The Headline is a little misleading, since Men still constitute 2/3 of the audience. Housewives were only 2/3rds of the 1/3 women. The interesting figure for me is the small number of  teachers. No time? No libido? Please, NO Emails [;-)

HOUSEWIVES THE BIGGEST FANS OF 
PAY-TV PORNO CHANNELS 

Who are the most sexually-dissatisfied women in Italy? 

Are they business women climbing the corporate ladder? 

Are they single women endlessly seeking their perfect mate in the local dance 
club? 

According to a study based on statistics gathered from 2000 subscribers of 
pay-television stations conducted by the Institute of Interdisciplinary 
Studies in Rome, housewives are the majority of women who spend their nights 
on the sofa in front of the tube watching pornographic films. 

The study revealed that women made up 37% of all those who ordered 
pornographic material. Around 22% of those women were housewives, 12% 
teachers, and 11% office workers. Among men, bankers led the way at 26%, 
followed by accountants at 22%, doctors at 18%, lawyers at 16%, and teachers 
at only 9%. 
 
 

LoBianco, a native of Sicily, raised in Queens, won 52 of 54 fights as a 
Lightweight Boxer, and Referee for three plus decades, including a host of 
championship bouts. 

JOHNNY LO BIANCO: REFEREE IN 
CONTROVERSIAL DURAN BOUT, DEAD AT 85

New York Times
By Richard Goldstein
JUL 21, 2001

Johnny LoBianco, a boxing referee in New York for three decades who worked a 
host of championship bouts, most notably Roberto Duran's controversial 
knockout of Ken Buchanan in 1972, died last Monday at Southampton Hospital on
Long Island. He was 85.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.

A onetime lightweight boxer, LoBianco was a presence on the New York fight 
scene as a referee from 1954 to 1986, handling as well as scoring Friday 
night fights at Madison Square Garden and bouts at clubs like St. Nicholas 
Arena in Manhattan and Sunnyside Garden in Queens.

Among the championship fights LoBianco worked were Muhammad Ali-Zora Folley, 
Nino Benvenuti- Emile Griffith, Jose Torres-Willie Pastrano and Duran's 
dethroning of Buchanan as world lightweight champion on June 26, 1972.

After the bell ended the 13th round of Duran-Buchanan at the Garden, the 
fighters continued punching, and then Buchanan was on his back, holding his 
groin in agony. He wobbled to his corner about 20 seconds later and was 
willing to continue, but LoBianco awarded the victory to Duran, who had 
dominated.

Gil Clancy, Buchanan's trainer, maintained afterward that Duran had leveled 
Buchanan with a blow from his knee that lifted Buchanan's protective cup.

LoBianco said Duran won with a legal punch. "The punch that put Buchanan down 
was in the abdomen, not any lower," LoBianco told reporters. "It was 
impossible for him to continue. But it wasn't that punch alone. It was a 
culmination."

LoBianco, a native of Sicily, came to the United States as a youngster and 
grew up in Corona, Queens, where his father was a barber. He began to box as 
a teenager and went on to win 52 of 54 professional fights.

He was on the scene of unscheduled mayhem as a referee in some otherwise 
forgettable bouts.

In an April 1963 fight at Sunnyside Garden, LoBianco awarded a fifth- round 
technical knockout to Lou Anderson when his opponent, Joey Mangiapane, 
suffered a deep cut on his nose. Mangiapane tore loose from LoBianco's grasp 
and threw another punch at Anderson. Then Mangiapane's twin brother, Len, 
also a boxer, emerged from the crowd and tried to pummel Anderson. The state 
athletic commission later suspended the twins.

In August 1965 LoBianco was the referee at the old Garden in Flash Elorde's 
split-decision victory over Frankie Narvaez. The crowd hurled chairs and 
bottles and fighting spilled onto Eighth Avenue and the subway.

LoBianco, a liquor salesman when he was not refereeing, is survived by his 
wife, Frances, of Wading River, N.Y.; three sons, Al, of Wading River, a 
former referee, Thomas, of Northport, N.Y., and John Jr., of Fort Myers, 
Fla.; a daughter, Maria Theresa Lazaras, of Bricktown, N.J.; a sister, 
Pauline Ida, of Lansdowne, Pa.; 11 grandchildren; and a great- grandchild.

Buchanan, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame last 
year, was still angry over his loss to Duran. Last month, while preparing for 
a visit to the Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., from his native Scotland, 
Buchanan maintained that "had a better referee been in charge," he would have 
made Duran "look stupid."

But Buchanan was far behind on all three cards, and as Red Smith put it in 
his Sports of The Times column, "LoBianco had no choice but to declare Duran 
the winner" despite a possible low blow because on the American boxing scene 
"anything short of pulling a knife is regarded indulgently."
 
 

Both the Obit in Los Angeles Times, and Corrirere della Sera.

=============================================
Carlo Bo; Wrote on Literature, Catholic Church

Los Angeles Times
July 23, 2001

Carlo Bo, 90, one of Italy's leading postwar literary critics, died Saturday 
at a private clinic in the port city of Genoa, Italy.

A critic and editorial writer for Corriere della Sera, the Milan daily 
newspaper, Bo was best known for his books and essays on Italian, French and 
Spanish literature and for his writings on Catholicism.

Literature and life, he once wrote, "are both in equal measure instruments of 
research and therefore truth." Bo also was heavily involved in politics and 
government and was a senator for life in the Italian parliament. 
 

=================================================
MUORE IL SENATORE A VITA CARLO BO

Corriere della Sera
22 luglio 2001 

Il rettore dell'Università di Urbino è deceduto per complicazioni polmonari, 
in seguito a una caduta dalle scale

GENOVA - Il senatore a vita Carlo Bo è morto ieri sera in una clinica privata 
a Genova. I funerali dovrebbero svolgersi martedì a Sestri Levante, dove era 
nato il 25 gennaio del 1911. 

L'INCIDENTE E IL RICOVERO - Carlo Bo era stato ricoverato la scorsa 
settimana, in seguito ad una caduta dalle scale nella sua casa di vacanze a
Sestri Levante (Ge). Ricoverato inizialmente nell'ospedale San Martino di 
Genova il senatore era stato dimesso dopo neanche 24 ore e trasferito in una 
clinica privata. Le sue condizioni sembravano buone, a parte alcune fratture 
alle costole. Sono però sopravvenute alcune complicazioni polmonari che hanno 
determinato il decesso.

LA BIOGRAFIA - Carlo Bo, 90 anni, era uno dei massimi esperti di letteratura 
francese. 
Allievo dei gesuiti all’Istituto Arecco di Genova, si laurea a Firenze in 
lettere . Conosce Giovanni Papini, Piero Bargellini, Mario Luzi, Vittorio 
Sereni e Ardengo Soffici e con alcuni di loro animerà la rivista «Il 
frontespizio». Autore di importanti saggi, editorialista e collaboratore di 
numerosi giornali e riviste, ha dato un importante contributo agli studi su 
Giacomo Leopardi. 
Bo alla fine degli anni '30 è protagonista dell’ermetismo italiano con Elio 
Vittorini e Vasco Pratolini. Nel 1938 iniziò ad insegnare all’Università di 
Urbino, nella quale è stato Magnifico Rettore dal 1947 per 50 anni. Il 18 
luglio 1984 l’allora Presidente della Repubblica Sandro Pertini lo nominò 
Senatore a vita assieme a Norberto Bobbio per «l’alto contributo dato alla 
cultura italiana». Iscritto al gruppo misto, si è unito alla Democrazia 
Cristiana, per poi tornare indipendente nelle file del Partito Popolare.

http://ricerca.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/07_Luglio/22/senatore.shtml 
 

NON BEFFEGGIARE, PLEASE: A FIELD 
GUIDE TO ITALIAN CONVERSATION

New York Times
By Elaine Sciolino
July 22, 2001

ITALIANS, as every tourist knows, love to talk with their hands. But who knew 
how much?

Andrea de Jorio, a 19th-century Neapolitan cleric-turned-anthropologist, did. 
In 1832, he wrote a groundbreaking lexicon of Italian hand gestures that was 
little known outside Italy until Adam Kendon, an anthropologist and expert in 
gesture communication, translated it into English.

‘‘Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity’’ (Indiana 
University Press, 2000) offers a delightful introduction to the meaning of 
movement — some gestures unique to 19th-century Naples, others universal — 
as well as a spirited defense of the Neapolitan way of life.

‘‘We remain very unhappy that our manner of expressing ourselves with 
gestures, so noble in origin, so charming . . . should be unhonored and 
neglected still,’’ de Jorio wrote. No longer. A sampling of his work 
follows. 

Beffeggiare 
(Derision, ridicule) 
With the mouth opened as wide as possible, the fist is brought up to it, 
acting as if to insert it there. A derisive and insulting gesture used by the 
lowest members of our populace: perhaps the large fist, that certainly would 
not be able to pass through a natural oesphagus, serves to express the idea 
that the person to whom the gesture is directed is such a simpleton that he 
would swallow any gross absurdity. . . . 

With the tip of the thumb touching the tip of the nose, the open hand is 
moved back and forth. To gesture in this fashion indicates a dullard, someone 
who is coarse or vulgar. 

Among us, however, more usually it denotes someone who was, is or will be 
deluded in his hopes. That is to say, a fool, or what in French, precisely, 
is known as Dupe. 

Chiedere Qualche Cosa 
(To ask for something) 

The fingers extended and joined in a point, turned upwards. The hand held 
thus is raised a little towards one’s own face, and one moves it several 
times directly from this position towards the person with whom one is 
speaking. Perhaps the meaning of this gesture arises from the fact that it is 
often used when questions are asked of persons who speak much, without making 
themselves understood, or who, in their presentation do not explain well what 
they are talking about (whether from ignorance or malice). In this case, by 
uniting the tips of the fingers together in a single point, one is understood 
to be saying, ‘‘Bring your ideas together, collect all your words together 
in one, or in brief, in one point, and tell me what is it you wish to say?’’ 
In short, ‘‘What are you talking about?’’ 

Fica, Mano in Fica 
(The ‘fig’ hand) 

Hand as a fist with the point of the thumb interposed between the middle 
finger and the index finger so that it sticks out. 

Amulet. The commonest use of this gesture is as an amulet. 

Serious insult. The ‘‘mano in fica’’ is still used as a highly insulting 
gesture. It is the equivalent of telling someone to ‘‘go and take a walk.’’ 

Obscene invitation. Finally, this gesture can be used as a kind of offensive 
or impertinent invitation. 

Corna, Fare le Corna 
(Horns, to make the horns gesture) 

Conjugal infidelity. The ‘‘mano cornuta’’ carried vertically towards the 
forehead denotes what some call an ornament, but which in fact is the effect 
of a true infidelity. This gesture with this meaning is very common and is 
well known, even among foreigners. For this reason we deem it useless to 
speak about further. 

Threat of extracting the eyes. Horizontal ‘‘mano cornuta’’ with an 
indignant expression on the face. This same gesture, but with the hand in a 
horizontal position directed toward the face of some person, denotes the 
threat of wishing to extract both the eyes. There is, however, a distinction 
to be made here. If the person that is threatened is some distance away, the 
hand is placed close to the eyes of the gesturer; if the person threatened is 
nearby, then the hand is not only directed toward the eyes of the adversary, 
but it is also brought close to them. 

Phallus. That the word ‘‘corno’’ is used among us in this sense will not 
cause any surprise. 

Danaro 
(Money) 

Rubbing the tips of the thumb and index finger lightly together. This gesture 
indicates the act of enumerating coins, and hence it denotes money. It is 
widely used, not only among us, but in many other nations. This identical 
gesture is used in Canada to indicate money. Having asked two very 
respectable missionaries if among their people, a gesture was used to express 
‘‘money,’’ they at once performed this gesture, and in just the same way as 
it is done by our compatriots; they added that the same gesture was also used 
among the savages of Canada. 

Guercio in Senso di Cattivo Soggetto 
(Squint, meaning a bad or evil person) 

Index finger placed under an eye, pulling the eyelid downward in order to 
deform it. This action imitates the squint when this means an evil person. 

Mano in Fianco 
(Hands on hips) 

Putting the hands on hips expresses a variety of meanings. 

Authority, self-assertion. Not only among Neapolitans, but among peoples of 
all nations, placing the hands on the hips with the chest pushed out and the 
head held high or even tilted back a little represents someone who, with or 
without foundation, claims talent, power or superiority of any kind. 
Sovereigns, generals, heroes and other haughty people are commonly depicted 
in this posture. 
Scorn. A proud look while the hands are on the hips is enough to denote scorn 
for someone who has fixed upon with one’s eyes. 

Malicious detachment. Placing the hand onone’s hip, allowing one’s gaze to 
wander and maintaining an expression of indifference on the face can serve as 
a way of making a show of one’s own malicious lack of interest. 

