December 2003

Sandokan – an Italian Children’s Classic

December 22, 2003

We saw Pirates of the Caribbean in Italian, though I felt it lost something in translation. But it was fun, pretty much what you’d expect from a movie developed from an amusement park ride. And it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about Sandokan. Sandokan, a character created in 1883 by an imaginative [...]

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Waiting for Viggo

December 22, 2003

Everyone in the world can see The Return of the King now, except us Italians; the film has had a simultaneous worldwide release, except in Italy. According to the New York Times, this is because “in Italy moviegoing is not an ingrained holiday habit.” Wrong! Italian cinemas are more packed at Christmas than any other [...]

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An Italian Middle School

December 22, 2003

Rossella’s middle school experience is no pleasure to think back on; in short: it was a mess. As I mentioned in my article about elementary school, we had thought that Ross was getting bad grades in elementary because she was bored, so we chose a challenging middle school, Milan’s grandly-named Educandato Statale Setti Carraro dalla Chiesa. [...]

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Schoolbooks: Part of the Cost of an Italian Education

December 22, 2003

Education through university level is basically free in Italy, at least in theory. You don’t pay tuition at most schools, but there are costs, including buying textbooks every year. There is something of a used-textbook market (in the Milan area, dominated by a chain of bookstores called Il Libraccio), but the publishing companies dilute its [...]

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How to Get (Slightly) Better Customer Service

December 17, 2003

David Pogue of the New York Times has written a series of articles on “Customer Service Cluelessness,” in which he postulates that the incorrect billing many of us suffer from various companies is actually a money-making stratagem: most of us won’t notice small discrepancies on our bills, or won’t spend the time to communicate with [...]

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Hospital Stay

December 17, 2003

I have suddenly landed a temporary but demanding job: nursing my daughter. Ross fell off her horse Sunday afternoon, onto hard ground, and broke her humerus just below the shoulder joint. The emergency room was humming – it was a beautiful day, everyone was out getting hurt. Just before we got there, an ambulance had [...]

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High (School) Society

December 10, 2003

In America, high school is hell. The movie The Breakfast Club (1985) used sharply-delineated characters to illustrate the social divisions that exist in many/most schools: the jock, the prom princess, the stoner, the brain, the geek. It’s a caste system, where positions are won by looks, money, or athletic ability, and the hierarchy is maintained [...]

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Parents Beware: Inappropriate Ads in Italian Cinemas

December 10, 2003

The other night we went to see “Alla Ricerca di Nemo,” a children’s movie whose original title I think you can figure out. Ross and I had already seen it in the States, but Enrico hadn’t, and it was worth seeing again. The dubbing was very well done, even the difficult Ellen deGeneres character, and [...]

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Travelling by Train in Italy

December 10, 2003

All About Trains in Italy: Please see Alice Twain’s masterpiece on SlowTrav Finding Your Train In every station in Italy there are posters (printed on yellow paper) of the usual schedules for Partenze (Departures) for that station. Find the time and train you are taking, and the column furthest to the right will show the platform (binario) that that [...]

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Bridging the Holidays: Extra-Long Weekends in Italy

December 10, 2003

Last weekend was the real start of the holiday season for Italians, even though shops and towns started decorating a few weeks ago. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception [of the Virgin Mary], a national holiday, falls on December 8th. These days, the holiday is mostly enjoyed as a long weekend and the start of [...]

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An American Thanksgiving in Italy

December 3, 2003

Our Thanksgiving dinner was, if I say so myself, epic. I printed out the menu in that fancy font that restaurants always use, so people wouldn’t have to ask me what they were eating; here, of course, I’ve added extensive notes. Antipasti Vari (various antipasti) – Paola brought mini breads, we supplied salame. I didn’t do much [...]

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The True True Seaborn

December 3, 2003

A few of you have read some portion of the fantasy novel I’ve been writing for almost 20 years (and still haven’t finished). You may have wondered where I came up with the name of the protagonist, True Seaborn. Even if you haven’t, I’m about to tell you (patience – I do have a reason). [...]

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