Sal Pane taught me how to drive.  True story.  I’ve had my license for years, but I lived in Pittsburgh for about a decade before I bought a car.  So, I would drive Sal from bar to bar and he would give me driving tips.  Most of the tips sounded like this: “Stop sign!  Stop sign!”  These tips were often delivered at high volume with a somewhat exasperated undertone.

When I finally mastered the stop sign, Sal calmed down.  Sometimes, he would sit in the passenger seat and jot down notes in his precious little Moleskine notebook.  He was especially fond of coming up with weird boasts.  “Listen to this, Robert.  ‘I’ve got more money than the Federal Reserve.’  ‘I got more money than Dionne Warwick.’  What do you think?”  I never knew what to say.

Apparently, Sal just got his his collection of various braggadocio published.  It’s called Last Call in the City of Bridges and you can read more about it here.