thisweekinitaly.com

Restaurant News

As always, I am finding new good places to eat in Pistoia. The latest is a sandwich shop. Sandwiches are a weak point of the Italian cuisine—often just a piece of meat on dry bread. In Germany the sandwiches are much better as I have noted before. This new shop is owned by an German man and an Italian man. It has sandwiches of originality and variety using excellent Italian ingredients.

The day after Christmas I stopped for a meal at my favorite pizza place where the pizza maker and half owner is an American. He is a sports nut so I stop in often (even when not eating there) to talk a little about sports with him. After an excellent meal, I went to the counter to pay, but was told the meal was a Christmas present to me. In Italy, regular customers get excellent service.

Hotel News

The big hotel building under construction close to the center of town, near the train station, will be a Hilton Hotel. There is only one large hotel now in Pistoia and it is not centrally located. In the center of town there are a few small, prosaic hotels. So the Hilton will be a step forward.

Meanwhile the number of bed and breakfast places grows steadily. When I came to Pistoia in 2002, there were one or two of these in the center of town. Now there are 11. Of course, more tourism is good for the economy of Pistoia, but ironically what makes Pistoia an especially nice place to live is that it is not overrun with tourists and businesses catering primarily to tourists.

Short Answers to Two Seemingly Complex Questions

As the new government wages the umpteenth crusade in Italy against tax evasion, the answer why these efforts never bear fruit was succinctly stated last week by an Italian politician — “because the tax evaders also vote.”

As the crew of one Italian merchant ship was released this week by Somali pirates, another such ship with an Italian crew was seized by pirates. Why the popularity of seizing ships with Italian crews ? Italy always pays a ransom.

Concert in the Cold

 I went to a Christmas choral concert at a church close to my house. I just wore a sport jacket without an outer coat because it was only a short walk, and I did not want to deal with finding a place to put the outer coat at the concert. When I arrived, however, it was colder in the church than outside. So I went back home and got a coat to wear. When I returned, four large heating units had been turned on, but it was still cold. The first half of the concert was a Psalm set to music in five movements. It was polyphonic in form. In the middle of the piece, the group lost its pitch, and the director had to stop the piece and get the organist to get the singers back in tune. In the second half of the concert another polyphonic piece was scheduled. The group did not perform it. I think the temperature in the church was so cold that it made singing in tune difficult.

Divorce Italian Style

This is the title of my favorite Italian comedy film from the 1960s before divorce was legal in Italy. If you haven’t seen it, do so. If a sequel is in order, the plot line could come from a story in the news this week. A 99 year old man had filed for divorce from his 97 year old wife to whom he has been married 77 years. In 2002 he discovered hidden in a drawer a set of love letters from 50 years earlier between her and her lover. Apparently the almost 10 years since this discovery was not long enough for him to forgive and forget, and he has filed for divorce on grounds of adultery. Now this divorce will never happen because it takes about five years for a divorce process to be completed in Italy – the chances that both will be alive at that point are infinitesimal.

 Discussion Concerning the Differently-Abled

I wrote recently about how you encounter in Italy persons with disabilities who have been placed in a job for which they cannot perform efficiently all the duties of the position. A friend told me that in Italy the goal is to integrate these persons into society. (Thus something like a sheltered workshop would not meet this goal.) Unfortunately in a modern, rapid, economy, the number of positions for which such persons  are fully competent are fewer than in the past. He said that Italians tolerate the increased inefficiency they may encounter from some persons as a price to be paid for the goal of integration. An important point here is that efficiency itself is not a high value in Italy so Italians are accustomed to encountering inefficiency. Their attitude in this regard is different than that of Americans.

This situation is one of very many where the culture of Italy is at odds with the ideal functioning of the economy. The government now is proposing a plan to modernize elements of the economy. Laws may well be passed to accomplish this. Still when the law butts heads with the culture, the culture often wins. This is not to say that laws are totally ineffective in modifying culture, but the probable outcome of the reforms in Italy will be some minor improvements that keep Italy from economic collapse but do not lead to a new, vibrant, economy.

The Prestige of Journalists in Italy and the USA

 Prominent journalists are much more important public figures in Italy than in the USA. When a famous journalist died at age 91 this week, it was on the national news for two or three days about him, his career, and his funeral. If George Will or David Brooks, two prominent journalists in the USA, died, the news coverage would certainly not be so extensive in the United States. As in the USA, a lot of Italians now get the news simply from TV, but the percentage who read newspapers is still higher than in America.

 Italian Love of American Movies

I’ve written before how the death of even a minor actor or actress from Hollywood is news in Italy. This week there was another prime example of this phenomenon. The death of Cheetah, Tarzan’s chimp from the 1930s, was front page news in Italy. By the way I don’t know how well animals used in films and TV are ordinarily treated, but Cheetah, at age 80, lived twice as long as the typical chimp.

Police Use of Force in the USA Against Minors

I wrote a few years ago about the coverage in Italian media of the case where the police handcuffed a five year old girl who was out of control at school. (newsletter 130 dated  November 18, 2005)  To Italians this was like a story from the planet Mars.  This week I saw the film clip on Italian TV of a policeman in Pennsylvania using a Taser gun on a 14 year old girl. She was charged with failure to obey a policeman but found not guilty at her hearing.  I don’t know the details of the case; it did not appear from the film clip that she was threatening the policeman with harm.  In any case in Italy, in this situation, the policeman would never use that level of force.  As I’ve noted before, police use much less force here in general, and this general attitude would certain be accentuated in dealing with children.

Turning the Tables

There is no doubt that the financial meltdown in the USA a few years back had negative effects in Europe and elsewhere in the world.  Now it seems there are some preliminary signs that the US economy may perk up, but this trend may be blunted by the ongoing financial crisis in the Euro zone.  The idea that sovereign nations have very much control over their own economic destiny may be outdated by the effects of the new interdependent world economy.

Italy, as the USA and other nations with high debt and economic stagnation, faces a dilemma. The measures to be taken to balance the budget quickly and the steps to be taken to stimulate long-term growth are different ones that pull in opposite directions.  Hard to move toward both goals at the same time.

The Ups and Downs of Living In Italy

As promised I did get a notice, on my cell phone, that my new Permesso is available at the local immigration office and an appointment to pick it up.  Very impressive performance by the Italian bureaucracy.

Now something less impressive. I drove with a friend to a Friday evening event in Florence at my church. It was the day of a train strike, a bus strike and lots of rain (so folks could not travel by scooter).   Perhaps for all these reasons there were traffic jams between Pistoia and Florence. Fortunately we avoided these until we got into the city of Florence where we found ourselves in an absolute gridlock. We tried an alternative street  with no success. Although we were close to our destination, there seemed to be no way to get there.  No sign of policemen on the streets directing traffic. So we took a chance and parked in a private lot whose gate was open.  We did finally see two policemen directing traffic – hours after the traffic problem started. 

When we got back to the car, the gate was locked.  This was the risk we knowingly took. There was the name of a security firm on the gate that apparently opened and closed it at prescribed hours. We called them, and were told that the gate would be opened at 5:30 the next morning. So we slept in a guest room at the parsonage of the church.  My friend had to get up early on Saturday to get to work.  The gate, however, was still not open at 6:15.  A call to the security company reached the answering machine there.  Now one would think a security company, if anyone,  would have 24 hour phone coverage.  Fortunately an employee came to work early and was able to open the gate.

Dealing with Burglars

I wrote last week about criminals who break into homes at night while the owner is there, and make him or her open the home safe.  This happened again near Pistoia this week, but with a little different scenario.

The burglars noticed a painting in the owner’s bedroom of the Shroud of Turin. One of them asked about it, and the owner then began an evangelistic talk with them. He asked them to pray with him, and hugged one of them saying he forgave him. The thief thanked him.  The owner said this was his attempt to break the cycle of violence with Christian love.  Unfortunately for the thieves, he had no safe or valuable property in his home.  Unfortunately for the owner, the religious conversion of the criminals was not complete; they did take the guy’s Porsche.

The Friends of the Library – American and Italian Style

I remember once attending an event, perhaps the annual meeting, of the Friends of the Library in Gettysburg.  I can’t recall if we had a speaker or there were just reports on the status of the library. We had a meal which probably was chicken, potatoes, a green vegetable, salad, and dessert. I don’t remember the price – probably $15.