Morte 
(Death) 

The sign of the cross is made in the air with an extended hand. This gesture 
can be used to mean physical death, but it can also refer to moral or 
political death, since it can be said of someone that he ceases to exist, as 
far as society is concerned or so far as the estimation of others is 
concerned. If the benediction is accompanied by a dejected and pained facial 
expression, and one deals with someone who is gravely ill, physical death 
will be understood. If the person being talked about is someone who enjoys 
great favor or who has a very showy job, it will be understood that he no 
longer enjoys either the one or the other. 

Nulla, Cosa da Nulla 
(Nothing) 

Point of the thumbnail, touching the internal extremity of the upper teeth, 
and suddenly hitting the teeth with an outward movement, as if to break them. 
This gesture, which produces a very small click, is typically accompanied by 
the vernacular expression, ‘‘You are not worth anything to me.’’ 

Perfetto 
(Perfect, perfection) 

Fingertips drawn together and carried to the mouth, which is disposed as if 
for giving a kiss. The lips are held tightly closed, pushed forward a little. 
The fingers are brought close to them, but do not quite touch, and then they 
are moved away, as in throwing a kiss. The eyes, however, must be opened 
wide, indicating surprise, and after giving the kiss, the hand is opened, and 
then returned to any position one likes. 

Acclamazione 
(Acclamation) 

Arms raised and hands open. To raise both arms upwards towards the sky, 
moving them around in various ways, commonly in upwardly moving circles, with 
a cheerful expression on the face, is a sign of acclamation, a way of showing 
approval of something that one sees or that one hears about. Such a gesture 
is also used by English mariners who, although they make little use of 
gestural expression, they yet acclaim their superiors with it, as well as 
other well-regarded persons. 

Stupido o Asino 
(Stupid or donkey) 

Outside of the thumb placed near the ear. Placing the outside of the thumb 
near the ear, and with the palm held horizontally, pointing forward, but 
relaxed, and oscillated up and down, in this way one imitates the long ears 
of the derided animal. Hence, with this gesture, the person to whom it is 
directed is declared an imbecile. When one wishes to say that someone is more 
than an ass, one indicates this with gesture using both hands, bringing them 
near to the two ears. 
 

Sorry this so late, and some organizations may be missing a "golden 
opportunity", but I just received it.
================================
THE NIAF SPONSORS 40 ITALIAN 
STUDENTS TO VISIT NEW YORK
Monday, July 23 and Tuesday July 24 

    (WASHINGTON, DC - July 23, 2001)    Forty Italian
students attending universities throughout Italy are in New York City today
and tomorrow, Tuesday July 24 to participate in The Gift of Discovery:
Learning Exchange, Italy and America, an educational and cultural program
sponsored and paid for by The National Italian American Foundation. 

    In New York City, the participants will visit  the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) and East Side Tenement Museum.  They will enjoy an evening
boat cruise and dinner on the Hudson River and visit a Krispy Kreme store in
Long Island to make doughnuts and learn about the American franchise
business model.  Participants will also meet with NIAF Board of Director
Marie Garibaldi, who was the first woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme
Court, and NIAF Regional Vice President Vincenzo Marra, an example of an
Italian immigrant who started and established a business in Manhattan. 

    The Foundation's program will increase the participants'
understanding of America and the progress that Italian Americans have made
in the last century.  Over 600 students between the ages of 18 and 23
applied to the Foundation's Gift of Discovery program.

    On Friday July 20, the Italian students arrived in Providence, RI
for three days to participate in the Foundation's 8th Annual Youth Retreat.
At the retreat, the students learned about Italian American traditions and
compared those traditions to their heritage, took a boat tour of the rivers
of Providence and network with Italian American students. The students will
then travel to Philadelphia and Washington, DC for the remaining six days
(July 24-26).

    NIAF welcome interviews with the students.  Serena Cantoni, NIAF youth
director is in NYC with the participants.  You can reach her on her cell
phone at 202/256-4743 or you can call Elissa Ruffino, NIAF director of
public relations at 202/387-0600

    A total of one hundred and twenty Italian American students were
hosted by the NIAF on a 10-day trip to northern and southern Italy from May
18-28 and June 13-23 .

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a non-profit organization
based in Washington, DC and dedicated to preserving the heritage of an
estimated 25 million Americans of Italian descent, the nation's fifth
largest ethnic group. Visit our web site at www.niaf.org
 
 

Irascible, incorruptible, unique and relentless critic of every Italian 
Government. Montanelli light the flame of Italian Investigative Journalism, 
and passes it to the  younger generation he inspired.
============================================= 
ITALIAN JOURNALIST, DEFENDER OF DEMOCRACY DIES

Indro Montanelli dies today. We shall keep the flame of free speech burning 
high and never walk alone, pledges Paola Di Maio 

22 July 2001, 9 pm GMT 
Content Wire

I am not sure that I always liked Indro Montanelli. 

There was something horribly arrogant about him, common to many self taught 
and self assured individuals. 

One thing I really appreciated though, is that he questioned everything. 
He disagreed about most things with anyone, and he could not be bought, nor 
corrupted. 

I guess he was arguing for the sacrosanct right to speak out his mind, at all 
costs, and he damn did it, at all costs. 

Indro Montanelli died today, aged 92, in Milan after being ill for several 
days. 

I never really liked him much because he was a bit of a difficult person, 
definitely too full of himself, and oh so conservative. 

But as I grew older, and watched corruption take over the national media, and 
serve the purposes of a corrupted state, I started to appreciate his unique 
integrity. 

"With him a big chapter of global history finishes" claims an obituary today 
in the newspaper La Repubblica. Don’t think so. 

With him, a big chapter of the Italian journalism has started. 

And we shall continue it. 
Oh yes. At all costs. 

He was struck off the Italian Journalists Guild in 1937 during the fascist 
regime, for opposing it. 

He was sentenced to death by the German regime in 1944, and saved just by the 
intervention of an Archbishop. 
Holy providence, as one would call it in those days. 

Since then, he has been a relentless critic of every single government. 

He would just not shut up. 

He did not have a good relationship with publishers and he started his own 
newspaper, il "Giornale Nuovo", and later "la Voce" 

Both papers were strangled by the information racket in the country, of which 
he was well aware. 

Had only he been born in our ages, he would have been an online editor. 

He was a conservative, but profoundly convinced antifascist, and he opposed, 
til his last breath, the current government lead by Mr Berlusconi. 

We shall keep the flame of journalism for democracy burning high Indro. 

We shall write and report and criticize everything and everyone til our last 
breath, like you did, to defend democracy and the right of free speech. 

And we shall never walk alone, nor will you. 

Paola Di Maio has been a London based reporter for the Italian press 
before founding content-wire.
 

Thanks to Italy-News.Net 
=======================================
PACIFISTS IMPLICATED IN VIOLENCE ?
CAUSALTIES HIGH AFTER THREE DAYS OF RIOTING.

During a night raid on the staging rooms of the offices of the "Genoa Social 
Forum", which claims to be a "pacifist" group, the police confiscated a van 
which provided weapons used by the "Black Block" during the rioting in Genoa. 

According to authorities, 23 arrests were made.The vehicle was videotaped by 
a police helicopter during surveillance of the march led by the group 
yesterday down Via Carrera. The van, parked outside the offices, contained 75 
iron clubs. 

During the raid on the GSP's offices, two Molotov cocktails, clubs, pipes, 12 
knives, gas masks, kneepads, and shinguards were confiscated. Also nabbed 
were several pairs of black overalls (the symbol of the "Black Block,") stone 
blocks used as weapons, and various other objects. 

After three days of unrest, there were 312 reported injuries, 140 arrests,
and over 100 billion lire in damage. 
============================================
PHOTOS SHOW CARABINIERE SHOT PROTESTER IN SELF-DEFENSE 

A 20-year old carabiniere from the Lombardy battalion has been identified as 
the officer who shot and killed protester Carlo Giuliani during rioting in 
Genoa on Friday.

The Land Rover used by the carabinieri in which the young officer found 
himself trapped became separated from its squadron. It was then surrounded 
and attacked by demonstrators wielding pipes, clubs, and rocks. 

Photos of the incident showed demonstrator Carlo Giuliani about to launch a 
fire extinguisher at the vehicle just seconds before being struck by the 
fatal bullet fired by the young carabiniere who said he feared for his life. 

Inside the Land Rover were pools of blood from injuries sustained to the 
officer's head and hand as a result of the incident. 

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the officer said he fired 
legitimately in an act of self-defense. A debriefing of the officer conducted 
by carabinieri investigators occurred at a local hospital. Even before the 
events of the incident became clear, Italian Interior Minister Claudio 
Scajola had already called the shooting an act of self-defense. 
 
 

Please permit me a "personal" intrusion.

Back in the early 60's when I rented a car and took the "traditional" English 
tour of the perimeter of Sicily. MANY sights fascinated me including the 
Valley of the Temples, and Taormina, but I was able to have a "special 
experience" with Mt. Etna.

I drove an hour along the coast from the town where I was staying, then an 
hour up the highway to a Chalet, (Refugio G. Sapienza at 1910 meters) close 
to where the highway was consumed by a previous eruption. I joined a party of 
six in a Cross Country vehicle for an hour drive, then had to walk an hour in 
the dark across a "challenging" lava field, where we then reached the very 
"lip" of the volcano, laid on our stomachs and peered over the edge (3340 
meters) into Mt. Etna's depths, while molten rocks were shooting 100 feet in 
the air. An awesome sight! 

Currently, I think that it would be a "striking" view to see a wall of  lava 
consuming everything in its path at 8 feet a minute! 
================================================== 
SICILY MT. ETNA ERUPTS 

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, July 19, 2001 

ROME -- Sicily's Mt. Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted Wednesday, 
forcing emergency services workers to build up defenses against a lava flow 
moving at 500 feet an hour. 

After days of tremors, lava spewed out of a new fissure in the volcano early 
Wednesday at a height of 6,900 feet. Ash and smoke have been billowing out of 
Etna and over eastern Sicily for the last five days. 

One man needed hospital treatment after he was hit by a rock thrown out of 
the volcano. 

Emergency workers evacuated two restaurants and built up mud walls to guide 
the direction of the lava flow, while firefighters sprayed the magma with 
water.

The lava has flowed down an uninhabited slope and has not threatened any 
homes. It did cut across a main road, however.

The man who was injured had ventured into a restricted area on the volcano 
closed off for safety reasons, an employee at one of the closed restaurants 
said.

Etna, which looms over the city of Catania, has been spouting small amounts 
of lava, ash and smoke intermittently since January 2000 but has not erupted 
strongly enough to force villages around its slopes to evacuate.

The last eruption that posed a threat was in 1992, when lava streams headed 
toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 nestling on Etna's lower slopes. That year, 
the Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow. 

PHOTO: A lava flow crosses a main road near Mt. Etna in eastern
Sicily. Ash and smoke had been billowing out of the volcano for five days
before the eruption from a new fissure at 6,900 feet.
==============================================

UPDATE:::::

MT. ETNA CONTINUES TO ERUPT NEAR CATANIA; 
SEVERAL MUNICIPALITIES IN DANGER 

A fourth aperture in Mt. Etna was reported to have opened up as the result of 
the ongoing eruption. The rupture occurred at an altitude of 2,600 meters due 
to a violent explosion of gas and spouting lava. The lava flow has now 
reached an altitude as low as 1,350 meters, and is only eight kilometers away 
from the town of Nicolosi. The National Guard had been called out by several 
area mayors and a state of emergency was put into effect. The eruption has 
caused damage to ski facilities in the area and some sources believe next 
year's season may be canceled. The three lava flows currently on the move are 
being continuously reinforced by the eruptions. One flow is reported to be 
heading for the Sapienza wildlife refuge and local highways. The other two
flows are threatening the towns of Nicolosi, Belpasso, Ragalna, and Pedara. 
The curious tourist injured by exploding lava on Wednesday remains in 
critical condition. 
 
 

"THAT'S LIFE" will apparantly begin a Summer Series of ReRuns of previously 
aired episodes on CBS at 9PM ( Check local listings) tonite.

On the West Coast, "That's Life" appears after "Diagnosis Murder", and before 
"48 Hours" 

This episode, according to my TV Guide, deals with: 

"In her 30's,Lydia De Lucca (Heather Paige Kent) suprises her boyfriend and 
family by deciding to go back to college."

A Newspaper Review follows, MY surmise, and then a comment by Rick Simeone.
======================================================
THAT'S LIFE 

A life-affirming, one-hour family show that is neither cloying nor idiotic, 
but actually joyful and funny. ...This is a happy, gentle show - no heavy 
lifting. 

That's Life has more in common with Providence, Once and Again, even
Ally McBeal. The karate crowd may be disappointed, but for fans of those
shows, That's Life should provide plenty of kicks.

Lydia DeLucca is a bartender whose boyfriend is Louis Buttafucco, whom she 
has been seeing since the Reagan administration, realizes that she want's a 
College Education rather than Marriage to a reluctant bridegoom. 

