can still remeber how tight my chest felt when this one first aired and ended that way. From Where to Eternity has some uncharacteristically good acting by Drea de Matteo ("one boo-yaa hottie!") and a series best performance by Paulie (a/k/a James Cagney, Jr.). His efforts to interpret Chrissy's dream about going to hell, where Italians are outnumbered by Irishmen and all the whack-ees get hit again at midnight each night, are classic. Plus his goomah is Dr. Turkleton's wife on Scrubs, which I didn't remember.
   
3. Pine Barrens (Season 3): Chrissy and Cagney, Jr., attempt a pick-up from a mad Russian "interior decorator" who claims to wash his balls with ice-water. There's an incident with a you-nee-bersal ree-mote and then all hell breaks loose. If you don't know the rest, go buy Season 3 and watch this one before 8 p.m. You won't regret it. Best line? Cagney, Jr., when explaining the situation to Tony - "The package hit Chrissy with an implement."

If you don't know, now you know...