In Pistoia I went to an evening  sponsored by the Friends of the Library.  It was in one of the most fancy restaurants that has a beautiful view of the Basilica.  The speaker was a contemporary art expert from Bologna who talked about the current status of contemporary art and the recent history of the field.  While she spoke we were served prosecco.  After her talk there was a dinner of tapas.  Along with white or red wine, I recall the following items (1) Neapolitan style pizza, (2) bread with new olive oil, (3) deep fried vegetables tempura , (4) marinated shrimp, (5) patè of cod, (6) octopus in a potato puree, (7) octopus with spaghetti of soya, (8) marinated raw tuna, (9) risotto in a pumpkin/ginger sauce, (10) coconut cheese cake, and (11) American style brownies.  There were one or two other items.  It cost $33.

Guess which event I preferred.

American vs. Italian Universities

Within a 24 hour period I spoke with an Italian scholar who taught as a visiting professor at Brown and Yale and with an Italian graduate student in his first semester at an American university.  I asked them both about their experiences at an American university.  The first thing they both said is the universities they experienced were “very well organized.”  They had other complimentary things to say because American universities have far more resources than Italian ones, but it is obvious that the shortage of educational resources in Italy is aggravated by the lack of organization within the system.

Dressing for Christmas

At a semi-formal Christmas event I attended, I wore a tuxedo for which I had modified the trousers (in the holiday spirit) by having a red stripe sewn down one leg  (covering the formal black satin stripe) and a green stripe down the other.  When people saw the red stripe they asked if I had borrowed the pants from a member of the Carabinieri (Italy’s national police) whose uniform includes black pants with a red stripe. After seeing both legs, a saucy tongued lady friend said “I see you got one leg of the trousers from the Carabinieri; where did you got the other leg –from the bellhop?”

Congratulations,  Silvio Berlusconi

Since he resigned as political leader of Italy, Berlusconi has been generally moderate and helpful in his comments. Since the government of technicians  in power is not a political one, it is not made up of the political enemies of Silvio.  So absent a political adversary, he is taking a constructive role in these difficult times.

Fraudulent Bankruptcy

This crime is in the news all the time in Italy. It is the crime of manipulating the assets and income of a company so that the owners get rich while the company fails. I assume a similar crime exists in the USA, but is not in the news so often. I think in general in Italy bankruptcy is more often seen as the result of moral failure or delinquent acts rather than as caused by difficult economic times or overly ambitious plans.

Studying Italian in the USA

I have a friend who was a Ph.D. student in Italian Language and Literature at the University of Wisconsin. She told me that not only were many of her professors from Italy, but also many of her fellow students were Italians. Why would a student go to a foreign country to study his or her own nation’s language and literature? First, there is the matter of cost. The Ph.D. students in the USA, however, get teaching assistantships which cover the costs. The main reason they come from Italy, quite simply, is that the doctoral education programs are better in the USA than in Italy.

 Killers Released from Prison

 I’ve noted before that prison sentences are shorter in Italy than in the USA, and with good behavior the time served is even less. This seems to be even more true of young offenders. A girl and her boyfriend killed her brother and mother and seriously injured her father. At this time the girl was 16. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison but has been released, at age 27, after serving 10 years. She is reconciled with her father. The Italian criminal system is aimed much more at rehabilitation than in the USA. My guess is that a young person, who is not a career criminal at the time of the crime, is seen as a prime candidate for rehabilitation. If the person appears rehabilitated, there is no reason not to release him or her for a productive life.

 This general attitude was reflected also in a recent case of a man released around age 30 after he was convicted of killing a fellow university student and served 10 years in prison. He then completed his university degree and became a high school teacher. (There does not appear to be any vocation in Italy forbidden for ex felons.) A problem arose, however, when the education system, unknowingly, assigned him to teach in the very school where his victim had been a student. The victim’s family objected, and he is being moved to a different school.

The Perils of Buying a House (Apartment) in Italy

In Italy all changes to a habitation, even little ones like adding a window, must be approved by the local government. When you buy a house, you have an expert go through it with the building plans on file with the local government to see that the building conforms to the plans. If there are “illegal” modifications, you can request that they be either removed or brought into conformance before you complete the purchase. At the actual transfer of title, the seller does declare that the house is fully in conformance with code, but if this declaration is false, your recourse is to sue the seller. Given the high cost and length of time to sue in Italy, this recourse is not very good. The local government does not go around inspecting units for illegal alterations so unless a neighbor complains to the government, the “defect” is not likely to be discovered. When you come to sell the unit, however, the prospective buyer may, upon inspection, discover the problem and refuse to buy until it is resolved.

