thisweekinitaly.com

h3. Difficulty of English School Texts

I am helping a 14 year old with his English course. The text he uses is
quite difficultas difficult as the Italian text I used in the college
course. You would not see a text of this level in an American junior high
school.

h3. Potato Chips and Pornography

I mentioned last year that I was surprised when Mike Tyson was an honored
guest at the 2005 San Remo Music Festival. In the USA this would have been
an insult to women viewers among others. Recently a potato chip company
aired a commercial featuring Italian porn movie star Rocco Siffredi. In it
he told how he knew a lot about potato chips and loved this brand. In
Italian the word for potato chip also has another crude meaning so that the
commercial was one long double entendre. The outcry (especially from
womens groups) was loud enough to get the commercial withdrawn. There is,
however, the theory in advertising that no publicity is bad publicity your
goal is mostly to get people to remember the name of the product. In that
case this commercial was wildly successful; people who never saw it
nevertheless read and heard the name of the product in the news stories
about the controversy.

h3. Saving Postage Costs on Products Shipped from the USA.

I often buy books and DVDs through Amazon.com. Sometimes I buy used products
through the sub-vendors on the Amazon.com web site. Often these do not ship
abroad so I have to have the item shipped to friends in the USA who then
mail it to me in Italy. Amazon.com itself, however, does ship aboard and at
a very reasonable cost. So I decided to have items from Amazon itself
shipped directly to me; often these are shipped from their German location.
But I discovered that in this case, I have to pay duty and additional
postage (even though the item is shipped post paid from Germany) to the
Italian postal system. I dont pay this (even if the item theoretically is
subject to duty) when something is shipped from the USA. So my cost savings
disappeared. Nothing is ever simple in Italy.

h3. Shameless Advertising

For the readers of this newsletter who also know me and my family, I herein
provide the web address of the site where one can find photos and commentary
about my granddaughter Athena
Howbigisathena.blogspot.com

h3. Public Toilets

In the USA you will see a sign at times in a public toilet in a restaurant,
theatre, etc. asking users to keep the bathroom area clean. This idea goes
a bit farther it Italy. In Italy there is often a toilet brush next to the
toilet. One is expected to use this brush to clean the toilet bowl if
necessary.

h3. Italian Judges

Ive mentioned in the past that the power of the judges in Italy is a
subject of controversy. After the experience of Fascism in which the
executive power subverted the independence of the judiciary, the judges in
Italy were put above the system of checks and balances that we have in the
USA for the various branches of government. Here is an example of what can
happen in Italy. American author Douglas Preston is about to publish a book
with his Italian co-author Mario Spezi about a serial killer (never
captured) who murdered 14 people in the hills of Florence from 1974 to 1985.
Recently he came to Italy for a vacation and to do some work with his
co-author. The judge in charge of the ongoing investigation of this case
(Judges oversee investigations in Italy.) had Preston taken into custody and
grilled by the police. They played for him conversations they had taped
between him and Spezi and asked him to explain what each phrase meant. He
was told he could not refuse to answer. He was then charged with two counts
of perjury, but told the charges would be temporarily dropped if he left
Italy. Meanwhile the police have leaked stories to the press indicating
that Spezi (whose apartment has been searched three times) is not simply
writing about the case but may be connected to a group responsible for the
killings.

h3. Italian slang

I wrote about the translation of swear words from English to Italian when a
film from American has Italian subtitles. Of course this phenomenon goes
both ways. Recently in my Italian class the teacher used a phrase to
describe the relationship between Silvio Berlusconi and George Bush that has
a simple, direct, English translation asshole buddies. I could not tell if
in Italian the phrase was similarly crude or perhaps had a little higher
level of refinement.

h3. Visiting a Friends English Class

A teacher of English in an Italian high school suggested that one day I
might visit her class and do some exercises with the students as a native
speaker. To do this, however, she would have to get the permission of the
school principal for me to enter the class. Like most institutions in
Italy, the schools are wrapped in in an extensive net of rules and
regulations. The Italians have rules to try to avoid almost every evil
real or imagined. Of course, these rules also inhibit creativity by those
subject to them. So you have the paradox of a people who are wonderfully
creative, saddled by a system that prohibits the use of this virtue. In
fact a lot of the creativity in Italy is used not in directly doing good
things but in finding ways simply to get around the rules.

h3. Japanese Tourists

On my way to my English class in Florence, I suddenly was in the middle of a
group of Japanese tourists. As we arrived one block away from the Cathedral
(which became mostly visible at this point), suddenly everybody was taking
pictures of the building, other members of the group with the building in
the background, or just other members. It was hard to walk farther because
I did not want to get between the photographer and his subject(s). I was
reminded of the scene in the film Caddyshack in which Rodney Dangerfield
takes his Japanese guest to lunch at his country club. As they get out of
the car, the guest begins immediately to take photographs to which Rodney
says Hey, youre taking pictures of the parking lot.

h3. English Grammar

My Italian students of English know English grammar much better than I.
Although I know the right answer in selecting a word, I often cannot say
the rule as to why it is correct. Often if I correct a mistake of an
Italian, he or she then can tell me the rule involved. Italian grammar is
more complex than English grammar. Italians will point out grammatical
mistakes that actors, athletes, and others make speaking Italian on TV.
Such mistakes occur also in the USA but at a much lower rate because the
grammar is simpler.

h3. The Koran in Italian Schools

In Italy there is religious instruction in the public schools. Muslim
parents sometimes object to this. Recently a Roman Catholic Cardinal said
that if a school has, for example, 100 Muslim students, it is acceptable for
the Koran to be used to instruct them. A Muslim leader in Italy noted that
it is not a problem for Muslim children to learn the historical importance
of the Catholic Church in Italian history, but instruction in Catholic
doctrine is another matter. At least one leading Italian politician said
that there should be reciprocity. He noted that it would be impossible for
Christian students living in Muslim countries to receive in the schools
instruction using the Christian Bible. This is true, but there is a big
problem of how best to integrate the numerous Muslims in Italy into Italian
societythere is no reciprocal problem in Muslim lands.

h3. Use of the Computer in Italy

At times it seems that computer use is very widespread in Italy, but Im not
so sure. Recently I helped a friend who teaches English to correct a
homework assignment of her students. Among the 15 papers we corrected (by
high school students) only one was composed on the computer. I assume that
in the USA this number would have been much higher. The Italian students
could even have had an English spell checker on their computers to help with
the assignment.

h3. A Political Endorsement

Many newspapers in Italy are openly allied with a particular political party
or viewpoint. In these there is little attempt to be neutral in the
presentation of the news. Other newspapers are independent of political
persuasion. One of these is a large paper in Italy, Corriere Della Sera of
Milan. Recently the editor of this paper put an endorsement of the
Center/Left coalition on the front page of the paper explaining that this
was a departure from Italian tradition (and adopting an Anglo-American
tradition) and told why he was making this departure. A storm of
controversy ensued. I was interested to note how much of the criticism of
this was based on the fact that he had departed from tradition rather than
an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of importing this new
tradition into Italy.

h3. Speaking of Politics

The national election is April 9-10. The first debate between the leaders
of the two coalitions (Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi) just took place.
I think Prodi outflanked the master politician Berlusconi. Although Silvio
says that he has polls showing his coalition is ahead, in fact the
Center/Right group of Berlusconi is behind, and he knows it. He needs the
debates as an opportunity to close the gap. Prodi knows this too so he
insisted on clear rules for the two debates. Berlusconi had to agree to
this idea to get the debates. But what rules? Prodi slyly suggested the
traditional American rules (which are also used in some other European
countries). Berlusconi openly admires most things American; he could hardly
refuse. Silvio is a bombastic speaker who is best on the attack. The time
limits in the debate did not allow him to use his usual style. Since he is
the incumbent, he ended up having to answer a lot of questions about his
performance over the last five years. In these answers he could not easily
attack the other side. As a result, he lost the debate. He is crying about
the absurd rules, but he is boxed in, having agreed to them in advance.

h3. Little Tommaso

I wrote last week about his kidnapping. As far as I know, nothing has been
heard of him. The Police even dragged a river where a medium said she had a
vision of a little boy there. Soon after he was taken, and the family was
interrogated, the father said Our life is an open book. Not quite true.
It seems that the father had a securely locked room in the basement of their
house in which there was a computer with child pornography files on it. It
does not yet appear that the fathers interest in this kind of material is
related to the kidnapping, but this certainly put an even darker shadow on
the whole affair.

h3. American Films with Italian Subtitles

I wondered why these films (a few of which I have seen) exist because when
such American films are released in Italy, they are dubbed. Subtitles are
not used. It turns out that the films I saw were the copies used in Italian
film festivals before the film was released in Italy (or even in the USA).

h3. Rome Arrives in Italy

The HBO series “Rome” (very popular in the USA) is coming to Italian TV
this week. A big surprise–the Italian version tones down some of the more
explicit sex scenes. In Italy this series will be on broadcast TV; in the
USA is was on a cable pay channel. Nevertheless, it is a surprise for an
American show to be too explicit for Italian TV. For example “Sec and the
City” is shown on Italian braodcast TV without censoring.

h3. Trip to Brescia

I went to Brescia with a group to see an excellent art exhibition of
paintings of Van Gogh and Gauguin. The two artists lived together for a few
months in France. The day I was there 7,000 people went through the
exhibit. Ive been told that on some days there was a four-hour wait to get
into the museum. Fortunately our group had a reservation to enter the
museum at a certain time. There was a one-hour break for lunch. I would
have preferred to eat at a restaurant near the museum but my friends wanted
to eat at one in the main piazza. By the time we arrived we had only 30
minutes to eat. We told the waitress that we had to get our food (There were
only sandwiches and salads on the Menu.) within 15 minutes. She said this
could be done, but in fact it was not. We had to leave without eating. The
problem in this particular circimstance is that in Italy waitresses and
waiters earn a decent wage and are not dependent upon tips which are not
usually given. (Overall this may be a better practice than the system in the
USA.) So it the food is late, this is no problem for the waitress. In the
USA, she would have said to the cook Harry the people at table 8 need their
food in a hurry; see what you can do. Both Harry and the waitress would
know that late food = no tip. Harry would try to help his co-worker. Most
probably (of course not certainly) the food would have arrived in time.

Not surprisingly when we got back to the museum on time, we had to wait 20
minutes to enter. We could have stayed longer at the restaurant.

h3. The Water Bill Problem

All the residents of my building got a notice in our mail boxes one day that the water bill had not been paid for the building, and service could be cut off if it were not paid by a certain date. On the same day there was also a letter from the office that administers the condominium stating that the water bills had been paid, there were receipts to prove this, and that the water company had not contacted this office before sending the notices to the residents. The administrator threatened to sue the water company for defamation. A few days later we got another notice from the water company that the bill had been paid on time. Only in Italy would the water company
send out the first notice without first checking with the party responsible to pay the bill to see if there was some accounting error.

h3. Little Tommaso

He is the 18 month-old child kidnapped last week near Parma. He suffers from Epilepsy and needs to take medicine daily. His photo attached to this newsletter is the most seen picture in Italy this week. There was, at the request of the parents, a four-day blackout of news in case the kidnappers contacted the family for negotiations. There were candle light parades calling for his return. Even prisoners in state prisons wrote petitions calling on the kidnappers to return the child. This story would be big anywhere, but it is huge in Italy.

h3. Day of the Woman

It was March 8. The traditional gift is a sprig of yellow mimosa. As
typical on such holidays, political leaders make statements and
proclamations. In the USA these might have extolled the accomplishment of
women and called for more laws or regulations to provide equality to women.
The President of Italy (the ceremonial leader of the nationnot the
political one) was a little more practical. In his speech he called upon
Italian men to help their wives more with the tasks in the home.

h3. The Results of a Stagnant Economy

Although Italy has no economic growth, there is inflation. Stories are
common on the news about increased costs for gasoline, electricity, food,
and housing. In the newspaper last week was an article about another
crucial problem when money becomes tight. Fewer Italians are able to afford
a motel for their illicit sexual encounters that often take place between
5-7 pm. The most popular places for these interludes are now: some outdoor
location in the country 31%, a parking lot 22%, in an office at work 19%,
and a motel 18%.

