CELEBRITY SIGHTING of the DAY...

It's one thing when you're walking the streets of NYC and you happen to stumble upon a celebrity, whether it be an actor, singer, reality star or athlete. It's pretty easy to run into one around here, especially in Manhattan. It's such a common occurrence that no one really notices or cares when one happens to be around, unless you're a tourist and aren't use to seeing such things. It's another thing entirely when one happens to drop in on you at your place of work.

I'd just returned from running errands with FIRE MARSHALL ED and found three guys sitting at the bar, chatting among themselves. No big deal. So I take a seat at the end of the bar and started talking to the day bartender when I looked over at the guys again and noticed a familar face. At first I was struggling to figure out who this particular individual looked like. When it came to me that he looked like a particular hockey player who used to play locally, it clicked. It was SCOTT GOMEZ, formerly of the NJ DEVILS and NY RANGERS and now currently playing for my favorite team, the MONTREAL CANADIENS.

As it turns out, he'd been there hanging out with one of our regulars, watching the Olympics and shootin' the shit. I introduced myself to him and found him to be very down to earth and very nice guy. While FIRE MARSHALL ED and I were busy installing a new amp for our sound system, some construction guy came in off of the street and immediately began talking him up. He was going on about how much of a fan he was of GOMEZ and how he used to play back in his day. This guy then proceeded to tell him how he was a great puck handler but was no GRETZKY. Ouch! This was after GOMEZ was nice enough to buy the guy a drink! Funny stuff.

GOMEZ was nice enough, however, to sign my Canadiens jersey and of course, I got a lot of razzing for it by the regulars, but who cares. It's not every day when a player from your favorite hockey team comes into your place of work. What can I say? Just another day at THIRD and LONG..