Rubber ducks and flipping the bird
Southie tradition back in person with jokes, protesters and a middle finger
The annual Southie St. Patrick’s Day breakfast returned in all of its groanfilled glory, live and in green-clad person for the first time in three years, complete with song, a giant rubber ducky and a middle finger from a smiling Gov. Charlie Baker.
Pols played stand-up comic as best they could, roasting each other with varying levels of success at the event hosted by state Sen. Nick Collins on Sunday in South Boston.
But there was drama before the event even began, as, according to the organizers, anti-vaccine-mandate protesters who’ve dogged Mayor Michelle Wu for months “attempted to access the event by falsely identifying themselves as volunteers to obtain special access credentials.”
According to the Evacuation Day St. Patrick’s Day Heritage Fund, staff “intercepted” them and gave them the boot.
The protesters in absentia did earn a couple of jokes from Wu, who cracked that “I woke up once again to the sound of children throwing a tantrum,” referencing the protesters rather than her own young boys.
The new mayor continued in roast mode, saying that she’d had “trial by snow, trial by fire … fighters union,” referring to the labor group leading a lawsuit against her restrictions, adding, “I’m getting used to dealing with problems that are expensive, disruptive and white” — before saying she was just talking about snow storms.
City Councilor Michael Flaherty grabbed onto last week’s big news of activist Monica Cannon-Grant’s federal fraud indictment, joking that the reason U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley wasn’t in the house was because “she’s on a vacation with her good friend Monica CannonGrant in the Boston version of ‘Thelma and Louise.’ ”
State Senate President Karen Spilka handed Baker, who was the subject of much ribbing about his decision not to run again, a giant rubber ducky courtesy of herself and Collins, saying, “It’s a duck. A lame duck.”
But it was the race for the normally lower-profile state auditor post that brought the most spice. Transit advocate Chris Dempsey, a Democratic candidate, cheerfully opened fire at Republican candidate Anthony Amore, cracking a joke about Amore’s job as head of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which famously has the largest unsolved art heist in world history.
“Governor, I know you recruited him to run for this race,” Dempsey began, directing his comments at Baker. “So you’re gonna send us the MBTA’s reliability director next to also jump in?”
Baker responded by flipping Dempsey off, throwing him a middle finger and a smile.
Amore reminded everyone that the famed heist happened long before he worked there and said that despite the left-leaning crowd he was happy nonetheless to attend because “I never pass up an opportunity to dress like an Aer Lingus flight crew member.”
State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, a Democratic candidate for auditor, skipped jokes and instead belted out a song, duetting with Boston City Councilor Frank Baker.