Any fan of the Sapranos would know that those two words were what we were left with after however many seasons of the show.  And knowing our state of shock as we watched the clock, waiting and hoping for answers, and the damn minute hand kept creeping towards the end of the hour...the director not only tortures us with slicing a chain saw through the Journey song, but then leaves 30 seconds of black screen to stare at.

The magic of the Sapranos really circled around the character James Gandolfini brought to life.  OK, yea, he was a mobster.  But I think the real fascination was how he nearly always took his character down the path of doing the wrong thing and taking the low road.  Won't go into details here. 

(I have to admit that I was a little selfish learning about Mr. Gandolfini's sudden death.  I was obviously sad for the guy and his family.  But, and I blame HIM for this, I'm also a little bummed that they'll never be able to do a "10 years later" in the world of the Sapranos movie or anything.  I know that's pathetic but they're the one's that reeled us in to their world in the first place.)

It's so funny how things go. 

The Recruiting Animal posted an article about a really, really, really successful recruiter who got an e-mail from a candidate begging for a job.  The candidate had mass e-mailed it to many people and left all of their contact information displayed.  This recruiter made the mistake of hitting "reply all" and scolded the candidate to "buzz off" in a much more colorful way.

(By the way, sidebar.  I'd actually write the Recruiting Animal's name here but I fear silent black whirlycoptors with masked men abducting my family in the middle of the night and never being seen again.  Who can live with paranoia like that?)

So as it goes, I'm days away from a much needed R&R.  My wife and I are escaping for good.  I'M EVEN SHUTTING OFF MY PHONE GPS AND I'M YELLING BECAUSE I DON'T WANT PEOPLE (MY FAMILY) BUGGING ME.  :)  It's all in good taste. 

I've explained to key POC's (Points Of Contact) at my clients that I can do some stuff such as scheduling interviews but I won't be sourcing candidates or conducting reference checks. 

Interestingly enough, I've had some interestingly cooperative reactions including my clients paying extra attention to keep the process moving on their own and closing deals and such.  I'll be interested to see how this goes.

So a final note on Mr. Gandolfini and our super-recruiter who went temporarily insane and lost his job.  So often it seems like we as recruiters must take the high road and, of course, this is called "professionalism".  Even the best among us are given little slack for outbursts and mistakes.  (This doesn't go for Hollywood people or politicians apparently who can do the most heinous and disgusting things yet become more famous after the fact.)

The classic "guilty pleasures" for people like us is confined to lava cakes and an occasional revenge movie.  And because of this we walk the tightrope and persist, argue, and corroborate on blogs such as recruitingblogs.com. 

We can't tell either the client or the candidate to "buzz off".  We can't force candidates to take offers and we can't always be exclusive on job searches. 

So Mr. Gandolfini won't be here any more for us to sit back and chuckle as he guides himself through his days with terrorizing emotional and subjective responses.  And that's very sad.  What a truly successful guy!   I hope he lived well.  I hope he appreciates what an outlet he provided us as his fans into the "other side". 

I may just have to throw in "Goodfellas" or "Heat" tonight.  (Better keep the volume down with the kid in the house.)

- Steve