John Foot, a professor at University College in London and sometimes-Milanese, has a good piece up in today’s New York Times exploring the links between Qaddafi, Italian football (notably Juventus) and investments. Worth your time.
Tag Archives: italy
Friday AM briefs
There’s way too much news this week, from the Libya to the milleproroghe, from Macedonia’s electoral crisis to the role of social media in the events that have shaken the Arab world. Fini’s proclamation that the PM was not ‘anointed by the lord’ may hint at the beginning of the end on this side of …
I thought it was the USA…
…or just another country? I’m not sure what’s more depressing — the amount of ‘worst’ categories that my adopted country is in, or the amount of ‘worst of the worst’ categories that my native country is in. But something about the data seems off to me — was this chart assembled by the paper of …
Lelemore Lelemore
If you find recent write-ups on the doings at Arcore too much to bear lately, then get your day started right with this hilarious Grease parody. Warning: not only do you have to follow the news and Italian, you have to know have Italians interpret/hear English. There’s enough code-switching in this for a linguist’s wet …
Post-Holiday Post
Happy Epiphany everyone. I’m just in from an utterly exhausting holiday trip to Rovigo, Louisville and Washington DC, and after yesterday’s 24-hour trip home, I’m too spent to do much other than post this ridiculous 1951 Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Charlie the Dog. Ah, crude stereotypes of Italians and Ed Butz-like linguistic appropriations! Still, I …
Knab S’tel!
I’m not entirely sure what to say about this at the Banco di Sardegna near Corso Sempione, but I walk by it every night and it seems like the most peculiar deterrence to me: positioned inside the entryway to the bank, behind the barred gate that’s pulled down every night. Just inside is a video …
Genoa
Why is Genoa always a place for spectacular violence? There is much to be said about the violence of Serbian football fans in Genoa yesterday, but alas, I have to be away from the computer all day today. Mainly what I want to say is that Vuk Jeremic can apologize in the media all he …
Sunday Style Note
Let me point something out for aspiring writers on Italy who wish to dress up their language. Italian is a fairly colorful language, so there are several good metonyms for the country. Il bel paese (“the beautiful country”) has the finest pedigree, having been used by both Petrarch and Dante. If you want to point …
Class is in session
Meanwhile, the first week of school last week meant tons of education reform excitement in Italy (as well as less posted from your chronicler). Yes — a subject that usually makes most Americans huddle and cry while as vaguely-defined horrors like state-mandated testing and No Child Left Behind is actually exciting in Italy. This year, …
Svezia, inferno e paradiso
One expects political upheaval in Italy. After all, the country has had as many governments as Boliva since World War Two, and my primer on Italian politics had a photo of parliamentarians fist-fighting on the cover. But — Sweden? As Stephen Castle wrote in yesterday’s New York Times, Swedish politics are usually “worthy, high-minded and …