Touring the Neighborhood

 A group of merchants in my neighborhood is sponsoring tours of the historic sites close to my house. I visited among other places (1) a small museum dedicated to the businesses that produced musical instruments in Pistoia, especially organs, (2) a contemporary art gallery, (3) a small plaza that is named after a Pistoia native who was the personal secretary of Garibaldi, and (4) a monastery of cloistered nuns. The latter in centuries past produced herbal medicines from plants grown on the premises and operated a pharmacy. Now they have only wild orange trees and produce a medieval liquor called Rosolio and orange marmalade. I bought a little bottle of the liquor – I can say it is VERY sweet. There are only eight nuns remaining.

 I’ve mentioned that there are lots of closed churches in Pistoia. Some are converted to modern uses, some are simply storage buildings, and some are vacant and falling into ever more disrepair. On these tours I discovered buildings I did not even know were formerly churches. My guess is that within a 300 yard radius of my apartment building, there are around 15 buildings that are or were churches and monasteries.

 Racial Violence Flares Up

In Turin a 16 year old girl had sex with her boyfriend – hardly a novel occasion. The girl, however, had promised her extended family (which I think was from the more conservative South of Italy) that she would remain a virgin until marriage. As a story for her loss of virginity, she told the police she had been raped by two foreigners whom she described in a way that they seemed to be Gypsies. Now how she thought her family would find out about her sexual encounter was not at all clear; rationality is not a prime teen age virtue. Her story collapsed under questioning, and she admitted it was a lie. By this time, however, a group of vigilantes had set fire to a nearby Gypsy camp in retaliation for the rape. Reporting a false crime is itself a crime in Italy, but you can be sure no judicial action will be taken against the 16 year old. She did publish a long apology in the newspapers.

A week later a Pistoia native went to two outdoor markets in Florence and shot at Senegalese merchants there. He killed two and serious wounded three. When surrounded by the police, he committed suicide. He was a member of extreme right wing groups.

 These kinds of incidents arouse soul searching discussions about the extent of racism in Italy. My own view is that in all nations there are extreme political groups of both the right and left. There are also mentally deranged persons who may or may not be legally insane. When these persons belong to extreme groups, they sometimes become violent. These isolated incidents in themselves say little about the overall attitudes and beliefs of the population. The mass killer in Norway certainly did not represent the average Norwegian. To assess levels of racist thought in a country you need much more sophisticated and complete measures than these isolated episodes.

 Do You Believe What You Read in the Papers?

I wrote last year about the death of Italian TV personality Mike Bongiorno who was raised in the USA. After his burial, his casket was stolen from the grave site (See newsletter 402, Feb. 4, 2011) . Last week the casket was discovered in a field along a road by a jogger who was running by. The discovery was presented as a happy accident. The family expressed joy at the return of the body, but said nothing more about its discovery or who might have done the crime. All such statements were left to the police. Most people think that some payment was made to the criminals in return for which they left the casket in a place it would soon be discovered. In “kidnapping” situations in Italy a ransom is usually paid but never admitted.

 I’ve also written about criminals who break into a house while the family is there (This is usually the home of a businessman.) and require the owner to open the safe (which is common in such homes). Recently this happened near Pistoia, and the owner reported the loss of 5000 Euro in cash, his Mercedes car, and some jewelry. I doubt that one can insure for the loss of a lot of cash (obvious problems of proof of loss) so there is little reason to inflate the amount of cash that was taken. On the other hand, there can be a reason to understate the amount of cash stolen. Let’s say 70,000 Euro was taken. If the owner states this amount, the tax authorities might become interested as to where that 70,000 Euro came from.

 Mystery Solved of Television Program with Sound in English

I wrote recently about being surprised to find the US program “Dr. House” in English on my TV. I thought someone had made a mistake. Later, however, I discovered two other programs on this channel broadcast in English. Then I did a little experiment. I went to my neighbor’s apartment when one of these shows was on. On his TV the dialog was in Italian. When I recently hooked up the decoder to my TV to allow it to receive digital signals, I had to choose a language for the decoder. I chose English. (This is the same as the language choice you have to make when you set up your cell phone or your digital camera.) So the on-screen menus for the TV are in English. This language choice had another effect. Apparently the channel with the English dialog transmits simultaneously two sound tracks for these programs – the original American one and the dubbed Italian one. My decoder, having been set to English, then sends the English soundtrack to my TV.