h3. Subtitles

I mentioned that I have been seeing some American films in English with
Italian subtitles. It is a good way to see what is lost in the subtitling
process. I am curious to see how profanity is translated. In America the
type of swear words a person uses and when they are used is an indication of
the persons social class and/or how angry the person is. I recall a scene
in the wonderful film A Christmas Story in which Ralphie recalls blurting
out the Queen Mother of swear words. an indiscretion that was soon
followed by a bar of soap being inserted into his mouth. I get the
impression, however, that the subtitles in Italian dont convey these
differences among swear words. Also in the film Brokeback Mountain when
the daughter tells her father that she is engaged to a man who works in the
oil fields, he replies a roughneck, eh. In Italian roughneck was
translated as petroleum worker which doesnt quite catch the essence of
the fathers comment.

h3. Medical Update

The specialist I saw says that surgery is not called for: the little changes
in some arteries are not important. For the first time I got an explanation
of my CAT scan. The lining of the aorta separated so that that for its
entire length there are two channels rather than one for the blood. As long
as the blood passes through these two, going to the desired places, there is
no big problem. This seems to be the case. The fear is that, if the blood
pressure gets too high, the wall of the aorta (which now is probably weaker)
may burst. So one has to take medicine to control the blood pressure. My
guess is that I will have to take the medicine the rest of my life (It
probably is too dangerous to stop taking it even though it might not be
necessary.), and my days of strenuous bicycling are over.

h3. Academy Awards

I saw many of the films that were in the Oscar race in 2004 and 2005. The
two films that won, Million Dollar Baby and Crash, were certainly not my
favorites. But I realize that whereas I saw most of the contenders in
English, I saw these two in Italian. I understand a film in Italian, but I
certainly dont catch all of the dialog.

h3. Tyvek

This is common for large envelopes in the USA light but very strong. I
never see it in Italy. The problem may be that it cannot be recycled, and
the Italians prefer to use recyclable materials. Also the Italian postal
rates are not so weight sensitive as those in the USA; there are fairly
broad categories of weight that take the same postage.

h3. Rainy Day

I am taking a course in Italian in Florence this month so I take the train
to Florence every day. One day it was raining. When I got off the train, as
I walked down the platform from the train car to the main lobby of the
station (about 100 feet), I passed 8 persons selling umbrellasall
foreigners. How any of these people can make a living selling such items
remains a mystery to me.

A Rodney King Case in Italy

Someone videotaped the police in Italy giving a gratuitous beating to a man who was already subdued after a drunk and disorderly episode. He was an immigrant from Morocco. More and more the immigrants in Italy are treated in ways that remind one of how Blacks were (and sometimes still are) treated in the USA. In this case there were outraged responses by some to police brutality and others who said (in polite language) that this immigrants are involved in too much crime and deserve what they are getting. The disproportionate percentage of prisoners who are foreigners in Italian jails is close to the percentage who are Black in American jails.

A Janet Jackson Case in Italy

A few years ago there was an outcry in the USA when Janet Jacksons breast was exposed for a millisecond during half-time entertainment at the Super Bowl. This week at the San Remo Music Festival an Italian hostess for the show momentarily came out of her dress. Now ordinarily in Italy the woman hostesses are barely fit into the top of their dresses so that for a bare breast to be exposed requires a shift of only a few millimeters. The hostess apologized and said she would stay buttoned up next time. The event led to some spicy newspaper photos but hardly a national scandal.

Speaking of San Remo

Every year there is at least one featured American guest. Last year it was Mike Tyson. This year the first was John Travolta who stopped by while flying his airplane (He is the pilot of it.) back to the USA from Europe. He was not on stage very long, and there was criticism of a huge payment to him for such a short appearance. The TV network, citing privacy concerns, refused to disclose the amount. The second American guest was wrestling champion John Cina who has Italian ancestry. He actually was more engaging in his appearance than John Travolta.

