Good thing the guy didn't call him a dumb dago.
@The Ghost@DCPatriotGhost, my church friend, DC my friend,
I mentioned "Fredo" to Bob this morning and he immediately knew you don't call an Italian "Fredo".
Why he knew this:
He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is 84 so has known about groups living there since early times.
In that town, the people from different countries lived in their sections:
The
Polish lived in one area, the
Italians lived in one area, the
Irish lived in one area. These divisions were so "together" that there was a Polish undertaker who buried the Polish, an Italian one buried the Italians, an Irish one who buried the Irish. Each of those from their country was buried in the same section of a graveyard. I also know this because Bob's father was Polish, owned a funeral home and only buried Polish people. The undertakers could also bury anyone not from one of these countries.
Bob married an Italian woman in that area. When he did that, he was accepted by the Italians. He was presented by his Italian father-in-law to the main Italian man, who was sort of like the Godfather of the Italians there.
"The Godfather" movie came out in 1972. From that time forward, the name "Fredo" was a huge insult to Italians in Penn. So would it be to all Italians on the upper east coast, including for sure New York State. That is why Cuomo lost it when he was called that name - it was an insult to his people going back to 1972.