Older, working-class gal goes back to school. It's NOT a tired canard used in 
"Pearl" or "Educating Rita", but immensely fresh and fun, helped by the 
spunky (and cute) Heather Paige Kent as Lydia

Paul Sorvino as the supportive Dad, and and Ellen Burstyn is the Mom  who is 
more interested in a grandchild than her daughter's happiness

Like a rash, Louis sticks around. He has been part of the family
for years and years, and just because Lydia doesn't want him anymore,
that doesn't mean he isn't good company Sunday afternoons watching the
football game with her father and brother.

Debi Mazar, who played Denise Iannello, the queen of Queens, in L.A. Law and 
Civil Wars, is a good buddy and proprietor of Jackie's Beauteria.

Cast members like those are hard to land. They were attracted by the
authentic and optimistic world-view of Diane Ruggiero, who a little more
than a year ago was waiting tables at the Park & Orchard Restaurant in
East Rutherford, N.J.

Ruggiero's the creator of That's Life, and she says that in so many ways
it's about her, a working-class Jersey girl who took a shot and wound up
in Hollywood. No wonder she's optimistic.
=============================================
"That's Life" is a show with an Italian flavor, that many of us can identify 
with, and it is NOT  filled with mafioso, brutes,  & buffoons, and will NOT 
project a Negative Stereotype, but  Likeable, Lovable, Italian Americans, and 
therefore a Positive. 

(1) The Father is not a dominant, fiery tempered brute, but a very likable, 
loving, level headed, strong but gentle, and even admirable character, who 
completely emotionally supports his family, EVEN his daughter's choice Not to 
get married to her long time boyfriend, and GO BACK TO SCHOOL, in spite of
his preferences otherwise.

(2) The Daughter is likeable, loving, bright, and wanting to "spread her 
intellectual wings", but frequently "conflicted" by whether she made the 
right choice.

(3) The Mother is a little more shrill than I would like, and often "harps" 
on her daughter to get married instead of going to school (so she could have 
grandkids), and is not as loving and affectionate toward her husband, as he 
is toward her.

(4) The brother is no great intellect, but he is a Cop, and was a life saving 
hero in one episode. He treats his dates, and current girlfriend in only a 
loving and thoughtful fashion.

(5) The boyfriend is not a "sorehead", because of being rejected after 7 year 
relationship, but is "confused, by Lydia's goals. He owns his own small 
business, 
and still treats Lydia with respect, and concern, and care.

(6) Lydia's best (Italian looking) girl friend while chewing entirely too 
much gum, owns her own beauty salon, is a GOOD friend, and shows in 
practically every episode, a very basic common sense, missing in many
"bookworms", to the extent that a Psychology professor is enamored of her.

(7) Lydia's other best girl friend (not Italian looking) is very superficial, 
vain and shallow.

Sure, I would rather have the Italian American equivalent of the I-A "Prince 
of Belair", with every one being lawyers and doctors, but while this is a 
middle class family, it is not low class, and its striving, and loving, and 
close, and supportive, and THERE for each other.

I don't see much you can say negative about the De Luca family.

It's a step in the right direction, and I'll take it over "Friends" with 
stupid Joey Tribianni.

"Everyone loves Raymond" has very little Italian Flavor (by design according 
to the Producer). You can easily forget, and think he was of any ethnicity.

My concern is that if we don't support a heavily flavored well done Italian 
TV series, that the Studio heads will say, "See, the public will accept 
Italians only as mafioso, or buffoons".
===================================================
Rick Simeone's <Emailme@MrRickSimeone.com>  says:

"That's Life" is about a family of Italian decent living in an older 
established neighborhood and their everyday lives.

"That's Life" is real, a family you can feel part, or if not a bit of home 
sickness.
Everyone I speak too says it is like real life to those of us who grew up 
Italian in close knit families and neighborhoods.  The actors, all excellent, 
seem not to be acting.  They are so natural.

There is a lot of junk out there, but this is one of the few shows to come 
along lately with substance, entertainment and a good example of what family 
life should be.
 

Thanks to Anthony Tamburri from VIA and  H-ITAM@H-NET.MSU.EDU 

MORE ITALIAN HOURS & OTHER STORIES
Author: HELEN BAROLINI
VIA FOLIOS 27 (2001)
ISBN 1-884419-46-1158 pp. $16.00 

"More Italian Hours is an elegant, intelligent and, finally, luminous book," 
reports Carole Maso.

Frank Gado remarks: "Helen Barolini's title nods toward Henry James's book of
Italian observations as well as toward James himself. It is an appropriate 
homage; not only because Italy is the stories' backdrop - a variegated 
tapestry Barolini knows and understands . . .  - but also because her 
approach to her subjects often suggests The Master's tracking of shifting 
perceptions. Barolini shows a sure hand in guiding the reader along the sine 
of her characters' consciousness. This gathering of fiction will demonstrate 
why she is among the most rewarding American writers of her generation.

"Nahid Rachlin, author of Foreigner, a novel, states that "[t]hese stories 
captured my attention from the beginning to the end. Barolini's telling 
details create the characters so vividly that I felt I could almost touch 
them. They seemed like people I have known; but now I have been given more 
insight into them. Italy too is as alive in these stories as the characters 
inhabiting it."

Helen Barolini is the author of seven books and over fifty stories and essays 
that have appeared in literary reviews, anthologies, and collections. She has 
been cited in the series Best American Essays for 1991, 1993, and 1999 and 
her piece "How I Learned to Speak Italian" appeared in Best American Essays 
1998. Her Umbertina (Feminist Press, 1999) and Chiaroscuro: Essays of 
Identity (University of Wisconsin Press, 1999) will be published in Italy in 
2001. With The Dream Book recently re-issued by Syracuse University Press, 
all of Helen Barolini's books are now in print.

"More Italian Hours" available from Bordighera Press via 1990@aol.com;
We'll pay the S&H, if you order directly from BP) or through Small Press. 
Distribution (http://www.spdbooks.org; they accept credit cards).
 
 

I want to be selective about the number of Negative Stereotyping messages I 
share. It can soon get repetitive, and on this list I am singing mostly to 
the "choir".

However a man the stature of Richard Grace, with his leadership position with 
both Italian American Organizations and Multicultural Organizations writes to 
the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, and not only focuses on the 
ultimate core issue, Negative Stereotyping =Hate, and says it so well, it 
deserves distribution.
========================================================== 
To: Mr.Ron Cohen
National Chair,
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
tel: (613) 233-4607 ext 14
ron.cohen@cbsc.ca

From: Richard A. Grace
President,  Grace, Industries,inc.
President, National Ethnic Coalition Organizations, inc ,  (147 Ethnic org.)
Exec. V.P., Coalition Italo-American Associations, Inc,  (139  Italian Org.)

  Dear Mr. Cohen:

    I our attempt to explain our frustrations and concerns about the
"Sopranos" issue, we sometimes lose focus on the real issue.  That issue
should not be solely about "the Sopranos" however must be broadened to
encompass the complete issue.  That is the spread of HATE by the media.  The
media has an obligation to avoid stigmatizing any one group.  In this case
H.B.O. stigmatizes and is spreading hate and misconceptions about Italians
and especially Italian Americans.  Perhaps if you read the attachment which
we have sent to our members who have expressed concerns, you may see this
more clearly from our prospective. 

    Please keep in mind this is a much bigger issue then the Sopranos.  If 
this program stood alone it would be less effective, however since most all 
of H.B.O.'s programming portrays Italians in a negative light and as 
gangsters, buffoons, and bimbos, H.B.O. is guilty of a crime of spreading 
hate.  The sad thing is that by us
complaining about it we fall into their hands.

    Please read the attached and do not feel obligated to respond, however
please feel obligated to protect the rights of all Italians even if this
show is about Italian Americans and not Italian Canadians.

  Thank you in advance for doing what is the right.

  Respectfully Yours,

  Richard A. Grace
=======================================================
THE COALITION OF ITALO-AMERICANS, INC. (CIAA)
OFFICIAL POSITION ON THE SOPRANOS

The CIAA represents 139 great Italian-American organizations.  We have been 
inundated with complaints about "The Sopranos" with a request to know where 
we stand on this issue.

The answer to this question is not simplistic.  First let us assure everyone 
that, in speaking out on any issue, our Organization has never intended to 
tread on artistic or creative expression or to infringe on the Constitutional 
rights of anyone in any way.  We have NEVER taken that position.

Secondly, our position regarding "The Sopranos" is not about censorship at 
all.  Our organization does not want to stifle anyone's right to free speech. 
 That would be abhorrent to us, since we so often stand with other ethnic and 
racial groups in support of their civil rights issues.

To us, the root issue is about fairness.  Decades old stereotypes that 
associate Italian-Americans with organized crime, buffoonery and illegal 
activity persist to this day.  The numbers of Italian-Americans who actually 
participate in organized crime is a tiny fraction of the Italian-American 
population, but images in the popular media suggest otherwise.  The FBI 
statistics quote "1/20th of 1% of Italians are involved in organized crime in 
the United States".

THE BEDROCK OF OUR POSITION IS THAT CRIME IS A FUNCTION OF PERSONAL GREED, NOT SOME INHERITED IMMORAL DEGENERACY.

Our organization hopes that, by raising objections when the old, negative 
stereotypes appear, we can bring attention to the fact that the vast majority 
of Italian-Americans have always been and are decent, law-abiding people who 
achieve success through education and hard work.  Sadly, this positive aspect 
of the Italian-American culture is neglected in the media, especially by HBO. 
 Therefore, this is not about "The Sopranos"; this is about HBO portraying a 
more balanced portrayal of Italians in this Country and some of their many 
great contributions.  Many of those who subscribe to HBO are Italian and HBO 
should know of our/their concerns.  This is also free speech.

In speaking out about "The Sopranos", we hope to influence HBO in taking "The 
Sopranos" off the air and short of that goal, to at least persuade HBO to 
give equal time to the real side of Italian-American life and to show what 
the vast, vast majority of Italian-Americans are really like.

We do have a sense of humor and rarely, if ever, take a stand on these types 
of issues.  In the past our great organization has honored many great 
Italians such as Frank Sinatra, Chas Palminteri, Danny Aiello, Jack Scalia, 
Tony Lobianco, Steven Segal, John Tuturro, etc., many of which have portrayed 
Organized Crime figures.  We certainly respect their right to choose their 
roles.  We only hope our efforts will produce additional positive roles for 
these very same people from which to choose.  Maybe the writers and producers 
should try harder so those choices are also available.  When "The Sopranos" 
was first aired, we tried to understand that there aren't enough positive 
roles for Italian type actors.  They are unfortunately stereotyped and we 
understand they have to earn a living.  On occasion, we even encourage some 
to play these "negative roles" so they would actually have some editorial 
control and reduce the negative portrayals of our people.  However, our 
position is that while they are actually playing these roles, Italian 
organizations should refrain from honoring them as actors or Italians.  It 
only lends to publicize and shows the movies they are starring in at the time 
and it sends the wrong message to Hollywood and the media that we Italians 
condone how we are being portrayed.

Too often, the media glamorizes Italian gangsters.  They are not typical of 
the Italian-American and we don't want our children or yours emulating this 
glamorized negative portrayal of Italians.  Please know that these are 
serious issues for the individuals and groups that make up our membership. 
They feel - not unfairly - that Italian-Americans constitute one of the few, 
if not the only ethnic group, about whom such negative stereotypes are so 
openly tolerated without an honest attempt towards balance.  They have a 
right to their opinions and we as spokespersons for the Organizations that 
represent them, are obligated to voice their concerns.  We choose our 
positions carefully.

Let us reiterate that our Organization is not trying to impose censorship and 
does not want to suppress freedom in the arts.  We have great respect for the 
First Amendment.  However, we just want to achieve a degree of fairness in 
the way Italian-Americans are depicted.

THE SOPRANOS - THE REAL QUESTION?

What is the real question?  Are we asking if "The Sopranos" is entertaining 
or are we asking if Italians watch it?  Are we asking if "The Sopranos" 
damages the image of Italian men, women or children?  There is no doubt it is 
entertaining to many, including Americans of Italian decent who watch the 
program.

Italians can keep watching this program and do nothing - this is their right. 
 However, just because many Italians may think it is entertaining is no 
reason to attempt to justify its continued airing.  It's not "us" we have to 
worry about.  It's all those who don't know Italians we have to worry about. 
Italians know who most Italians really are, but do you know how non-Italians 
perceive us?  As to people from the South, people from the mid-west, people 
from Canada, and all those other countries that only see how the media 
portrays Italians, how do they perceive us?  When our kids apply to college 
or for a job in Government, the law, banks, etc., etc., how will they be 
perceived?  Will they be suspect?  In many, many cases they are.  Did you 
ever ask yourself - Why?  Is an Italian treated fairly by a jury if they 
happen to be on trial?  Are jury's affected by the media?  If not, why do 
they change venues when there is too much publicity?  Where can an Italian go 
to get a totally unbiased trial?  Independent studies are needed on how 
prosecutors, editors, potential juries view Italians.  Would a jury more 
likely convict?
 

