A staggering week-plus of losses in the Biggest Little. Whether it is something in the air or the stars, the karma has been devastating here in the Ocean State. Phillipe and Jorge feel like we are writing an obituary column this week, but to ignore the impact on our friends and the community would be negligent.
Dr. Kathleen Mallon
Your superior correspondents are deeply saddened to note the passing of a wonderful person who made a huge difference in many, many lives. Kathy Mallon, a friend for more than 35 years, died on March 10 after a 14-month battle with breast cancer. She was vibrant, brilliant, and lovely. Her contributions to the University of Rhode Island, where she held numerous executive roles, was a great gift to the school. Publicly, she was probably best known for energizing and building the Master Gardener Program at the school and was, for a number of years, it’s most well-known face with her weekly reports on WJAR/Channel 10. Kathy was a great Rhode Islander, a real community-builder, and Jorge, in particular, was fortunate to have known her as a friend since their student days in the 1960s. She will be dearly missed.
Eleanor Slater
Phillipe and Jorge cannot exceed the praise and tributes already given the estimable Eleanor Slater, who will be missed by us and all of her dear friends. This true Rhode Island legend had a great run until passing away at age 97, and friends who visited her lately said she was, as always, full of piss and vinegar to the end. A former member of the state House of Representatives and doyenne of the Democratic Party in the Biggest Little, perhaps her greatest legacies were being the driving force behind the passing of the first Fair Housing Act in the US, the Slater Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in selling homes, and her progressive and impressive work on mental health and aging, which led to the state’s two mental health facilities to be named after her. Phillipe had the pleasure of working with her on occasion, and there was no sharper eye and intellect, or more dynamic personality, who always brought a ton of wisdom and hard work to the table. The citizens of Little Rhody owe her a great deal.
Phillipe and Jorge’s sympathies also go out to the family and friends of Nancy Baker, from Jamestown. And the same sentiments to those closest to the three URI students, all Rhode Island residents, who presumably drowned in Narragansett Bay. Let us all make every day a special one — it may indeed be the last.
It’s hard to be a pimp out here
One of P&J’s favorite magazines, The Week, reports in its March 17 issue that a convicted Florida pimp is suing six former customers, due to their role in getting him arrested and deported. “Arthur Funmore” was one of the street names adopted by Arthur Vanmoor of the Netherlands. (Another was “Big Pimpin’ Pappy.” Yikes!) According to “Arthur,” the credit card slips signed by the customers (?!) said that the money would not be used “for illegal activity.” The Week also reports that Funmore said if he knew the men were planning on having sex with the ladies of the night, he would have refunded their money. No doubt Mr. Vanmoor was shocked . . . shocked!. . . to find that sex was going behind his back.