Depressing Repetitive News Coverage

Whenever a large company closes or lays off workers in Italy, the same story appears on the news. There is a demonstration in the streets demanding that the workers not be laid off and interviews with individual workers who lament that they will not be able to find new work and feed their families. Some are covered by unemployment insurance in Italy, but for a laid off worker the future is not bright. This is true in all counties where the economy not growing and international competition is always more severe. In Italy the government cannot force the companies to continue to hire these workers. A true communist government does provide “work” for all but at a terrible price. Italians have a hard time understanding that the rules from the old economic boom times no longer apply in Italy or anywhere else in capitalist countries.

 Mafia Moves North

The Mafia type organizations are powerful in the south of Italy and Sicily, but the news recently has been the activities of these groups in the north of Italy, especially the region of Lombardy. After all, there is more money and wealth in the north. The Mafia is not culturally imbedded in the north as it is in parts of the south. This should give law enforcement agencies a better chance to counter Mafia activities in the north. We will see.

 First Banquet of the Christmas Season

I went to a meal for the students of a friend of mine who gives English lessons. It was at the restaurant where I had my first meal in Pistoia when I visited as a tourist in 2001. We started with a antipasto plate of three types of cold meat, beans cooked with slivers of beef and bread with a liver pate. The came a lentil soup followed by linguine with porcini mushrooms. Grilled lamb was next accompanied by a salad of various lettuce greens. For dessert there was a pastry with a vanilla sauce. Of course the meal included red and white wine, water, and bread. We finished with coffee. The cost of $40. As always you can eat well in Italy.

Tourism in Italy

 I watched a documentary about how tourism is managed in Italy with special emphasis on the maintenance of the historical and cultural heritage. Let me draw this analogy with a soccer team. For tourism the resources to attract tourists are the landscape, culture, historic sites, etc. The main asset of a soccer team is its players. Italian tourism as a soccer team would have the best players in the world. The problem would be first that the players are not paid what they are worth. So they don’t work hard to do their best or to stay in shape. They also don’t cooperate with each other on the field. Instead of one coach, they have a bunch of coaches who do not coordinate their strategy. Because of the quality of its players, the team still wins many games, but if it were managed properly, the team would be number 1 without a doubt.

Falling Off the Wagon

I noted last week that I was controlling well my addiction to buying unneeded clothes at the bi-weekly market in Pistoia. This week my discipline fell apart. I went to the Christmas Bazaar of a large charitable organization in Florence. First there was the brand new Italian suit made of especially fine Tasmanian wool and finished with hand tailored features. Then there was the (slightly) used Lavin of Paris suit (made in Italy) with wool that feels more like silk. At $33 each my resistance crumbled.

I have an alibi for my weakness in buying the new suit. A gay guy was working at the Bazaar in the clothing area. He touted this suit to me as a particularly fine bargain. It is an established fact that gay men in general have a fine fashion sense. So let’s say I was coerced by the advice of an expert.

A Return of the Ridiculous

All nations have practices and customs that probably seem silly to outsiders. In Italy for me one of these is the one day (or less than a day) strike. It accomplishes nothing except perhaps giving a little extra vacation time to the workers. You can have strike in a specific industry or company or a general strike of all union workers. There are three major national federations of labor unions in Italy. They often do not agree with each other. All three oppose some of the provisions of the new austerity package presented by the government to allay the financial crisis. Everyone in the government and Parliament is well aware of their opposition and the reasons for it. Nevertheless, originally two of these federations opted for a two-hour general strike to protest these provisions. The third federation thought this was not strong enough; it called for a four-hour general strike. Eventually all three settled on a three-hour general strike.

At the Book Store

About three years ago one of the large book store chains in Italy opened a branch in Pistoia. Now its main competitor has opened a store directly across the street. It is hard to believe that Pistoia, which survived without a major bookstore until recently, now has the need of two big ones. In Italy in general stores are opening up in locations and/or with limited inventories (selling only a few special items) that seem to make little economic sense. There are things about business in Italy that I simply don’t understand.

At an American bookstore there is a big section on self-help/self-improvement books that often emphasize positive thinking. Such books certainly exist in Italy, but are less of a staple here. The idea that you can transform yourself through your own efforts into a new person reflects a kind of (American) optimism (justified or not) that is far less common in Italy.