Italians can watch "The Sopranos" behind closed doors in their living rooms. 
However, saying there is nothing wrong with that kind of programming just 
because you find it entertaining is totally wrong.  That just hurts today's
generations and those yet unborn.  Don't be so naïve to think that no one is 
negatively affected by it.  The Sopranos spreads hate, distrust, and fear of 
all Italians while at the same time attempts to glamorize criminals in some 
perverted way. 

Current generations (our children and yours) look at these media glamorized 
roles on TV and in the movies and want to emulate them.  Kids drop out of 
school trying to emulate them (and not all of these kids are Italian.) 
Future generations, when looking at these movies and program re-runs will 
assume that this is the way Italians always were.  Is this the way we want to 
be remembered by our grandchildren - as vicious killers, drug pushers, 
extortionists, airheads, and/or bimbos?

It seems that HBO and many in the media are attempting to mitigate the 
concerns of the Italian Community and try to cloud and confuse the issue by 
constantly saying Italians love it, produce it and act in it.  So it goes, 
that under these circumstances: the sensitivities of others can also be 
stomped and crushed.  Our concern is not and should not only be about "the 
Sopranos", it should also be about HBO and the media and how often they use 
Italians characters as gangsters.  What is worse is how often these Italian 
gangsters are glamorized.  They are certainly not typical of the 
Italian-American and we shouldn't want our children or yours emulating this 
glamorized negative portrayal of Italians.  We find it very difficult to 
believe that the stereotyping does not influence an audience that is said to 
be influenced by violence.  Further it is opening the floodgates of 
disrespect for Italian sensitivities and culture.

HBO's series "The Sopranos" is a flawed attempt at a fictional portrayal of a 
very limited sector of the Italian-American community in this nation.  There 
is no small coincidence that when Middle America was polled, the results 
showed that 73% felt Italians were involved in some sort of crime.  In 
addition, at that very same time when Hollywood and TV was surveyed the 
survey showed up that 70% of all Italians portrayed in the media were 
portrayed as criminals, gavoons, and our women as bimbos.

"THAT CRIME IS A FUNCTION OF PERSONAL GREED, NOT SOME INHERITED IMMORAL DEGENERACY" - IS A TRUISM THAT DESERVES REPETITION! 

More importantly, we shouldn't allow our parents or us to be remembered as 
the media portrays us today.  Our parents and we deserve better.  Our 
grandkids deserve better.  Italians are the first to stand up and fight the 
good fight for others.  It is sad and disheartening that we find ourselves 
alone at a time when our friends should be coming to our defense.  I guess 
it's up to us to complain to HBO and/or refuse to use products advertised.

We recognize everyone's first amendment right to speak their mind, including 
HBO and Actors.  However, HBO shouldn't hide behind the first amendment just 
because it's financially rewarding.  HBO has an obligation to work harder. 
There is a disgusting imbalance and lack of positive programming and positive 
roles for Italians and Italian-Americans on HBO.  Our position regarding "The 
Sopranos" is not about censorship at all.  Our Organization does not want to 
stifle anyone's right to free speech. 

The justification for taking "The Sopranos" off the air is that it actually 
spreads "hate" for Italian-Americans and perpetuates a very negative image of 
Italian-Americans not only across the Country but also now around the world. 
Insofar as removal from airing may be unrealistic, and since there are no 
laws that yet can force H.B.O. then all we can do as of now is ask for much 
more balance in the way Italian-Americans are portrayed in the media.  We 
deserve to be treated with the same respect as all the other great religious 
and ethnic groups, which make up this Country. 

Whether you admit it or not, HBO is not treating Italian-Americans with the 
same level of respect of fairness as they show other ethnic and religious 
groups.  When was the last time you saw a rerun of Amos and Andy?  How long 
would they get away with a show called "The Shapiro's" with all the unfair 
negative stereotypes pertaining to our Jewish brothers and sisters?  They 
wouldn't air one of these shows.

However, just examine how they justify what they do to Italians.  They say, 
"The producer and all the actors are Italians".  That same justification says 
it would be okay to air "The Shapiro's" as long as everyone associated with 
it was Jewish.  Yeah sure!

The unmistakable difference is that HBO's programming is terribly biased 
towards the negative when it comes to the vast, vast majority of their 
programming towards Italian-Americans.  Why not - it sells!  Who else is 
there?  Something had to take the place of "Cowboys and the Indians" on TV 
and the movies.  You can isolate this show and say it's great, or that it's 
somewhat realistic, or it's very entertaining.  This is not the point.  The 
point is that HBO portrays all Italians on most all their shows like they 
portray them on "The Sopranos".

HBO owes it to all ethnic and religious groups to promote balance and 
positive images and we feel they have a moral and legal obligation not to 
defame.  Certainly a true balance is just.  The federal courts in Scelsa vs. 
The City of University, in which our Coalition, negotiated, testified and was 
deeply involved, the Court concluded that this kind of imbalance is 
discrimination and defamation.

This is not solely about "The Sopranos"; this is about HBO's responsibility 
to air a balanced portrayal of Italians and Italian-Americans and some of 
their many great contributions. 

In summery; Yes, the Sopranos is entertaining to many, yes Italians watch it, 
and yes it is damaging and spreading hate for Italian men, woman, children 
and even Catholics. 
 

Thanks to  "Dominic Tassone" <dominic@mobilito.com> <www.mobilito.com>

The Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires says it gave more than 12,000 passports
to Italian-origin Argentines in Buenos Aires alone last year. That was up 15
percent over 1999 figures, and this year the embassy expects a 30 percent
gain in passports given out in the capital. Those figures do not include
passports granted at six Italian consulates in Argentina, a country of 36
million.

In Argentina, between 1882 and 1927 an estimated one million - a third of all
documented immigrants - came from Italy. The 1991 census found that more
than six million people - about a fifth of the population - were of Italian
descent.

In 1905, 40 percent of the Buenos Aires population was of Italian origin. 
Today,
Italian-language television is almost as prevalent as Spanish TV in some 
regions.

Italian passports are so sought after because recipients can take advantage 
of the European Union's flexible labor laws and get a job, if not in Italy, 
then somewhere else in Europe.

The flow of emigrants from Argentina is not unique in the region. Looking to
escape dismal economies, Peruvians, Bolivians, Colombians, and Ecuadorans
are swarming to get visas for the United States, Spain or anywhere with a
growing economy.

======================================
POOR ITALIANS EXITING ARGENTINA

By Kevin G. Hall
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
Monday, July 9, 2001

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - More than a century ago, poor Italian immigrants
crossed the Atlantic to build railroads and theaters and turn Argentina into
one of the world's richest nations.

Now their descendants line up outside the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires,
hoping their Italian lineage will entitle them to passports and a new start
in the Old World.

They are trying to escape a nearly three-year recession, an unemployment
rate around 15 percent, and a sick economy that shows few signs of
rebounding.

The Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires says it gave more than 12,000 passports
to Italian-origin Argentines in Buenos Aires alone last year. That was up 15
percent over 1999 figures, and this year the embassy expects a 30 percent
gain in passports given out in the capital. Those figures do not include
passports granted at six Italian consulates in Argentina, a country of 36
million.

This month, Pablo Parmo stood outside the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires,
checking on the status of his paperwork. At 21, Parmo has given up on
chances of playing professional soccer or even finding a part-time job; he
hopes to leave for Italy by March. His sister Nadia, 19, is studying
accounting and has started her paperwork now so she will have an Italian
passport when she graduates from college in two years.

Both expect to give up their Argentine citizenship, say goodbye to their
parents, and cross the Atlantic in the opposite direction from their
great-grandparents, who left Cattanzaro Savelli in southern Italy.

"It's hard for them, as it would be for anyone's parents. But, sadly, this
is a country where there is no work, and they understand it's best for us,"
Pablo Parmo said.

Several weeks earlier, Lucia Manjia Fave, 55, an unemployed child
psychologist, lined up outside the Italian Embassy with 500 other people.
They awaited a lottery drawing, hoping for a ticket that would allow them
into the embassy the next week to try to prove their parents were Italian
immigrants. Given her age, Manjia does not anticipate seeking a new life in
Italy. But she wants Italian citizenship so her children, ages 27 and 25,
can have the option.

"It's not because I want them to go. But right now, there is nothing they
can do here," she said.

Adrian Moreno, a professional in his 20s, wants an Italian passport so he
can take advantage of the European Union's flexible labor laws and get a
job, if not in Italy, then somewhere else in Europe.

"I am an industrial designer, and here there are few options," Moreno said.
"All roads here seem impossible."

The consul general at the Italian Embassy, Vincenzo Palladino, politely
takes questions on the street from Argentines who want to know why their
paperwork has not been processed promptly, or to ask whether a newspaper
article on the immigration rules was correct. Palladino said there were no
efforts to curb Argentine emigration to Italy because "we have a strong need
for labor."

The flow of emigrants from Argentina is not unique in the region. Looking to
escape dismal economies, Peruvians, Bolivians, Colombians, and Ecuadorans
are swarming to get visas for the United States, Spain or anywhere with a
growing economy.

But emigrating from Argentina is different because of the vast promise it
once held - similar to that of the United States - for European immigrants.
South America's second-largest country at just over one million square miles
- about the size of Mexico and Texas combined - it depended heavily for
development on Europeans, who account for at least 85 percent of its
population.

Colonized by the Spanish, Argentina declared its independence in 1816 and by
the end of the century was one of the richest countries in the world.
British money paid for the construction of national ports and railroads, and
immigrants from Italy and Spain provided the labor. Livestock and mining
brought wealth. The lavish Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, one of the world's
great opera houses, opened in 1908 with Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's
Aida.

After an 1880s wave of newcomers to the United States led to anti-immigrant
feelings there, many Italians moved instead to Argentina between 1900 and
1930, and Buenos Aires took on a decidedly Italian flavor. In 1905, 40
percent of the city's population was of Italian origin. Today,
Italian-language television is almost as prevalent as Spanish TV in some
regions.

"Immigration totally changed us and formed a new culture. These European
roots made us very different than the rest of Latin America," said Mario
Santillio, director of the Center for Latin American Migration Studies in
Buenos Aires.

Santillio said three million immigrants entered Argentina between 1882 and
1927 by official estimates, but ship records and other data suggest the
number was closer to five million. An estimated one million - a third of all
documented immigrants - came from Italy. The 1991 census found that more
than six million people - about a fifth of the population - were of Italian
descent. Now many of these Argentines are forced to make the same tough
choice their ancestors once did.

"I took out my passport for my children. I am 33 and I don't have any, but
you want to have options," said Mariano Abaca, who works for Reygraz, a
cargo-consolidation company in Buenos Aires. "Even if you don't want to
leave, you have to do this. You are fenced in here."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Hall's e-mail address is khall@krwashington.com.
 
 

I give the Canadian 'Sopranos' controversy as much attention as I do to , 
because Canada has apparantly stronger protections for "human dignity" on the 
Airwaves, and  treat those protections with more seriousness, EXCEPT in the 
case of the "Sopranos".

This 'Soprano' battle runs a close second to the AIDA suit in Illinois in 
importance. 

The following is an recent exchange of messages between Steve Antonunccio, 
one of our dedicated "I-A activist/reformers" and Ron Cohen, National Chair, 
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. The subject is directed toward the 
third year of the 'Sopranos'.
===================================

Dear Mr. Cohen, 

I do appreciate the fact you took the time to respond to my emails. Since I
am a United States citizen, I can certainly understand how you could easily
say this matter doesn't concern me.  I have a great deal of respect for
Francesca L'Orfano and my Italian Canadian brothers and sisters who also
find The Sopranos to be racist.  You mentioned the response to The Sopranos
was the most complaints you have ever received for a television program.  I
think that there is a very good reason for that, and that your decision was
an unfortunate mistake. I would like to respond to your letter and the
points you make. 

RC:(Since you are familiar with the contents of our reply to Francesca
L'Orfano, I will try not to repeat, to any significant extent, the points
made in that e-mail. I do, however, suggest that you read both it and the
decision with a more open mind. It does appear that you take from them only
what suits your purposes.)

I'm afraid there was nothing in the report or in your letter that suits my
purpose.  That was the reason for my emails.  In fact the tone of the report
was almost glowing in its support for the program.

RC: (It was clear to the CBSC that this show did not make any attempt 
whatsoever
to paint a negative picture of the entire Italian community. It dealt only
with a group of criminals (in that part of the program) and, while these
were principally persons of Italian background, they were not all Italian.
Even had they all been Italian, this would not lead any fair-minded
individual to conclude that all Italians are criminal. It may make you
uncomfortable to see any Italians depicted as criminals. That is
Understandable. Probably most national or ethnic groups would feel that way.
As the Council pointed out in its decision, all criminals have gender,
nationality, skin colour, etc. This would hardly entitle any reasonable
person to draw unjustifiable conclusions about an entire gender group,
national group, black/white/yellow, etc. group based on such characteristics
attaching to its members broadly.)

