This is actually not quite obligatory. It seems to be a big story in both Little Rhody and Philadelphia (though I think I-95 has knocked it off the front page in the later). And it has been a minute since I used the “Rhode Island” tag.
They went to Philly to visit Bok. Bok is an old vocational school that’s been turned into a “workspace”.
The people behind Bok had made a deal with Rhode Island to re-purpose an old state building. But that was under a previous administration, and now they were trying to convince the current administration in Rhode Island to go ahead with the deal, which was worth $55 million.
Hilarity. Ensued.
Lindsey Scannapieco is a managing partner at Scout, the company behind Bok. David Patten is (or was) the director of the state’s property management division. James Thorsen was the “director of administration”.
Some highlights from the press coverage:
According to the email, there was “…an irate phone call from the US CEO of Diadora, Bryan Poser, at 5:12pm asking us ‘who these people were and why we would have allowed them into his space (with many expletives in between)…He is also married to a Chinese woman and has two half-Chinese children.”
Quote from an earlier article:
About the lunch at Irwin’s, where entrees start at $28 on the dinner menu — and no lunch menu is featured — [Patten] wrote: “Those reading this memo should know that Irwin’s looked like it was vandalized just before our arrival at 11:30 a.m. for lunch.”
“Imagine my surprise when I learned that Bon Appetit magazine rated it one of the top ten restaurants in the United States! The cuisine at Irwin’s did not disappoint. The word ‘understated’ comes to mind.” (The Journal has not yet been able to reach anyone at the restaurant for elaboration on why the dinner-only restaurant opened for lunch.)
Speaking of vegan cheese, they also apparently made “condescending remarks” to the vegan cheese maker and a glass blower: “…there were questions about paying above a minimum wage and shock that these businesses made any money or could pay rent.”
There was also an argument about someone’s dog being overweight. And I’m leaving out the “Mazel tov” conversation. And the vanilla syrup. But I can’t leave this next one out.
Patten is currently on “paid administrative leave” and seems to be attributing his behavior to a mental breakdown. It sounds like he was the main source of the issues. If it really was a mental breakdown (or a substance abuse problem, as some suggested) I hope he makes a full recovery and amends to the folks he hurt. If he’s just a jerk, I hope he has a long unhappy life asking people if they want to supersize that lobster roll.
Thorsen didn’t do anything about Patten, even though people were pulling him to one side and telling him “this s–t needs to stop. NOW.” However, he’s the former director of administration: he resigned before the trip and now works for the Treasury Department. I’m thinking he was probably like honey badger, just don’t care.
It makes me miss the class and sophistication of Buddy Cianci.
It seems that you run across this type every so often, not too many, but that once in a blue moon is enough to remind you how unpleasant they are to deal with. It seems hard to believe, but I dealt with this sort on more than just a few occasions, in my different roles as a steel maker. I was one of the longest tenured floor workers there, and the only one who had done every job in both the plant and the lab, including the X-Ray and carbon/sulfur machine and the O2/N2 determinator.
So when someone came in that needed a plant tour, like a supplier or a possible new intern for the summer, I would on occasion get tapped for the task, if it involved the melt floor or the vacuum furnaces.
Mostly it was uneventful, but the rare individual came in who considered a floor worker to be unintelligent, and tried to show how much above me they were. I usually didn’t care, it was just how some people are. But at times when I was in a bad mood, I would purposefully try to make them look stupid. It was not very often, mostly when I was going through my divorce, and just twice that I remember I was especially harsh, or maybe especially effective is a better term.
I am a Christian and that is completely atypical behavior for me. To this day, I let people underestimate me, rather than try to make them look bad. And I much prefer to be corrected with the truth, if I am wrong. One thing I refuse to allow us for anyone to criticize my loved ones, trying to harm me. As the saying goes, I don’t have a bad temper, but I do have a temper.
I am writing this on my tablet, my computer is on it’s second week in the shop, for a simple charging problem. But the repair shop is very good and very busy, so it is worth the wait. I may have said before that I am a bad migraine patient. I went to my Neurologist today and got notice injections. 31 shots, to be exact. If it doesn’t help, at least I won’t have wrinkles for 3 months while I suffer. Have a great week, and be well.
“It seems that you run across this type every so often, not too many, but that once in a blue moon is enough to remind you how unpleasant they are to deal with.”
Indeed. I still refuse to buy anything from Melissa and Doug for that reason.
Your story reminds me of Anthony Bourdain’s account (in “Kitchen Confidential”) of one of his mentors who’d adopted the method of being self-depricating, describing himself as “not too bright”, and asking for a more detailed explanation of whatever. Then, at the right time, he’d lower the boom. (This is the same guy in the story about the shrimp.)
” And I much prefer to be corrected with the truth, if I am wrong. ”
“If anybody shall reprove me, and shall make it apparent unto me, that in any either opinion or action of mine I do err, I will most gladly retract. For it is the truth that I seek after, by which I am sure that never any man was hurt; and as sure, that he is hurt that continueth in any error, or ignorance whatsoever.”
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6, XX.
Good luck with the computer and the migraines. Stay safe for the next two weeks or so.