Doing What You Enjoy During Retirement

Silvio Belusconi is not at all fully retired, but at least he is retired for now from his role as political head of the nation. One of his first jobs as a youth was as a singer on cruise ships. He has returned to his love of music by issuing a CD on which a well known Italian singer performs 11 new love songs written by Silvio himself. Upon hearing this some might wonder if the songs in fact are the work of a ghost writer. I doubt it very much. Berlusconi certainly thinks that he can write songs as well as anyone else. In fact, the songs might be quite good.

Anti-Death Penalty Film

Italy does not have the death penalty, but there are groups in Italy who work for the abolition of the death penalty in other nations. One of these groups is sponsoring a film series at the local library. I went to see the 2003 Italian film Porte Aperte, “Open Doors”. (It is available on a DVD with English subtitles.) What struck me was how different this film was than an American film that would have questioned the death penalty. In the American film the accused would have been innocent or there would have been clear mitigating circumstances that made capital punishment inappropriate in this case. In the Italian film, based on a true story, the accused was clearly guilty. The film explained the anger that caused him to kill three people, but this anger would not have been sufficient to negate the death penalty in the USA. It appears that even under Mussolini (The film took place in 1937.), some criminal circumstances that qualified for the death penalty in the USA would not have done so in Italy. What the film made clear to me is that the unease with the death penalty (which led to its abolition) in Italy was and is clearly more evident in Italy than in the USA.

 A New Wonder of Digital TV?

In rare occasions when I am watching an American film on Italian TV, there might be a short segment in which the sound track reverts to English rather than Italian. I experienced, however, something new this week. I happened across the American show, Dr. House, that is popular in Italy. It was in English, not just a segment – the whole episode. I wonder if this was a glitch caused by the recent conversion to digital TV. The next nights, however, the show was on in English again. I’ll see how long this continues. Putting a show in English in prime time makes little sense in Italy.

 Serving as a Model

Recently I have been more disciplined in my visits to the bi-weekly market in Pistoia and have refrained from buying things unless I really need them (which means I haven’t bought anything). Still one of my recent market excursions was useful. At a stand where all the used items were 1 Euro, a woman was looking at a very nice Burberry men’s sports coat. She could not find the label with the size on it. I found it for her, but the size indicated was a German size, not the Italian one. I asked her what size she was looking for which turned out to be the same as my size. So I tried on the coat for her. It fit fine, and she bought it.

Score One for Italian Bureaucracy

When I mailed my form to renew my Permesso di Soggiorno in June, I did not notice that the receipt I got at post office included also the date and time for an appointment at the local immigration office to present some necessary documents. (This is a change in procedure from prior years.) As a result I showed up on December 1 for an appointment that was set for the end of June. At the immigration office they could not find my file (In public offices in Italy files are spread out everywhere.) , but this was not a problem. They quickly processed the documents I brought and told me that I would get a message within three weeks to come to get my new Permesso. So far so good.

Hiring the Differently Abled

I think I have the correct current phrase for what we used to call the handicapped or disabled. In Italy public agencies and companies over a certain size are required by law to hire a certain percentage of such persons. A state agency certifies which such persons are suitable for employment. This practice reflects the general laudable Italian concern with fairness toward persons who are less fortunate in life. This practice, however, sometimes intersects with another Italian trait – the lack of concern for efficiency or customer service. So, especially in a public agency, you may find yourself being served by a person who simply cannot function well in the role assigned to him or her. (You could find a job in a hospital that I could perform, but you don’t want me as your surgeon.) The obvious answer to this problem is to use all employees in ways that are appropriate for their abilities and training, but in Italy at times the obvious doesn’t get done.

The European (Dis) Union

For a Europe devastated by two major wars in the 20th century, the idea of a European Union in which the nations cooperated was obviously very attractive. I always believed that a subsidiary reason for the establishment of the Union was to control the power of Germany which is the naturally dominate nation in Europe. As the latest developments show, Germany is still number one. There can be no plan to rescue nations in difficulty or to save the Euro as a single currency that does not have the approval of Germany. Only Germany has both the resources and the reputation for stability that are essential for any rescue plan to resolve the crisis of confidence in Europe.

 Did Many Italians Get the Humor of This Photograph ?

On the front page of an Italian newspaper was a photo from the general strike of public employees in Great Britain opposing changes in the pension system. A woman was holding up a sign that said “I Am Really Not Happy About This.” The caption probably translated this into Italian, but I don’t know how many Italians realized that the sign was a classic example of the British penchant for polite understatement.