THROWBACK THURSDAY

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO

Jun 19, 2025

This is a Throwback Thursday story. It came out on May 28th 2023, when I had a total of 171 Subscribers, only 5 of whom were Paid. It may have even been before we had Followers…I can’t remember. It sounds funny, but I was going to say…”Back in the day, about how we only got noticed through word of mouth. You posted a story, and hoped to Hell people would see it, maybe read it, and even better, Subscribe to you. Of course, just like it is now, there was no guarantee that if they signed up to you Substack, they would read you. Even so, I still average anywhere from 22-28% opening for my stories.

This story was written because of the name Benjamin Messenger. We were on vacation in (pretentious moment coming up!) Italy, and were in Rome at the time. We had booked a tour of the city and he was our guide. He was a history major, but it seemed that I knew more about Roman history than he did at times. (I had been writing a book and doing a shitload of research about Claudius and Nero at the time.)

I knew, as soon as he introduced himself, that he had to be a character in a story one day. I didn’t know what the story was, just that I had to use that name. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t remember us. The only memorable thing about us, is that I’m tall and she’s short; I’m white and she’s brown. Other than that, just a couple of Canadians, very politely wondering why we weren’t going into the sidewalk cafés and bistros he claimed had amazing food. He would tell us about how great this or that dish was, and just keep on walking. It would have been better tour if he’d made arrangements for an appie and a drink. He didn’t though, so when the tour ended — this time at one of the city’s so-called “hot spots” — we decided to part ways and go in for a drink.

It was a great trip all the same. But, before we go any further, let’s take care of some business…

PART ONE