Italian culture

Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 17

March 2, 2008

Mar, 2008 Lecco – Minors mistreated, three arrests Dervio – The students plant trees “Massacred” with blows his two children: arrested [massacrato di botte means severely beaten, but not literally massacred] Sells her shop to cure her sick child in Canada Lecchese [resident of Lecco] donates bone marrow and refuses a reward of 700 thousand [...]

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The Evolution of a Technical Writer – Bringing Documentation Into the Web 2.0 Age

November 20, 2007

How has technical writing evolved in the age of the Internet? How have tech writers’ jobs changed, and how should they continue to change, in response to new technologies now available for sharing knowledge with our customers? Prologue: The Dead Tree Society My technical writing career began twenty years ago, with the design and writing [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 16

November 8, 2007

They cheat us [fregare] on the gas bills.

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 15

November 7, 2007

Three newborns dead in 20 days. 80 year old saves a peer [person of the same age] from the lake. Here is the partner of the Lecchese bank. Station plaza – all ready for the new parking. Maxi fender-bender on the “superhighway” – three wounded.

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 14

November 6, 2007

War between gas stations: “My distributor [gas pump] set on fire by a colleague.” Attempted rape – she hits him “below the belt.” [Good for her!]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 13

November 5, 2007

Too lively: the janitoress insults and threatens the children – Writings and drawings defame the principal of Grassi high school Mystery of the millionaire inheritance – Goodbye to a Lecchese pharmacist – Dies at 34 years, leaving four children Shootout at the cemetery and in Pescarenico: one wounded – From today and for six months [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 12

November 2, 2007

Recent headlines from Sondrio: Pavia: 4 students from the Sondrio area are robbed – The province: youth disagio, shock data from the Valley Stop [serving] alcohol from 2 am in the discos: the owners won’t stand for it – Firemen at war with the city hall of Tresivio Sondrio: [female] student hit [by car or [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 11

November 2, 2007

The above recent newspaper headlines in Lecco read: Corruption in court: is it now the turn of professionals and banks? – Lecco [team] beaten at Leganano: third consecutive defeat Manager attacked and “massacred” with blows in downtown Lecco [NB: He didn't die - massacrato doesn't mean killed.] – Young [man] found dead at Lecco [railway] [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 10

November 1, 2007

left: The Financial Office inspects [under warrant] the offices of the Twinning Committee. (Throughout Europe you see signs upon entering towns and city saying “This town is twinned with…” followed by one or more names of towns elsewhere in the world. This twinning is used to promote cultural exchange and tourism, I’m not sure with [...]

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Religious Belief vs. Health Care – Tolerating the Intolerable in Italy

October 10, 2007

Britain’s Telegraph carries an opinion piece titled If Muslim doctors are intolerant, let them go, according to which a few young Muslim medical trainees have been allowed to refuse to see female bodies or to treat alcohol-related problems, on religious grounds. Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery chain, allows its checkout staff to refuse to scan alcohol [...]

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Where Italians Go on Vacation

July 14, 2007

Someone asked on Frommer’s: "Where do Italians go on vacation?" The majority go to the beach. For at least a century, a seaside vacation has been considered healthful: during the Fascist period, ocean front "colonies" were built, where urban children could be sent to escape the grime of the cities. The month-long summer vacation is [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Amo Tutte le Signore

July 14, 2007

I had never heard this song before (nor had Enrico) and I cannot find any references to it anywhere, so I have no idea who to credit for it. We heard it at a local festival, sung by a live band (a trio with lots of electronic and pre-recorded instruments). The song amused me so [...]

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Pandecena Milano June ’07 – In Which a Cunning Plot is Hatched

June 19, 2007

Famed Italian blogger Luca Conti (pictured above at right, showing off his Nokia to Sara Piperita) has pulled off what many bloggers dream of (and quite a few actually do, in other parts of the world): making a living by blogging. Or, at least, managing to get paid for various kinds of consulting (as a [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 9

June 2, 2007

upper left: The hospital has waste 8 million [euros] and meanwhile cuts more beds – “I saw again in Lecco the gypsy women who wanted to kidnap my daughter.” lower left: Tragedy: Drowns in the sea the wife of Luigi Belmonte – All the school results, one first-year in three is flunked lower center: [Driver's] [...]

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Why Send My Child to Woodstock School?

June 1, 2007

Someone who has never attended Woodstock School may legitimately wonder why anyone would wish to send their child there. I went to Woodstock in 1977 because I had no better educational choice (except to continue with correspondence school in Bangladesh, where my parents were living and working – a year of which had already been [...]

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FemCamp Bologna 2007: Sessions & Reflections

May 29, 2007

In the afternoon I attended some sessions, though I missed the most popular presentation of the day, Iocelopiulunghismo (“Mine’s-the-biggest-ism”), by Elena and Feba, a funny and ironic look at (male) bloggers’ obsession with their (blog) statistics. I poked my head into Andrea Beggi‘s unfortunately-titled presentation on “Blogging for Ladies,” but the room was so crowded [...]

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FemCamp Bologna 2007

May 28, 2007

Saturday morning I got up bright and early – way too early, considering that I had barely slept Friday night (jet lag – I had just returned from Colorado Thursday). Succumbing to travel paranoia, I took a taxi down the hill rather than wait for the first bus at 7 am, and got to Lecco [...]

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Italian SMS-Speak

May 11, 2007

“Texting” – sending text messages via cellphone – has been popular in Italy far longer than in the US, in part because it’s cheaper than calling. When I can’t reach someone by email, I use SMS for non-urgent communications – it’s less intrusive than a call, and I have a phobia of disturbing people. Italian [...]

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Old-Fashioned Italian Baby Names

May 6, 2007

A monument to Varenna’s WWI dead. If your last name was Pensa (“think”), why would you name your child Innocente? Monuments like this also give clues to names which were once common but have now fallen out of popularity: Gaspare [GAHS-pah-ray], Eliseo [ell-lee-ZAY-oh], Oreste [oh-RES-tay], Sigismundo [sih-jiss-MOON-doh] and Corrado [cor-RAH-doh] are very rare today. War [...]

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Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 8

May 3, 2007

upper left: The animator becomes a profession Luna Ross effect: boom in sign-ups for sailing school yellow sign: Text books: elementary, middle school, high school – for all the schools lower left: Free: Map of Engadina [a mountain] No. 1 Rivers of Cocaine from the Balkans Local health authority in alarm: tuberculosis returns lower center: [...]

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