Wednesday, December 10, 2003

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →