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Fashion Statement

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This Swatch was my major fashion statement for several years, until (as you can see) I wore it out. The design isn’t easy to understand at a casual glance, so people would ask me about it: “Is that a mermaid?””No,” I would explain: “It’s Eve, gathering apples.” (As for the snake, take a close look at the strap…) It goes with my theme song, by Cole Porter from his show, Nymph Errant.

Experiment

Eve Watch

Before you leave these portals

To meet less fortunate mortals,

There’s just one final message

I would give to you.

You all have learned reliance

On the sacred teachings of science,

So I hope through life you never will decline,

In spite of philistine defiance,

To do what all good scientists do:

 

Experiment!

Make it your motto day and night.

Experiment!

And it will lead you to the light.

The apple on the top of the tree

Is never too high to achieve,

So take an example from Eve –

Experiment!

 

Be curious,

Though interfering friends may frown.

Get furious

At each attempt to hold you down.

If this advice you always employ,

The future can offer you infinite joy

And merriment,

Experiment!

And you’ll see…

 

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Italian language

Learn Italian in Signs

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above: Piazza Gambara, Milano – Vorrei svegliarti ogni mattina con un bacio – “I’d like to wake you every morning with a kiss.”

This sign mysteriously appeared on a bus stop in Lecco. I haven’t seen any others like it, and have no idea who’s responsible, whether it’s one it a series…?

It says: “When you take 5 minutes to do what others do in 5 days YOU GET BORED – I QUIT”

We spotted this poster in a small-town bar, for a series of festivities hosted by a local parish. I was particularly struck by the activities for May 1st: In large type, a donkey race, followed in the evening by “dinner with donkey stew, polenta, ribs, and sausage.”

Eating donkey (and horse) is not unheard-of, but, in the context, seems a bit rude…

Stefano Tonti, supplier of one of the funniest newspaper headlnes I’ve yet seen, strikes again, this time with a graffito which is also a grammar lesson. It originally said “Marty I love you” (ti amo), but was overwritten to the past tense: ti amavo – “I loved you.”

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Learn Italian in Song: Fossi Figo

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If I Were Hot

This piece of rude irony by Elio e le Storie Tese (Elio and the Tense Stories) is a good example of the use of the conditional tense in Italian, as well as covering some common Italian slang, and some use of English words in everyday Italian.The video features Gianni Morandi, for no apparent reason (except friendship with the band, I suppose). The subtitles are slogan-like statements about shampoo, beauty treatments, and the importance of diet and exercise in maintaining one’s looks. The final line is “It’s beautiful to be beautiful.”

The video is filmed, I think, in Milan’s Chinatown, except for the last scenes (jogging) in the Galleria and the Piazza del Duomo.

Continue reading Learn Italian in Song: Fossi Figo →

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Learn Italian in Song: Largo al Factotum della Citta’

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Largo al factotum della citta’

Make Way for the Factotum of the City
(excerpted and translated by D’) [factotum = do-everything]
Largo al factotum della citta’, largo! Make way for the factotum of the city, make way!
Presto a bottega, che l’alba e’ gia’, presto. Hurry to the shop, it’s already dawn, hurry.
Ah, che bel vivere, che bel piacere, che bel piacere per un barbiere di qualita’! Ah, what a life, what a pleasure for a barber of quality.
Ah, bravo Figaro, fortunatissimo per verita’! Ah, clever Figaro — very fortunate, in truth.
Pronto a far tutto la notte il giorno sempre d’intorno in giro sta. Ready to do everything, night and day, always on the run.
Miglior cuccagna per un barbiere, vita piu’ nobile, no, non si da’… What a feast for a barber! A more noble life couldn’t be found.
Tutti mi chiedono, tutti mi vogliono… Everyone asks me, everyone wants me…
Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro… Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro…
Ahime’! che furia! Ahime’! Che folla! Ah, no, what a rush, what a crowd!
Uno alla volta per carita’, per carita’, per carita’. One at a time, for pity’s sake.
Figaro. Son qua. Ehi, Figaro. Son qua. “Figaro.” “I’m here.” “Hey, Figaro.” “I’m here.”
Figaro qua, Figaro la’, Figaro su, Figaro giu’… Figaro here, Figaro there, Figaro up, Figaro down…
Pronto prontissimo son come il fulmine, Ready and waiting, fast as lightning,
sono il factotum della citta’. I’m the factotum of the city.

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Italian language

Everyday Italian: Signs of the Times

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^ above: Occasione means “For sale, great deal!” (And no wonder…)

^ June 14, 2006 – This new shop in Lecco is “opening soon” (prossima = soon or next, apertura = opening [noun]). But maybe it’ll close soon after?

^ English education in Italy clearly never includes proper use of the apostrophe (a common mistake among native speakers as well, I know!). I simply cannot think of a correct English usage that would be spelled Pant’s. Except in India where the name Pant (pronounced Punt) is fairly common, so you could be referring to something belonging to Mr. or Ms. Pant.

servizi demografici

^ We were walking past a church where a funeral was being held, the hearse parked outside waiting to go to the cemetery, when this official car from the City of Lecco pulled up. The office of servizi demografici (population services) keeps track of the local population. Had they come to make sure the person was actually dead?

^ A chi non farebbe gola? – “Who wouldn’t get hungry for this?”

  • fare gola = to give an appetite.
  • gola = throat
  • goloso = appetitious
  • golosita’ = greed for food.

You could say Sono golosa/o di... or Sono ghiotto/a di to say that you love a particulare kind of food, e.g. cioccolato.

^ Scontata means discounted, but is also used for “taken for granted.” So this advertisement is a play on words: “Happiness is discounted/taken for granted.”

These were part of a series of punny posters advertising flooring materials.

Ne combiniamo di tutti i colori literally means “We put [things] together in all colors,” and can be roughly translated as “We get up to all sorts of mischief.”

In this case, of course, the pun is on the combination of (racial) colors in the picture, and that they seem to be getting up to some sort of hanky-panky (Italy doesn’t know about cheerleaders.)

Supportiamo tutto – “We support/put up with/bear anything”, referring to load weights. I can’t help thinking that in the US they would have to show much fatter people to make their point…

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia