THE BLUE SUIT
The Mayor’s Blue Suit with Josh Resnek exchanging private conversations about life, politics, religion, economics, immorality and municipal corruption in Everett.
We met Tuesday afternoon in La Perle Restaurant and Bar on Broadway in Everett Square.
This is the former Chinese food place that existed for about
40 years.
It has undergone an extraordinary transition under the operator of the restaurant, Valery Joseph, a young Haitian woman, a mother of two young children and a longtime Everett resident who once ran a restaurant on Bow Street.
This was the first time entering her restaurant in Everett Square.
Joseph spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to rip out the old restaurant in order to create something modern, with high ceilings, a gorgeous long bar with special lighting effects, a state of the art sound system and finer tables and chairs.
The entire effect is the kind of new business Everett needs but that official Everett does not necessarily want.
La Perle specializes in Haitian food, and to be frank, I never really gave a thought to eating Haitian food…that is…until I ordered us up a few treats and tasted them, and frankly, devoured them!
“This is absolutely delicious,” the Blue Suit said to me. He held between his fat fingers a piece of fried okra – a vegetable root. Then he dipped it into a light, fresh sauce before shoving it into his mouth.
“Wow! That’s special.”
Special indeed.
The entire scene inside this restaurant is something to marvel at. It is upper tier, good looking, ice cold with fabulous air conditioning, altogether a nice atmosphere.
“You know what the licensing board did to this place almost six months ago?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“I think I heard about that,” he answered.
“Didn’t they suspend her right to have entertainment and made her shut down every night at 11?” he replied.
“You got that all right,” I said.
“It’s killed the business. At the present time, she’s going out of business,” I added.
“Didn’t she have some kind of private party during COVID?” the Blue Suit asked.
“Yes,” I said in reply.
“It was her birthday. She shouldn’t have done it. So they did a Draconian Everett style punishment for her. They decided she was bad business and that she should go out of business and the city will be better off,” I added.
“Why would they do that?” the Blue Suit wondered with a wink of the eye to me.
“Cause she’s a Black woman and needed to be taught a good lesson,” I said. “I believe it was her first offense.”
“You know at Encore since it opened there have been hundreds of arrests, stabbings, shootings, drug overdoses, drug dealing and on and on and on…and they never have a problem. Here’s a young Black woman who has lived here for years, who put her life savings into this new business, with no one living around the business, and she’s considered a danger to the community. Go figure it,” I said.
“If I were her I’d go straight to the US Attorney’s office and lay it out to her investigators as an example of racism, discrimination and retaliation.”
We continued eating.
The Blue Suit ate rice and black bean sauce and fried chicken with fresh salad. He loved it. So did I.
I asked the Blue Suit to come a bit closer. I whispered to him.
“There’s something coming up. I did an interview yesterday. A two hour interview with an Everett woman. She detailed a
half dozen incidents of sexual harassment that has left her hurt and embarrassed,” I told the Blue Suit.
“Come on, tell me who it is,” he asked me.
“Do I know her?” he asked.
“I would bet you do,” I answered.
“Sorry, my friend. This stays private for now until I interview another woman who knows of the situation from the start. It is a jaw dropping story. All I’ll say right now is that she was a city employee.”
The Blue Suit seemed to have lost interest by that point.
I said to him: “Why am I telling you about this? You don’t even exist!” I said emphatically.
“What do you mean I don’t exist,” he answered angrily.
He repeated a famous Descartes quote to me: “I think therefor I am,” the Blue Suit said with pride.
“Wow! I didn’t know you studied French philosophy,” I said to the Blue Suit.
“You must think I’m an idiot, Josh.”
“Not really,” I answered.
“Let’s face it though, You really don’t think and you really don’t exist. You are my creation, entirely”
The Blue Suit grabbed my hand. He pulled it over to his sleeve.
“Touch the sleeve,” he demanded.
I touched his sleeve.
“How can you say I’m not real? I’m seated here with you and we’re talking, aren’t we?”
“Yes we are,” I agreed.
“There are many people out there who believe you are real and many others who believe you don’t exist. For me, it is a
choice about continuing what feels like a real dialogue while at the same time having to aver to the idea that I am quite possibly talking to myself.”
“What are you trying to say, Josh?”
“I’m saying that if you are real, then what you tell me is quite likely the truth. If you don’t exist, then what you tell me has no basis in fact. I can’t have it both ways. Do you understand?” I said to the Blue Suit.
“Take it from me, Josh. I’m as real as the sun coming up in the morning every day. I’m as real as the tide coming in and going out. I’m as real as a double order of steak tips from the New Bridge. I’m the real thing, Josh. And don’t you ever forget that.”