Today's DOTD: Jenna Graziano

Photo: The Sicilian Countryside, F. LoBuono

First, let me thank all of those who have suggested DOTD's. Ken and John, patience my boys, your very worthy suggestions have not been forgotten or dismissed. They will appear very soon. However, I have a dilemma: so many Douche bags and so little time! Why the politicians (MOSTLY Republican politicians, nod-nod-wink-wink) alone could keep this feature of TalkFrank going for months!

Anyway, I choose this one, perhaps, because it touched me in a personal way. The Douche of the Day is Jenna Graziano. "Who", you ask? Well, you haven't heard of her yet, but you will. She is the daughter of alleged Mafia crime figure and convicted criminal, Anthony Graziano. Jenna is also the creative force behind the new VH1 series "Mob Wives". This new "reality" series features Jenna, her older sister, and three other bimbos, who were married to so-called Made Men, who are now incarcerated for their crimes in prisons around the country. The show itself is centered around Karen Gravano, the daughter of infamous mobster Sammy The Bull Gravano, as she makes her return to Staten Island after 10 years of living in and out of the Federal Witness Protection Program in Arizona. A review in the April 11th edition of The NY Post by Michael Starr had this to say in describing the series: the glitz and glamour of mob life portrayed in movies and TV shows like "Goodfellas" and "The Sopranos" isn't remotely close to the harsh reality faced by the women left behind while their significant others are serving time. And that's the point Graziano hopes to make in "Mob Wives", in which cameras will follow (them) as they try to keep it together on Staten Island with their main support system behind bars. "It's not all fancy clothes and cars," says Graziano. "These are women who are now single moms trying to make it on their own".

First of all, BORING!!! Who gives a shit what these women are doing with their lives in Staten Island, with occasional stops in Brooklyn and New Jersey? That's a plot? And fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, for glorifying a crooked, criminal lifestyle. Graziano claims to be doing the series to bring new light on the misconception about the so-called mob life-style. Bull shit, Bull shit, Bull shit. She's doing it to exploit the bizarre fascination that people have with everything "gangster" and line her pockets with CA$H along the way! And I'm sick and tired of these idiots, like the ones from that other horror show "Jersey Shore", giving the rest of the country and the world a totally misguided look at what it means to be Italian-American.

Let me share a little personal history with you. Both sides of my family hail from Sicily. My mother's family is from a small village near Messina, on the northeast coast, called San Salvatore di Fitalia. My father's family hails from a larger town near the capital, Palermo, named Lercare Friddi. Both places are in the mountains, prime mafia territory. Yet, NEVER was there a mention of mafia, la cosa nostra, or il mano nero - the black hand, in our household except to denounce them and to hear stories of how my grandfathers avoided them at all costs. In fact, I was taught that if someone teased us about being Sicilian and being in the mafia we were to tell them that, "our family works for a living"! I remember listening to Stella tell me stories of her father, an immigrant, master stone mason, who would work so hard and sweat so much during the long, hot NY summers that he would come home with his underwear in a bag. My father, then in his 40's, changed careers and became a Sheriff's officer in Bergen County, NJ. And he loved law enforcement until the day he died. So, DON'T GIVE ME THIS MAFIA BULL SHIT!

I want to hear stories of Sicilian-Americans like those of my father and grandfather who created families from the sweat of their brow and the strength of their character. So, SHAME ON YOU VH1 for airing this type of crap. And congratulations to you, Jenna Graziano for creating this POS and, thereby, being named today's Douche of the Day.