As I sat there in Rudy's with this very scarey gang, I tuned out their talk about their cd. It was something about how important timing was to their caper.

Velvet Vinnie said, "This ain't gonna work!"

Instead of eavesdropping, I zoned out, only hearing the George Thorogood song that just came on the jukebox, and I thought about how I’ve always wanted to be evil.

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Maybe this was my chance. Maybe it was why I loved Hell's Kitchen. Maybe this was Fate finally coming through for me.

This desire is not a new thing. I’ve always wanted to live on the dark side. Be the bad guy. Wear the black hat. Frighten little children just by smiling at them. Kinda like this Louie character, who was saying something about timing and how they had to get Clydie here right away.

Although to be honest, which I rarely am, I'd prefer Fate hit me with a winning lottery ticket. It'd have to be a lottery ticket I'd found on the sidewalk, as I save my money for more sure things, like beer. But maybe these gangsters were my lottery ticket that would make my childhood dreams come true.

While other kids were practicing basketball, I practiced a mad laugh patterned after some mad scientist I saw in a b-movie on Shock Theater. The only person my laugh scared was my little sister, Jody Lee, who was also afraid of her Guardian Angel night light.

I was fortunate in that I was raised as a Catholic at a time where an eight year old kid could a commit mortal sin with cheese on a Friday afternoon at McDonald’s without even trying to be bad. Eternal damnation with fries. Every Friday. As long as I didn’t go to confession, I was a made guy! But alas, and even Aflack, I went to a Catholic School where we had mandatory confession every Saturday morning, which was more often than some of us bathed. Joyously damned on Friday afternoon. In the state of grace in time for Communion on Sunday. I just couldn’t win!

I’ve always identified with bad guys, starting when I was a little, little kid and watched Soupy Sales at lunchtime. There was Soupy and White Fang and Black Tooth. White Fang was "The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA," so he was my favorite. “Lo ho ho!”

Then there was my favorite movie character. He was in the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan — Captain Hook. I learned the words to all his songs… like the one about poisoning Wendy with a cake with “icing mixed with poison, 'til it turns a tempting green”. Hook made being bad so cool!

I looked at my drinking companions and decided HiTone reminded me of White Fang and Louie had a bit of Captain Hook in him. Molly did not remind me of Cruella DeVille, of which I was glad. Molly just reminded me of how old I was and how young she was.

I listened for a second or two. They were talking about doing a reality check and I tuned out again.

Back in the day, when grownups asked us rugrats what we wanted to be when we grew up, my cousins would say President, or cowboy or nurse or fireman or astronaut. I’d say, “henchman.”

But it was not to be. Not then, anyway.

I gave it my best shot. I did.

When I was a teenager I sold my soul to Satan. Well, to be honest, which I mostly am, even though I don’t want to be, it was more like I gave my soul away, and I’m not even sure if Old Nick accepted it. You see, I’d just read George Bernard Shaw’s play, The Devil’s Disciple and like the hero, Richard Dudgeon, I decided to stand by Satan in this life, with the understanding he’d stand by me in the next. It made a man of Dudgeon, but it seemed to have no affect on me, my soul, or the growing of chest hair over my freckles which I was convinced was a prerequisite for evil. That lack may have been the prime reason I never quite reached the evil incarnate stature of Charles Manson, Idi Amin, or the Nancy Pelosi.

In high school I did acquire the nickname Beelzebub. But that wasn’t earned by acts that lived up to Nazi bedtime stories. I got the nickname partially because I had bright red hair, but mostly because when the other kids took flash pictures, everybody had eyeballs but me. In my case you could only see the whites of my eyes. Eerie, but not as evil as performing operations on small woodland creatures while chanting in upside-down Latin.

I would gladly have become a vampire. The height of my high school fantasies was imagining a date with Cheryl Mary Slamkowski, our head cheerleader. In my fevered imagination, the date would end with warm, sticky, copper-flavored blood dripping down my chin onto her pure white blouse unbuttoned just enough to lay one perfect drop on her white cotton bra! What a great fantasy, huh? But it never happened. I never got the date. I never even asked Cheryl Mary out. I never was bitten by a vampire. I was never able to lay a wet one on Cheryl Mary’s neck like I was sure she would have wanted her Evil Overlord to do at the stroke of midnight on our first and last date.

My table mates were talking about how I was 'The Guy' and this was the place, but they had to make another transition to get Clydie or they couldn't get the Fatman. They made no sense. I swigged the last dregs of the last beer I could afford to buy and ignored them.

You know, I've always wanted to shoot somebody. I’d have loved to have shot a good guy, preferably in the back. But I’d have settled for winging an innocent bystander with a ricochet. Even a innocent bystander dog. Unfortunately, I’ve never fired a gun. Life just isn’t fair! It never seems to put you at the right time and right place. But maybe this was the time and place!

Over the long boring years of no mass murders, no human sacrifices, no parkiHng in handicapped spots, I’ve had to face up to it. At evil, I’ve always been pretty much of a non-starter.

I know I could have been great at evil. I just didn’t know how to do it correctly. What I’ve needed all this time is a Handbook like “Evil For Dummies.” While I’ve been a Dummie all my life, I never found a Dummie’s Book that could teach me to be as nasty as I want to be. They don’t have anything like that at the New York Public Library. Or even on Amazon.com. Darn it, I need that damned book quickly, or pretty soon I’ll pass away and my headstone will read, “He Led A Nice Life.”

The worst I’ve ever done is to register and vote straight Republican. I’ll bet after all my disclaimers of never making it to the advanced levels of evil, you’d have thought I couldn’t have achieved such infamy. But you’d have been wrong. Ah, ha, ha, haa!

I know when I stand trembling at the edge of the fiery river that surrounds Hell, and that giant three-headed poochie asks what I’ve done to earn my place among the Evil Damned, I can proudly say, “I voted for Dick Cheney three times, once on a write-in ballot for Senator from Alaska.”

I used to think those votes just might be enough for me to achieve my rightful place on the Plateau Of Evil Men. But maybe not.

Maybe these evil companions could give me my chance!

Oh Paddy, dream on.

Next: Beer Crisis