Friday, May 16, 2008

This just in...

I've been good about staying away from the keyboard today, but I had to write about this.

The Sasquatch just let me know that Robert Mondavi died today. I'm sure he was a decent businessman, and I hope he was good to his family and friends.

That said, the man was a complete tool to me in my only interaction with him. I wrote about it out here back in 2005, and then, I kinda-sorta kept his identity out of the picture. Well, kinda.

But, now that he's dead, I can confirm that it was "Robert Fucking Mondavi" (his words, not mine) who once called me a bitch in the middle of screaming at me over the phone in Moscow. The words "rich dickhead" came to mind at the time. I didn't appreciate it. To this day, I've made a point of never buying or drinking any wine put forth by his various and sundry enterprises.

An acquaintance of mine (one of my first Internet blind dates back in the day - a guy who looked like Mario Batali, without the Crocs) met Mondavi at a wine tasting a few years after he unjustifiably ripped me a new one during his Rich Jerk Hissy Fit. My acquaintance called him on it, in front of a bunch of people. Mondavi remembered doing it. He gave pseudo-Mario a bottle of wine in response. Of course, I never saw any of that wine. I guess I can appreciate that at least Mondavi had the presence of mind to say, "Hey, sorry I called someone you went on a date with once "bitch." Here, have a bottle."

(If only you could see me roll my eyes through the ether.)

Adios, Bob. Hope you find the afterlife to be whatever you truly earned.

2 comments:

lacochran's evil twin said...

Anyone who uses the "don't you know who I am" lingo is a guaranteed asshat.

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Yuck! I'd ban his wine, too! Great story about Pat Morita in the link, though. What a sweet guy.