Are you sure someone didn't send you some episodes from Raymond when you
reviewed this program?  When did The Sopranos become an Italian American
Donna Reed show?  I think David Chase would even admit that The Sopranos is
primarily about an Italian American family that is involved in organized
crime.  Which the gun in the title so clearly tells us.  The main character
of the program, Tony Soprano, is an Italian American murderer, thief, pimp,
drug dealer, mobster, who is also abusive to women.  Even the non-criminal
Italian Americans are made to look foolish.  They went out of there way to
ridicule the one character who was fighting defamation in their program in
order to thumb their nose at those of us who have serious concerns about the
program.  You mention that any reasonable person would not draw
unjustifiable conclusions about a race based on negative stereotypes.  When
did the world start becoming filled with reasonable people?  I'm a student
of history, just in the last century we have seen over a 100 million people
killed in dozens of wars and campaigns of genocide, most of them based on
nationalistic or racists views.  But lets be completely honest, even
reasonable people are capable of prejudice.  I am certainly one of the most
vocal critics of the Mafia Minstrel Show in the world, but if I met an
Italian American from New Jersey that was in the waste disposal business, in
the back of my mind I would wonder if he were connected. Why?  Because
programs like The Sopranos perpetuate this stereotype even within reasonable
people.  You can not sit there and tell me, that all people are not capable
of racism.  Racism is based on fear and unfamiliarity with another ethnic
group.  So where do you learn about other people when you don't live or work
them, you learn about them from popular media?  That is why this type of
stereotyping is deadly, especially in the era of television when a racist
message can be sent instantly to millions of people.

RC: (As to the presence of the gun in the title, its purpose is clear. It is not
to disparage Italians but to suggest (hardly subtly) that violent criminal
activity will be a part of this series. In this regard, you might be
interested in a CBSC decision of 7 years ago, namely, CTV re Canada AM (News
Graphic) (CBSC Decision 93/94-0071, June 22, 1994), in which the CBSC dealt
with the role of a handgun in a news graphic. While the facts were
different, the complainant had alleged that the use of a handgun graphic was
misleading in a story about a murder by strangulation. The Panel said while
the graphic used was that of a handgun, it was the view of the Regional
Council that the gun had been used as a symbol of crime, not as an
indication of the means of assassination.)

Let me tell you about how that handgun in the title is used in The Sopranos.
Every episode of the show an Italian American takes that gun out of the
title and they hold it someone's head and then they blow their brains out.
I will agree with you that the gun is a symbol of crime and not always the
instrument of murder, because sometimes the Italian Americans featured in
The Sopranos use their fists to beat someone to death or they just run them
over with a car.  How can anyone come to the conclusion that the gun in the
title does not reflect negatively on Italian Americans?
 

RC: (I fear that the example of discrimination which you cite, however
unpleasant, unpalatable and reprehensible, flows from the penchant of
persons prone to discriminatory conduct and not from this television
program. When persons make corresponding remarks about Jews, blacks,
Pakistanis, aboriginal or other groups, which you and I both know
uncharitable, thoughtless and bigoted persons do, it is because of the
nature of the accuser and not because of any misstep of the victim. Nor is
it because of a television program.)

TELEVISION INFLUENCES PEOPLE!!!!!   Your group wouldn't even exist if you
didn't believe that.  You make rulings on whether television is influencing
people negatively or positively.  Why do companies and politicians spend
millions of dollars on advertising if they didn't believe television
influences people?  "Triumph of the Will," the famous documentary by Nazi
filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, had a measurable impact on the German people
back in 1935.  By making Hitler appear to be God like, Hitler was able to
dismantle what was left of democracy in Germany.  My Father and his
brothers, all veterans of the American Army in World War II, were shown the
propaganda film series  "Why We Fight" by Frank Capra in order for Americans
to understand why we were fighting the Nazis and not the communists.  Thank
God for that series, or who knows what the world would look like today.

TELEVISION AND FILM INFLUENCE PEOPLE...AND ANY OTHER 
VIEW IS COMPLETELY NAÏVE. 

RC: (When the Panel drew its conclusions, it did not see the Italian community
at large as you fear one might. It saw the actions of Tony Soprano's criminal
cohorts as the actions of criminals not of the Italian community. To
suggest, as you did in your e-mail of May 27, that this had anything to do
with the non-presence of Italian Canadians on the adjudicating Panel is, as
I told Ms. L'Orfano, simply outrageous. As the CBSC has said in the past, it
is our position that all Canadians are diminished by abusively
discriminatory comments being broadcast about any Canadians. Panel
Adjudicators have been able to so decide in the past despite the fact that
they may not have had members of the affected groups on their Panels. (I
refer you to the list of decisions sent to Ms. L'Orfano and remind you, as I
did her, of the accusations hurled against the CBSC in the case of the Laura
Schlessinger decision that the Panel must have been made up of gays and
lesbians - how else could we possibly have concluded that some of her
ongoing commentary was abusively discriminatory on the basis of sexual
orientation?) 

I would have to say that having non-Italians on your group didn't help us.

RC: (As to the money allegation raised in your May 27 e-mail, you clearly have
lashed out without checking your facts first. Check out the CBSC decisions
in CIII-TV re Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (CBSC Decision 93/94-0270 and
0277, October 24, 1994), CHOM-FM and CILQ-FM re the Howard Stern Show (CBSC
Decisions 97/98-0001+ and 0015+, October 17 and 18, 1997) and CIHF-TV and
CKMI-TV re The Jerry Springer Show (CBSC Decision 97/98-1277, May 28, 1999),
among others to find negative decisions regarding expensive and lucrative
programming. 

No, Mr. Antonuccio, the fact that this fair-minded and experienced Panel
arrived at a decision with which you do not agree does not make their
decision wrong.) 

Why has every major Italian North American organization come out against
this program, dozens of independent organizations that represent millions of
people?  Why have you received more letters on this issue than any other
issue that you have ruled on?  Could we all be wrong and your panel be
right?  I don't think so.  As I said before, something is very wrong here,
and my disappointment in your group in profound. I just hope you re-open
this issue, in light of how the third season has turned up the racism and
violence several notches.  I think the third season should be revisited by
your group as a separate item.  Thank you for listening to my concerns.

Steve Antonuccio 
 

Thank you for writing.

Ron Cohen 
National Chair, 
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
tel: (613) 233-4607 ext 14
ron.cohen@cbsc.ca 
 

Thanks to Dominic Tassone

Thank the Lord for small favors, in the form of this brief respite.

Skeptically I imagine someone to opportunistically jump in and fill the "gap".
It makes me want to root for more "mindless" Reality shows. 
Anything to get away from the I-A mobster "genre"

Please also notice the comment in the latter part of article that claims that 
TV is committed to "diversity". In the case of Italian Americans, that 
apparently means a diversity of Mafia shows. :( 
==================================================
FOURTH SEASON OF 'SOPRANOS' 
PUSHED BACK TO JUNE 2002
Television: HBO series will be ineligible for next year's consideration.

By Brian Lowry, 
Los AngelesTimes, Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2001

     Fans of Home Box Office's "The Sopranos" will have to wait at least 
until June for the program's fourth season--a delay that will eliminate the 
overall leader in this year's Emmy Award nominations from contention in the 
2002 Emmy race. 
     HBO executives, meeting with reporters and TV critics in Pasadena on 
Friday, said the next flight of episodes would not be available before June 
and might be held until September. That will block "Sopranos" from Emmy 
consideration for next year, since the eligibility period is June 2001 
through May 2002. 
     "Sopranos" is the first cable program ever nominated as best dramatic 
series, recently claiming its third consecutive Emmy bid in that category and 
22 nominations in all. The next batch of original episodes would be eligible 
for the 2003 awards. 
     In terms of scheduling, HBO will fill the void with "Six Feet Under," 
the new program about a family of undertakers, which will open its second 
season in March, the same time the Mafia drama started this year. 
     Discussions continue, meanwhile, with "Sopranos" creator David Chase, 
who has been offered a lucrative package to extend the show beyond a fourth 
year. Chase had been quoted as saying he felt the series should end after 
next year but he later softened that stance, and given the value of the 
franchise to the pay channel, it's anticipated a deal will be reached. 
     One reason "The Sopranos" takes so long to produce is that Chase 
essentially has the latitude to handcraft every episode. "David supervises 
all the editing, and it just takes time," said manager-producer Brad Grey, 
whose company, Brad Grey Television, produces the series. 
     The next season begins production in October. Hoping to keep fans tuning 
in--as well as help bolster its other original series--HBO said it will rerun 
the first three seasons of "The Sopranos" on Sundays at 8 p.m. beginning Aug. 
12.... 
============== 
...another AOL Time Warner property, the WB network, ...(was) shutout (of the 
Emmys) ...(despite the) critically lauded "Gilmore Girls,"...
     WB Chairman Jamie Kellner ....defended the WB's commitment to ethnic 
diversity, saying it was "not abandoning anything" despite a reduction in the 
number of comedies on its schedule featuring African American leads. (The WB 
is part-owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times.) 
 
 

Thanks to H-ITAM

"The Golden Milestone" has been mentioned before, but because of 
another recognition, it's information  bears repeating.
============================================ 

"The Golden Milestone"

The University of Nevada, Program in Italian Language and Studies, has
made "The Golden Milestone" required reading for the fall semester. "The
Golden Milestone" has received outstanding reviews and is the best
selling Italian heritage book on Amazon.com . For editorial reviews and
more information on this title read below.

"The Golden Milestone - Over 2500 Years of Italian Contributions to
Civilization" by Russell Esposito.
Published by The New York Learning Library - www.nylearninglibrary.com

BOOK REVIEWS (endorsed & used by universities & cultural institutes)

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 "A milestone achievement...no other book (on Italian heritage) offers
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"The Golden Milestone is a must....Carefully researched and documented
....a pleasurable experience. We give it our highest recommendation."

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President, American Italian Historical Association
Director, Italian-American Studies Program, Stony Brook University, NY
Vice President, Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park, IL
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"...a comprehensive history of the tremendous influence the Italian
culture has had upon our civilization. This book is a must-read not only
for members of the Italian American community, but for Italo-philes the
world over."

HOW TO ORDER:

Two ways to order:
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MORE ABOUT THE BOOK:
This comprehensive book on Italian heritage contains 20 encyclopedic
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as well as, modern contributions by Italians and Italian-Americans. The
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and accomplishments. For example, Italians invented the piano, violin,
opera, ballet, battery, telescope, radio, telephone (in NYC before
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Retails for $19.95.
(Also, write to the publisher  service@nylearninglibrary.com  to learn
more about university quantity purchase discount programs.)
 

Thanks to Bob Masullo

Bob Masullo and the journalist Virgo are more optimistic than I. I am concerned that the "dependency" factor is too rooted.

More importantly, the Local Southern Powers whose pockets were lined by Rome ("throwing money at the problem") in return for political support or bribes, will be those same people, who are still driven only by self interest, and have no more concern for the populace now, than they did before, will take charge. Further there will not be a Federal Government to keep them in check. 

I could see a modern "Feudalism" developing.

However, expecting the "Golden Triangle" or Rome to ever take "serious" the problems of the South, is probably equally optimistic.

I delusionally envision a "Marshall Plan" of successful Italian Americans establishing some "Euro" operations of their companies in Southern Italy. 

=====================================================
>From the July 13, 2001, edition of Italy Daily 
(part of the International Herald Tribune distributed in Italy):

JUDGE THE DEVOLUTION PLAN ON ITS MERITS, 
NOT ITS CHAMPION

By Paul Virgo
(a Rome-based freelance writer)

Umberto Bossi may be a crude, xenophobic hothead.

He delights in being unpleasant and is one of Italy's most unpopular people. 
For years he has criticized southern Italy as corrupt, mismanaged and 
Mafia-ridden.

Ironically, though, he might also turn out to be the best thing to happen to 
the Mezzogiorno since Diego Armando Maradona played for Napoli.

Mr. Bossi, head of the formerly separatist Northern League and now minister 
for reforms, will submit his program for devolution to the cabinet on Monday 
(July 16).

The proposal will seek to introduce a federal system similar to the one 
adopted by Spain, where regional governments decide most matters.

Mr. Bossi's plan wants this devolved system for his own selfish reasons -- he 
believes it would liberate his dynamic and prosperous native North from the 
parasitic South.

The beauty of his plans, though, is that they may be just the medicine the 
Mezzogiorno needs to get out of the mess it's in.

The stubborn problem of southern underdevelopment is the stain that has 
spoiled Italy's post-war economic miracle. Rome's policy for the last 50 
years has been to throw money at the problem.

It has been a costly failure. Funds diverted to the South fattened the 
wallets of corrupt officials and organized crime bosses but very little else. 
In terms of infrastructure and long-term job creation there is little to show 
for years of grants and high-profile projects.

Worse than the waste of time and money though is the culture of dependency 
this approach has encouraged. Many southern Italians have learned to expect 
the state to solve their problems for them.

This obviously cannot go on forever.

Southerners have to learn to fend for themselves before the money they have 
depended on for so long dries up. In a few years' time the expansion of the 
European Union will mean most of the grants from Brussels to the Mezzogiorno 
will be diverted to Eastern Europe.