Berlusconi Visits the USA

Silvio Berlusconi visited the USA and met with Bush and addressed Congress. In doing this he follows a political practice also used in the USA. When things are not going well at home, go to visit a friendly foreign country where you will be well received and get good press coverage. Berlusconi was elected largely upon his reputation as a businessman who could restart the Italian economy. In this he has failed. Even though world events beyond his control may be responsible for some of the failure, the fact is that Italys economy has lagged behind that of other European countries who were also affected by these world events. So naturally Berlusconi does not talk a lot about his promises or the economy in his reelection campaign. He seems to spend a lot of time criticizing the judiciary which he says is controlled by the left. This may well be true, but it is hardly Italys number 1 problem at this time. In Italy the left says that Berlusconi is unfit to govern; the right says that the left will be unable to govern effectively(because of internal divisions). The sad fact is that they both might be correct.

Eating Mexican

I went to a birthday party at the home of an American friend. She prepared  Mexican food for her Italian guests. Most had never tasted such food before and did not know what to do to put the ingredients in the tortilla. There is no Mexican restaurant in Pistoia; the only one in Florence is very expensive. They all enjoyed the food. My friend was careful not to make it too hot.

Divorce Italian Style

This is title of one of my favorite Italian movies made before divorce was legal in Italy. It is shown from time to time on TV, and whenever it comes on, I cant resist watching at least a part of it. I recommend it highly. It stars Marcello Mastroianni. Recently I saw the start of another film

Are You in Favor or Opposed? made at the time when Italy was having its

national referendum on whether to legalize divorce. It starred another

great Italian comic star, Alberto Sordi. At the start he is asked by a TV

interviewer whether he favors or opposes the proposal to legalize divorce.

With a smug smile he says he opposes it because he is a good Catholic and

marriage is sacred. At this point at start of the film you already know one

thing for sure he will be a total scoundrel who is less than faithful to

his marital vows.
Divorce is much more common among the younger generation in Italy than among

their elders, but Italy has not yet developed the organizations, mechanisms,

and support groups to help divorced people that are available in the USA.
h3. Petty Theft
My church in Florence has a monthly Thrift Shop sale. Often one can buy

very nice clothes for one or two Euro. Since the prices are so low, I was

surprised to discover that they have some theft at this shop. Clothes that

are not sold are given away free to poor people at the weekly Food Bank at

the church. So I dont think the thefts are by persons too poor to pay the

very modest prices. Petty theft seems to me to be a little more common here

than in the USA, but I have never talked to an American who worked at a

similar Thrift Shop in the USA. Maybe such theft is the same everywhere.
h3. Medical Update
When I showed my CAT scan results to my doctor, the first thing he noticed

was that a number of transparencies in my test results envelope were for

another person, not me. Fortunately my results were in there too. I hope

the other results find their way to the right person. I have to confer

again with a prominent surgeon in Florence. It seems to me that a surgical

intervention is becoming more likely, but not at all certain yet. A couple

of blood vessels are dilated a little more than they were on last CAT scan.

Nothing critical but time to get another expert opinion.
h3. Headline of the Week
Erotic Games for Couples Now Available in Local Pharmacies. As I’ve noted

before, I usually don’t read the stories allied to such headlines. Why spoil

the titillating thoughts aroused by the headline by the mundane facts

(usually much less exciting) set out in the article.
h3. South Tyrol
I mentioned a few weeks ago that an Italian athlete at Olympics from this

area of Italy (formerly part of Austria) had not stayed on the podium when

the Italian national anthem was played. Recently a group in South Tyrol got

signatures from 113 of 116 mayors of communities in this area on a petition

to the Austrian parliament asking that (1) The Austrian Republic take on

the role of protecting and promoting the historically connected

German-speaking minority in Italy, particularly the inhabitants of South

Tyrol, and (2) The Austrian Republic take on the role of protecting the

right of self-determination of the Germans of Tyrol. The Austrian

government has no interest in doing such things to offend Italy, but this is

evidence of the strong Germanic atmosphere of this area. When Germany and

Austria merged under Hitler in the late 1930s, Mussolini sent Italian troops

to the Italian-Austrian border. If Italy and Germany had not become allies

in the late 1930s, South Tyrol would have been an area that Germany might

well have invaded and annexed as another ethnic German area that rightfully

belonged in the Third Reich.