Italian for English Speakers - in 1611

R.D.T.

In Linate airport, I passed an office door with the acronym R.D.T. in large letters, followed in smaller type by the more helpful Responsabile di Turno, and even a translation: "Supervisor on Duty."

"Italians do love acronyms," I thought to myself. "I wonder why they didn't put an acronym for the English as well."

Then I thought about it some more, and realized one good reason not to...

T-Shirts

August 20, 2003

Everyone in the world finds it cool to have logos and words from other parts of the world on their T-shirts. Here in Italy, you'd be surprised at how many people seem to have attended American Ivy League universities, until you realize that there are university logo shirts are for sale at many shops that have absolutely no connection to any of these institutions. Ironically, they'll pile up a bunch of different universities together in one stack of shirts. At a Milanese shop currently in with the teenybopper crowd, there are shirts with Disney characters (unlicensed, I bet - there's no copyright notice on them), "Cuba" in Coke-style lettering, and Georgetown University. I caused Rossella agonies of embarassment by asking the shopgirl: "Why Georgetown, in particular?" No other universities were represented in this particular shop, so I thought maybe the owner actually had some connection to it. The girl was merely confused; she had never heard of Georgetown University, and had no idea why they carried that particular logo.

The funniest shirt I've seen around lately says "The University of Yale." I'm pretty sure the Yale regents did not approve that one.