Devolution could be the South's last hope.

Mr. Bossi's program doesn't mean abandoning Italy's poorest regions. It means 
freeing them up to use the talent and natural resources already present. 
People from the South are by no means helpless, But have been prevented from 
achieving their potential by this culture of dependency. Indeed, they are 
arguably more creative and resourceful than their Northern compatriots and 
thrive when they go abroad or move to other parts of the country.

Devolution might give them the chance to exercise those skills without 
leaving their hometowns. It would be a message to southerners that their 
destiny is in their own hands, while also giving them the means to improve 
the situation by themselves. Antonio Bossolino, the former mayor of Naples, 
and now the president of Campania, has shown that things can be improved by 
local action.

Devolution would enable the South to finally show us what it's made of.

What's more, Mr. Bossi's devolution program would have the added bonus of 
strengthening democracy. For historical reasons, Italians feel more attached 
to their city or region than they are to their relatively young state.

Ask a Roman what he identifies more with, Rome or Italy, and he would 
probably say Rome. People from Milan, Florence and Naples would give you a 
similar answer.

Therefore, a devolved system would more closely reflect Italian people's 
loyalties and would likely bring them closer to their political institutions.

Many people dislike Mr. Bossi, and given his sporadically repulsive record on 
immigrants, it is easy to understand why.

But his devolution program should be judged on its merits regardless of one's 
feelings for its advocate.
 

I prefer Studies of the Italian American Experience. My second preference are 
Factual Stories of an Italian American Family intricately interwoven with the 
Italian American Experience that massages my nostalgia. Of lesser preference 
is Fiction (drama or mystery, etc.) that intertwines the Italian American 
Experience.

However in the spirit of attempting to support I-A writers, and in 
recognition of Mr. Fusco's first book that substantially includes an Italian 
flavor, after several "general" successes, I am forwarding the following 
information.

John has written  Crossroads, Young Guns I and II, Loch Ness, and The Babe 
among others. 

Every Italian American writer deserves a web site as attractive and effective 
as John Fusco's at << http://www.waterhorseprod.com >>

==================================================
"Paradise Salvage" by John Fusco is newly published, and currently only 
available only in the UK  but will be available in the US in hardcover in February. 
=============================================

"Paradise Salvage" 
Book Description

All my young life summer had been mine to catch and release, like an endless 
vein of sunfish. Now it was out of my grip; I had hooked something deep in 
the gills under muddy water and it was pulling me with it.

Twelve-year-old Nunzio's innocence is lost forever when he opens the boot of 
a wrecked Pontiac Bonneville in his father's junkyard. But who will believe 
the tale of the horror that he found there when all evidence is lost to the 
Paradise Salvage crusher? 

In a family of Italian-American eccentrics, Danny Boy alone is persuaded by 
his younger brother's implausible claim. Enlisting the help of their father's 
renegade cousin, Angelo -- a quadriplegic ex-cop with a dark history of his 
own -- they embark on a bizarre and dangerous trail through the underbelly of 
small-town America, in a journey that proves to be as much one of personal 
discovery as an unravelling of the mystery behind the corpse at Paradise 
Salvage. 

Drawing on his own childhood experience as part of the passionate Italian 
American community, John Fusco has written a beautifully intricate, lyrical 
tale of mystery and suspense. It is a story of innocence lost and justice 
found; of ambition frustrated and dreams realised; and of the love, and the 
difference, between generations of a family struggling to reconcile the 
traditions of the past with the demands of the present. 

Synopsis 
1979, "the last true summer of my boyhood", and Nunzio is helping out in the 
family-owned scrapyard. Inside the boot of a wrecked Pontiac he finds a man's 
body holding some beads. By the time the alarm is raised the car is in the 
crusher and the only evidence left is a few beads and a spent bullet. 

About the Author 
Prior to becoming an award-winning screenwriter, John Fusco left high school 
early to work variously as a factory machinist, sawmill hand, motorcycle seat 
upholsterer and travelling blues musician. 

After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he went 
on to write and produce eight major motion pictures. He lives with his wife 
and son on their stud farm in Vermont. 

Some early reviews:
PARADISE SALVAGE is the best coming-of-age novel I've read since The Catcher
in the Rye. A taut and original thriller and an unsentimental evocation of a 
special time and place. Best of all, every last sentence is written from and 
to the heart."

'Paradise Salvage is a true portmanteau novel - it's an elegy, a
celebration, a rite of passage, an exploration of the roots of family,
loyalty and love. But it's also a suspense-driven thriller that packs in
humour, pathos, fear and a rare generosity of spirit. It's that rare
things - a genuine thriller that also warms the heart.' VAL McDERMID

'A rich Italian/American social stew that rings true: vivid, atmospheric,
and full of real-life dialogue...something found in all too few books
nowadays' PETER MAYLE, author of A YEAR IN PROVENCE
 
 

Thanks to Elissa Ruffino of NIAF

I will try to mask my disappointment at a Non Italian American being selected 
despite strong recommendations from the Italian American Community
==================================================

THE NIAF CONGRATULATES THE NEW 
UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO ITALY

    (WASHINGTON, DC -- July 16, 2001)   The National Italian American
Foundation (NIAF) commends President George W. Bush on his nomination of the
Honorable Melvin F. Sembler to be the next United States Ambassador to
Italy.

    "President Bush has chosen an eminently qualified individual to be
the next U.S. Ambassador to Italy," said NIAF Chairman Frank J. Guarini.
"The President has selected an individual of experience who obviously has
his ear.     The nomination of Ambassador Sembler comes at a most important
time in U. S. - Italy relations.  Prime Minister Berlusconi has expressed a
desire to have Italy be the strongest U.S. ally in the new Europe.  We wish
him good luck in his new post." 
    "We congratulate Ambassador Sembler and the President on the
nomination.  The NIAF looks  forward to  working closely with Ambassador
Sembler  when he assumes one of the most important assignments in the
diplomatic world, " said NIAF President Joseph R. Cerrell.
    Former U.S. Ambassador to Australia and Nauru (a Central Pacific
island) during the Bush Administration, Ambassador Sembler serves as finance
chairman for the Republican National Committee and is the Florida National
Committeeman to the RNC.  He served as the international leader and
spokesperson for the shopping center industry as 1986-87 president of the
International Council of Shopping Centers, a position that capped 25 years
of active service to the worldwide trade association.  He is the chairman of
the Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. and an activist in the anti-drug
movement with his wife, Betty.  Mrs. Sembler is the founder and president of
Save Our Society From Drugs.
    He graduated from Northwestern University with a  Bachelor of
Science degree in 1952. 
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a non-profit organization
based in Washington, DC and dedicated to preserving the heritage of Italian
Americans. Visit our website at: niaf.org 
 
 
 

Thanks to Francesca L'Orfano at (la dolce vita_italiani nel mondo)

This reporting sounds surreal!!

Berlusconi OKs purchase of 200 body bags, and setting up of temporary morgue. 
Genoa Social Forum coordinating 1,000 anti-capitalist protest groups of 100,000+. 
Disturbances promised to dwarf those previously at Seattle, Prague and Goteborg. 

A missile defence system installed at Genoa airport to deter airborne terrorist 
attack. Italian Railways shutting down two rail stations near summit, two days in 
advance.

Luca Casarini, leader of Italian anarchist group, the White Overalls, has 
studied police tactics for the past month. "We know their strategy and how to 
defeat it,". "We will be using some highly unconventional methods and when we 
storm the city's off-limit zone,... This is a revolution."
 

MORGUE SET UP FOR G8 SUMMIT--
UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE ANTICIPATED

Julian Coman and Robert Fox from
The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 15 July 2001

ROME -- Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has ordered security
forces to prepare for unprecedented levels of violence at this week's G8
summit in Genoa, authorizing the purchase of 200 body bags and the setting
up of a temporary morgue in a hospital.

In the most tense build-up to an international summit for decades, the
Italian government fears a violent backlash to events at last month's
European Union summit in Goteborg, where one protester was shot by police
during riots. 

The United States has already laid plans to remove President George W. Bush
from his hotel to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in the Gulf of Genoa
should serious rioting begin.

For the past month, anti-capitalist protest groups have said that
disturbances at Genoa will dwarf those seen previously at Seattle, Prague
and Goteborg. More than 100,000 protesters are expected to converge on the
city, many intent on breaking through to the summit area.

Mr. Berlusconi has placed his authority on the line to ensure a peaceful
summit, supervising the most elaborate security measures ever seen for a G8
meeting. 

A missile defence system has been installed at Genoa airport to deter
airborne terrorist attack. The land-based rockets have a range of 14
kilometres and were previously deployed along the Adriatic coast during the
NATO conflict with Yugoslavia.

Other than Mr. Bush, most G8 leaders will be accommodated on the liner
European Vision, moored in Genoa harbour, which will be guarded by the
military and Italian police.

The Brigata Folgore, the Italian equivalent of the SAS, has been placed on
stand-by. 

"We will do anything necessary to allow this summit to take place without
disturbance," said a spokesman for the Italian Interior Ministry.

There are fears however, that some protesters may already have penetrated
the Red Zone where the summit will take place. "If that is the case, we'll
just have to get them out when the time comes," said a Genoa police
official. 

The summit begins on Friday, but from Wednesday the city will effectively be
under siege. Italian State Railways announced last Friday that both of
Genoa's main stations would close two days in advance, in an attempt to keep
protesters away from the harbour area where the summit is being held.

The heavy precautions have angered protest groups. Vittorio Agnoletto, the
spokesman for the Genoa Social Forum, which is co-ordinating more than 1,000
anti-summit groups and associations, said: "If closing the stations is
supposed to be a challenge to us, then we can tell them right now that we
are going to get there whatever happens." Across the Internet, organizations
have threatened violence.

The German anarchist group, Autonomen, has promised disruption using
"whatever means possible."

Luca Casarini, the leader of the Italian anarchist group, the White
Overalls, said the group had studied police tactics for the past month. "We
know their strategy and how to defeat it," he said. "We will be using some
highly unconventional methods and when we storm the city's off-limit zone,
we will be ready to defend ourselves. This is not going to be a small
conflict. This is a revolution."

As pre-summit tension rises, Italian ministers have fiercely criticized the
decision, taken by the previous premier, Giuliano Amato, to hold the summit
in Genoa. "The choice of Genoa for an occasion such as this was an act of
complete irresponsibility," said Giuliano Urbani, the minister for culture.
"People will be at risk, and so will the cultural monuments."

http://www.ottawacitizen.com:80/business/010715/5016752.html
The Ottawa Citizen Online

Obituary - Marco Zanuso; 
Key Postwar Furniture Designer, Architect

July 14 2001

Marco Zanuso, one of Italy's leading postwar designers and an architect known 
for a functional yet elegant style, died Wednesday in Milan after a long 
illness. He was 85.

Zanuso was among the furniture designers responsible for convincing people 
that plastic was a suitable material for the home. With his partner, German 
designer Richard Sapper, he designed a small, stackable child's chair in 1961 
and manufactured it in several playful colors. The light, functional piece 
was instantly popular.

He and Sapper also designed a series of radios and TVs for the Brionvega 
electronics company that became enduring icons of the sleek, minimalist style 
known as techno-functionalism. Among the best-known pieces in that line was 
the stylish plastic TS502 radio with a clamshell cover. They also designed 
the folding Grillo phone for Siemens, one of the first phones to put the dial 
and earpiece on the same unit. A sleek technological-style approach and a 
concern for the natural landscape marked Zanuso's architecture. Among his 
best-known buildings are the Olivetti headquarters in Argentina and Brazil, 
IBM office buildings in Milan and Rome, and a drama school and theater in his 
hometown of Milan. 
 

The following was an "insert" article but was not available on the LA Times Web.
As the previous article pulled at your heart, this should make you smile.

DAUGHTER ALSO COULD FIGHT

Stephanie LaMotta tough?  You could ask a  would-be London mugger or about 
that. 

One night in 1982, LaMotta walked out of a nightclub when a man approached 
her and asked her for money. 

"The funny part is, I was going to give him some money", she recalled.  "I 
said, "Come over  to my car and I'll  write you a small check". 

"Then he pulled out of knife.  I said to him "I'm going to hurt you if you 
use that".  "He tried to stab me but I blocked the knife with my left hand, 
which he cut.  Then I hit him in the stomach with my left and as he doubled 
up I hit him on the jaw with my right.  He went down, out cold.  He was still 
out cold when the  cops came". 

The little "LaMotta's  Daughters KOs Mugger" story made Page 1 on sports 
sections around the world. 

 There was this reaction from New York, where reporters found her dad: 
"That's my girl " cooed Jake LaMotta. "Ain't that cute?" 

By Earl Gutsky

Jake LaMotta's sixth fight against Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951, for La Motta's 
World Middleweight Championship was considered one Boxing's greatest action 
fights.

"The Raging Bull" is now  78, hale and hearty, was knocked down only once in 
his  106-bout, 13-year career.

LaMotta's daughter, Stephanie, now 41, once an aspiring actress, and a 
fitness guru, is now confined to a wheel chair fighting MS, has drawn 
inspiration from her indomitable father.

BODY BLOW !!

Like Her Famous Father, Stephanie LaMotta is a fighter, 
but Her Antagonist is an Elusive Neurological Disease 
She Has Battled for More Than 20 Years.

Earl Gustkey
LA Times Staff Writer
July 14 2001

Stephanie LaMotta, daughter of famed boxing champion Jake LaMotta, sat in her 
wheelchair, engrossed in a video of her father's 1951 fight with Sugar Ray 
Robinson.

"What a man," she muttered, watching her father take one tremendous punch 
after another, shake each one off and continue taking the fight to Robinson.

Fifty years have passed since LaMotta and Robinson fought at old Chicago 
Stadium. On Feb. 14, 1951, both in their prime, they met for LaMotta's world 
middleweight championship before 14,802. It was their sixth fight, Robinson 
having won four of the first five, all of which had been wars. Even so, no 
one was prepared for the ferocity with which they battled for 13 rounds. It 
was one of boxing's greatest action fights, maybe the greatest.

And the 11th round might have been the single greatest round.

"This is exciting, I haven't seen this fight since I was 12," said Stephanie 
LaMotta, 41.

LaMotta-Robinson was a great fight for one simple reason: LaMotta took a 
punch as well as any fighter who ever fought. According to historian Bert 
Sugar, LaMotta was knocked down only once in his career, late in his 
106-bout, 13-year career.

LaMotta's daughter winced each time Robinson jolted her father.

"Oh, no! Couldn't you have shown me a film where my dad wins?" she said, 
watching her father take a brutal combination from Robinson in the 11th.

LaMotta was all about indomitable will. Although he absorbed heavy 
punishment, he never stopped taking the fight to Robinson--even in the 13th, 
when the referee stopped the fight and awarded the championship to Robinson, 
the 2-1 favorite.

In the movie "Raging Bull," actor Robert De Niro, who portrayed LaMotta, 
defiantly mumbles to Robinson as the fight is stopped: "Ya didin' put me 
down, Ray. Ya didin' put me down."

"My dad told me he really did say that, but not at the instant the fight was 
stopped," Stephanie LaMotta said.

She is engrossed in watching her father, in a fight eight years before she 
was born.

"You know, dad had his spleen ruptured in this fight. He looks so strong but 
he always told me he had to lose so much weight so fast for the fight, it 
left him weak. Hard to believe."

Jake LaMotta is 78, hale and hearty, his daughter reports. But he didn't 
respond to interview requests for this story.

"My dad is amazing; he's never had a health problem," Stephanie said.

Even more amazing, she said, LaMotta has no apparent neurological damage from 
a career made famous by his ability to shake off punches.

But the fact is, LaMotta never took punches as well as his daughter can.

No one ever told Jake LaMotta he had multiple sclerosis, a disease his 
daughter has battled for more than 20 years.

Jake LaMotta never had to be pushed around in a wheelchair, never had to have 
someone help him dress. He has never needed someone to carry him to the 
bathroom.

Stephanie LaMotta has been rocked by all of those punches and still is 
punching back.

"I have a heavy bag in my garage and I punch it as part of my therapy," she 
said.

"It's good therapy for anyone who's in a wheelchair. Do you realize how much 
frustration and hostility is associated with having to stay in one of these 
things?" she said, pointing to her wheelchair.

She knows a lot about punching bags. In the late 1980s, when she was an 
aspiring actress, she developed a business plan for organizing boxing 
workouts for women at health clubs. It was bag work, rope jumping, shadow 
boxing and all the calisthenics boxers use.

Such workouts for women are common in fitness clubs today. She says she was 
about eight years too early.

"I was Thomas Edison with the light bulb at a time when no one wanted to see 
the light," she grumbled.

"I can't tell you how many gyms I went to and the answer was always the same: 
'What, are you crazy? Women doing boxing workouts? Women don't even like 
boxing. No one would be interested. It'd never work.'

"So what happens? It's everywhere. Every gym in the world has boxing 
workouts. Thousands of women have discovered that boxing workouts are a great 
way to stay in shape."

LaMotta undergoes rehabilitation at a Cal State Northridge clinic, the Center 
of Achievement for the Physically Disabled. Its director is Dr. Sam Britten.

"She's a dynamic lady," he said. "If will, if spirit, if her drive have 
anything to do with it, she will get better."

LaMotta's MS was diagnosed in 1980, after a year of mystery symptoms.

"At first, the fingers on my left hand went stiff," she said. "Then I started 
dropping things and falling. Then I started losing sight in my right eye. 
Then I was blind.

"For a long time doctors thought I had a tumor on my pituitary. Then they 
wanted to open up my skull and look at my brain."

MS afflicts about 250,000 Americans. The disease begins when the protective 
coating around nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord inexplicably begin 
to deteriorate. Scar tissue forms. The effect is akin to what happens when an 
electrical wire short-circuits.

Symptoms range from minor to major paralysis and vision impairment. Symptoms 
may be permanent, or can come and go.

LaMotta said her case was not especially troublesome until three years ago, 
when she was in an auto accident.

"The air bag in my car deployed so violently it collapsed one of my lungs," 
she said. "The trauma of it all exacerbated my MS. Two days later, my legs 
went numb. Two days later, they were stiff. A month later, I was in a walker, 
then a wheelchair.

"There's a new Exercycle-type device out called a NuStep, which enables 
people who can't move their legs to do so by turning a wheel with their 
hands. I use one at Cal State Northridge--I don't know where I'd be without 
it.

"I'm fighting this, with all my heart. I'm like my dad, in that way--we're 
both fighters. We talk about once a month and he inspires me." 
 
 

From: Italy News Net 

MANCUSO REPORT ON TRIP TO ITALY

An informative, comprehensive, and enjoyable report by Prof Emeritus James 
Mancuso on his trip to Italy. It focuses on Cilento, but will generate 
nostalgia in all.

<< http://www.capital.net/~soialban/cilenvis.html >>

SHARON ENDS VISIT DECLARING ITALY 
A STRONG ISRAELI ALLY

"My impression is that I have come to visit a great ally and friend," 
declared Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon upon the conclusion of his visit 
to Italy. During the 24-hours Mr. Sharon spent in Rome, he met with the 
President of the Italian Republic Ciampi, Prime Minister Berlusconi, Minister 
of Foreign Affairs Ruggiero and Defense Minister Martino. The main theme of 
his meetings was the on-going problems of peace and stability in the Middle 
East which Mr. Sharon emphasized as vital in turn to the stabitiy of the 
entire Mediterranean and beyond. Before departing, Mr. Sharon met with 
representatives of Italy's Jewish community. 

IMF CONCERNED ABOUT ITALIAN NATIONAL DEFICIT

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed serious concerns over the 
newly-projected Italian national deficit. For now, given the huge difference 
between the previous and new projections, the IMF has chosen to refrain from 
commenting on the problem. IMF chief Kruger, who will arrive on business in 
Italy later in the month, made this observation, "All of the estimates 
demonstrate how difficult it will be to reach Italy's original economic 
objectives, and this is certainly a cause of serious concern." However, he 
indicated that the means for restructuring and the measures to adopt to 
overcome the problem will be the focus of the IMF mission to Italy when it 
arrives on July 23. 
 

Thanks to: Francesca L'Orfano at ladolcevita_italianinelmondo@yahoogroups.com 

Sure it's not convenient because it's in Toronto. 
But get a vicarious charge from the pleasure of the review.

AUTHOR IN SEARCH OF CHARACTERS
by Sarah B. Hood 

The Shaw Festival could have gone to any source in the world when they were
seeking a new translation of Six Characters in Search of an Author, the play
that turned Luigi Pirandello into one of the most internationally renowned
playwrights of the 20th century. In fact, they went no further than the
campus of the University of Toronto, where Domenico Pietropaolo serves as
Director of the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama.

Calabrian-born Pietropaolo was already working on his own translation of the
famous play last year when he was approached. "There has been a longstanding
connection between the Graduate Centre and the Shaw Festival, in the sense
that the Literary Advisor to the Shaw Festival, Ronald Bryden, was the
Director of the Drama Centre," Pietropaolo explains. Also, Denis Johnston,
Shaw¹s Head of Publications, "is now cross-appointed to the Drama Centre."
In his efforts to strengthen the links between academic pursuits and the
professional theatre world, Pietropaolo has deepened those connections
through such initiatives as co-productions and student placements. "The Shaw
Festival was very open to that collaboration," he comments.

Pietropaolo¹s interest in the project was "to prepare an edition that was
not just another production of Six Characters in Search of an Author, but
one that would have research value," he says. Therefore he turned not to the
second edition of the script, which is the one most often performed, but to
the first, "the one that made Pirandello an international star."

The second edition, Pietropaolo believes, "is a readerly edition," less
suited to staging than the first. "The major change is that in the second
edition the characters come in through the main door of the theatre, whereas
in the first edition they enter through a small door in the wall onstage,"
he says. Perhaps this seems like a small distinction; its importance lies in
the fact that Pirandello¹s genius, and the key to this play, consists in a
questioning of the relationship between the world on the stage and real
life. Therefore, the fibre of the play is deeply altered depending on
whether the "six characters" seem to be fictional creations or real people.
The translation did not evolve only on the page. Pietropaolo arranged for
his graduate students to analyze various versions of his emerging script.
"Then we had various readings of it. We were able to listen to the
orchestrated voices," he says, pointing out that the English words are "not
always as rhythmical or as euphonic as they are in Italian."

Then the production was workshopped, and, finally, Pietropaolo attended
rehearsals at Shaw, where the professional cast of actors made small
additional changes: adding, subtracting or altering certain words or
phrases. The production made its debut in last year¹s Shaw festival season,
and "was very successful. It was sold out almost immediately," says
Pietropaolo. It was so successful, in fact, it is being remounted this year,
so those who were disappointed last year will have a second chance to see
this locally produced recreation of one of the world¹s most important plays.
 

Six Characters in Search of an Author runs from July 7 until September 22 at
the Shaw Festival¹s Court House Theatre. For tickets, call 1-800-511-SHAW,
or visit www.shawfest.sympatico.ca.

http://www.tandemnews.com/theatre.html
http://www.corriere.com
 

Thanks to Francesca L'Orfaano at (la dolce vita_italiani nel mondo)
From: <<http://www.tandemnews.com/culture.html>>

Lucky residents in Toronto Canada were able to view an Exhibition of 
Posters, created mostly by Cruise Lines to promote business 
that enticed Italian to Immigrate to Promised Lands 

The Promised Land on Posters (June 24 - July 1)

 They left behind their land of origin, their loved ones, and their
traditions. According to some estimates, about 60 million Italians left the
motherland, in various periods, and migrated to richer countries.

They went to unknown lands looking for a better life. Their baggage held
photos, holy images, publications that reminded them of the places and
people that they were leaving behind. During their long, tedious voyages,
crammed in squalid boats, they dreamed of "America." They carried with them
their dreams and "pieces" of Italy: poetry, songs, prayers, and theatrical
plays that they reproduced everywhere they went, and not just for fellow
nationals. Groups of actors and small theatrical companies proposed Italian
theatre as if they were at home, looking for consolation in those memories.
They launched their initiatives with posters rigorously written in Italian.
These posters were used for promoting initiatives, advisories, advertising.
Some of them were veritable pictures that could be looked at, reflected
upon, interpreted.

Many of the posters created in those years are systematically displayed
within the framework of the most important photographic exhibitions about
emigration. Through these posters the life and history of Italians abroad
can be understood and imagined. From those photos one can capture the facial
expressions, melancholy, and feelings. They could be called a "photo album"
testifying a history long ignored by official books and only recently
included in school curricula by some regional governments. One of the first
regions to take steps for involving high schools is Molise, with an
experimental initiative.

Meanwhile, one can appreciate and comment on the photos, each with its own
story, protagonists, and untold tales. Transparent blue, a clear sea and the
red dress of a "lady" wearing a small hat and waving a white handkerchief.
She¹s greeting the arrival of a ship, loaded with successful people who left
Italy some years earlier and is now returning for a visit to wives and
relatives. That was the only alternative to a worker¹s meagre wages and to a
farmer¹s increasingly scarce yield. More or less, this should be the
impression that those posters elicited from poor Italian workers and farmers
with few possibilities at home. That huge, shiny steel ship, with its
promise of comfort even for third-class passengers and its claim of
"reaching New York in just 11 days" must have raised their hopes. An
imposing and fast transatlantic ship, safe even in stormy seas, which
allowed a glimpse of a more dignified life, far from misery, hunger, and
illness, to anyone who could reach the Statue of Liberty.

That ship stood for well-being: 11 days, just 11 days and then life would
change on the other side of the Atlantic. Surely, period propaganda hit the
mark of tickling the dreams of poor Italians. Poster illustrators were
masterfully drawing liners under vermilion skies at sunset, among foaming
waves. The shipping lines shuttling back and forth between Italy and America
had encouraging names: "La Veloce" ("The Fast") from Genoa ensured a "most
speedy service with most elegant steamships," and also "electric lighting
and top-class treatment for passengers."

There were also the "Famous Four Counts," four ships belonging to Lloyd
Sabaudo, which were shown in posters as knights with pennants and shields
while riding galloping horses that left fast trailing waves. There was
"Augustus," a steamship displacing 30,000 tons, connecting Genoa to Brazil.
Its imposing hulk occupied almost the entire poster, as if the sea, for such
a huge ship, were just a small detail. The fantasy from a poster artist was
extremely capable of selling dreams. The Italians of the early 20th century,
still prevailingly farmers and exhausted by frequent famine, needed to
change their lives. Beyond the sea, a virgin country was awaiting discovery,
giving more than the bare necessities. Between these two worlds there was a
reassuring, robust, and unsinkable ship, sailing every other week. According
to the destination, the trip took 11 or 18 days, and even nine immediately
after the War. The fare varied according to class: for Brazil, with the
Adria shipping company, the tickets in 1911 cost 770 Lira in first class,
570 in second, and 195 in third. But the treatment was to be excellent "for
all passengers regardless of class, with fresh meat and freshly baked
bread".

However, Italian emigrants almost invariably found these promises to be
illusory. In a newspaper report written in the late 19th century by Cuore
author Edmondo De Amicis, who had travelled to Uruguay and Argentina on
board the "Galileo," revealed what really went on during transatlantic
voyages, talking of the real conditions of third-class passengers. "Crammed
among piles of cartons, baggage, and animals, in the company of thieves and
people smelling from filth, there are sick women with malnourished children.
What about the friendly giant glorified by advertising, protecting the poor
emigrants with its warm steel hull?"

Despite the much-advertised electric light, the luxurious accessories, and
the fresh meat, the squalid reality was that often the third class had not
even a bathroom for hundreds of passengers, who were forced to reach the
second class to find one.

Of course, publications were not limited to advertising posters for shipping
lines, but developed in new ways all around emigration: covers of records
sold in America depicting the enchantment of the gulf of Naples; holy images
invoking the protection of patron saints over those "who were leaving their
motherland;" notices about the rules and regulations to be adhered to by
emigrants who were going to Brazil; posters of famous Italian restaurants in
San Francisco and posters advertising Italian movies; and postcards of all
kinds: Christmas greetings from New York, birthday wishes, and greetings to
a far-away family.
 

Just to keep you informed about 
Italian-Canadian Bigotry

(1) Letters to CBSC and CRT re Sopranos and Canadian Broadcast Standards 
     -(A) Steven Antonuccio
     -(B) Francesca L'Orfano
(2) Letter to CBC and CBSC re "Wise Girls" by Francesca L'Orfano
     Another equation of Italian American=Mafia

(1-A) Dear Mr. Cohen, 

After reading your response to Francesca and the findings of your report, 
which not only gave a blanket pardon to the Sopranos, but actually praised 
the series, I must tell you I am completely dumbfounded. Finding hate, 
racism, and stereotyping in The Sopranos is as easy as finding white linen at 
a Klan rally.  You don't even have to watch the show.  All you have to do is 
LOOK AT THE LOGO.  A beautiful Italian name, with a gun replacing the letter 
"R."  Does that give you just a little clue as to what you are going to find 
in this show. A program that portrays Italian North Americans as criminals, 
murderers, pimps, drug dealers, wife beaters, and thieves.  Tell me again, 
how this is good for the image of Italian North Americans? 

All I ask is that you do the litmus test.  Would it be O.K. to do a series 
that stereotyped blacks as lazy and called it "The Washingtons" with a 
watermelon instead of an "O" in the title?  Of COURSE NOT!!!! So why is it 
O.K. to do a series about the worst stereotype of  Italian North American and 
replace the letter "R" with a gun? 

With all your education, with all your sterling credentials, with all your 
high moral standards, nobody on your committee saw or addressed the gun in 
the logo?  I can only hope that your daughter doesn't come home, like mine 
has done, complaining that she has been teased at school and called "Mafia 
Girl."  I can only hope that no one ever asks you if your beautiful Italian 
last name is a Mafia name, like I have been asked. 

The Sopranos is the most racist series to have ever been shown on television. 
 It is the most destructive thing that has ever happened to Italian North 
American culture.  When they graphically show an Italian North American man 
beating to death a stripper, how can that be good for people like myself and 
Francesca? 

Finding the racism in The Sopranos is as easy as finding white linen at a 
Klan rally.  Something is very wrong here, and my disappointment in your 
group is profound. 

Steven Antonuccio 

Thankyou for your reply.  I will only comment on a few items at the moment,
and leave aside your insults.

What is continually dishonest and disturbing is that complainants were asked
to be very specific and detailed with their "second letters" which
contradicts your information below as to the simplicity of complaining to
the CBSC.  More importantly Ms Mainville-Neeson requested that I send any
additional information about this issue as a means of helping the panel to
understand precisely its "sociological" dimension.  You have now clearly
stated that "The work of the CBSC is never sociological." ????? What may I
ask are your Codes all about, if not sociology???

 Your information about your involvement in establishing commercial free
children's programming in Quebec suggests you accept and understand the
sociological dimension of television, so why the lack of sensitivity here on
this issue? 

"The Sopranos" encourages and continues to nurture bigotry and racism
against Italian North Americans and all of my documentation, which your
panel has ignored has clearly established this.

I will continue with my CRTC complaint.

Sincerely,
Francesca L'Orfano

I sent both a voice mail and a letter of complaint to CBC Newsworld on
Monday, June 11 and resent my email complaint on Monday, July 9, 2001.

 So far I have yet to hear from CBC Newsworld audience relations.  CBC
Newsworld is a Nationally broadcast news program. Their weather reporter
takes up residence at various spots for each morning segment...this location
is used both as the setting for that particular 2-3 hour newsbroadcast and
every 20 or 30 minutes this same reporter will be seen in that setting and
at times will "advertise" the location and event....an interview with Mira
Sorvino was rebroadcast throughout this morning's episode....ie for St.
Patrick's day a Irish Pub, the Citadel in Halifax etc...mostly these have
all been positive locations, except when it came to Italian North
Americans...somehow CBC chose to air on June 11, from the set of "Wisegirls"
(the female version of "Wiseguys") with Mira Sorvino, taping in Halifax. 

I have yet to get any response from CBC Audience Relations...and to note I
have not received any phonecall or email response, I am therefore sending
this to the CBSC as CBC.  Our publicly funded network has shown little
sensitivity and little regard for my complaint.

Sincerely
Francesca L'Orfano
Toronto, Ontario

Thanks to Bob Masullo

MORE SOPRANOS' PRESS

Camille Paglia, Salon, Column of May 23, 2001

...On to another, lesser matter of media group think, HBO's series, "The 
Sopranos," which has been wildly over-praised by middlebrow commentators 
whose critical judgment is clearly bankrupt. I have yet to watch a single 
entire episode of that show, which I find vulgar and boring as well as rife 
with offensive clichés about Italian-Americans that would never be tolerated 
were they about Jews or blacks. 

What I find especially repugnant about "The Sopranos" is its elitist 
condescension toward working-class life, which it distorts with formulas that 
are 30 years out of date. Manners and mores have subtly evolved in the ethnic 
world that "The Sopranos" purports to depict and that extends from South 
Philadelphia to central New Jersey and metropolitan New York. The critics who 
have raved without qualification about "The Sopranos" have simply exposed 
their own bourgeois removal from real life as well as their reactionary 
attachment to "plot" -- which is so mechanically and even neurotically 
obtrusive in that show that it betrays the authoritarian tendencies of its 
confused creator, David Chase, who has no instinct for psychology, his own or 
anyone else's. 

It's not the Mafia theme that I detest, tired and pointless as that is after 
its canonical treatment in masterpieces like the first two "Godfather" films, 
directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It's the sickening combination of 
effeteness in conception and crudity in execution that no major media article 
on "The Sopranos" has even noticed much less analyzed. Last week's panel 
discussion at the New York Hilton about "The Sopranos," sponsored by the 
National Italian-American Foundation and featuring James Wolcott...myself and 
others,...(was) broadcast by C-Span on June 2. 

I do agree with you about "The Sopranos." I don't get the hype. I've tried to 
watch a few episodes only to change the channel after a few minutes. It's the 
same thing with the sitcom "Will & Grace" or "Dharma and Greg." I do not find 
those shows funny at all. -- Andrew M. Cox 

One increasingly gathers that America, having taken over the world's 
entertainment industry, is concerned more with the cankers in its own society 
than is the rest of the world. You have to think that the nastiness of the 
U.S. movie/TV trade is a reflection of the nastiness of the people making the 
shows....-- Paul Kunino Lynch, Kings Cross, Australia

The massacre of 9500 Italian Soldiers by German troops during WW2 on 
Cephalonia, (A Greek Island in the Ionion Sea, but then you knew that) 
memorialized in Louis de Bernières book "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", is now 
being thrust back to centre stage with the release in England in May of John 
Madden's film by the same name, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz.

Scheduled to be released in the US on August 17.

I believe an Italian version of this same episode, and by some considered 
superior is: "I giorni dell'amore e dell'odio", not yet scheduled to be seen 
outside of Italy. 

THE REAL CAPTAIN CORELLI-

The retired Italian car enthusiast, Amos Pampaloni,  who provided part of the 
basis for Louis De Bernières' music-loving second world war officer has been 
reminiscing 
to the press about his ordeal on Cephalonia, says Philip Willan 

In recent days the world's press has begun beating a path to the Florentine 
home of a retired director of the Italian automobile club. The reason for 
their interest lies in the wartime adventures that made him a model for Louis 
de Bernières' character of the music-loving Italian artillery officer Captain 
Antonio Corelli.

With the film of Captain Corelli's Mandolin - starring Nicolas Cage and 
Penelope Cruz - about to be released in Britain on May 4, events that have 
been obscured for almost 60 years have been thrust back to centre stage. 

The "real" Captain Corelli is now aged 90 and enjoying his moment in the 
limelight. Lucid and courteous, Amos Pampaloni vividly recalls the days in 
September 1943, when he participated in the tragic revolt of Italian soldiers 
against their former German allies on the Greek island of Cephalonia. 

Some 9,500 Italians, of a garrison of 11,000, lost their lives in the 
fighting that followed Italy's withdrawal from the war on September 8. Five 
thousand of them are believed to have been executed by the German army after 
surrendering. 

Mr Pampaloni speaks in a husky whisper, the result of a recent operation for 
throat cancer rather than of his own failed execution. But he still bears the 
marks on his neck where a German officer shot him from close range with a 
pistol. 

His memories of the fighting can now be compared with the accounts of two 
German Alpine soldiers, whose war diaries came to light in Germany last 
month, as well as with the film version and de Bernieres' novel. 

Alfred Richter, a corporal in the inaptly named Edelweiss division, describes
the wholesale execution of Italian prisoners. In the town of Frangata he 
witnessed the extermination of two companies of Italian soldiers, hearing 
bursts of machine gun fire that continue uninterrupted for two hours: 
"Everyone is shot, without regard for rank or role, even the medics and the 
chaplains." 

In a scene that might have been invented by De Bernières, Richter tells of an 
Italian soldier who saves his life by breaking into song. "A prisoner cuts a 
tragicomic figure by getting onto an improvised podium before us and singing 
opera arias with a beautiful voice and the appropriate gestures, saving his 
life, while his compatriots are being shot," he wrote. 

The man went on to work as a cook for the Germans. In an entry dated 
September 23 1943, Corporal Richter registers the execution of Italian 
soldiers in Argostoli harbour, in full sight of Greek civilians and with the 
bodies left to rot in the autumn heat. "In one of the small streets the smell 
is so bad that I can't even take a picture," he reports. 

Two days earlier, the corporal was fighting at Dilinata, the village where 
Captain Pampaloni's 80 gunners were slaughtered. Outnumbered and suffering 
under accurate mortar fire, Pampaloni decided to surrender. The captain 
protested that it was against the rules of war when his men were 
systematically robbed of their wallets and watches, only to be told by the 
German commanding officer that those rules applied to prisoners, not to 
traitors. 

The officer then shot the captain through the back of the neck, and the rest 
of his men, including the wounded, were mown down with machine gun fire. 
Miraculously still alive, Pampaloni remained conscious as a German soldier 
removed his own watch from his apparently lifeless body. 

Captain Pampaloni was not, in fact, the only soldier from his company to 
survive. "The mule handlers were spared, because every mule responds best to 
his own master," he said. "Ten minutes after the massacre the German soldiers 
left, singing." 

Captain Pampaloni went on to fight for a year with the Greek resistance on 
the mainland. Having witnessed the brutality of the conflict on Cephalonia, 
he was still shocked by the sight of partisans slitting the throats of German 
prisoners with their daggers - ammunition was too precious to be wasted on 
executions. 

The decision of the Italian troops on Cephalonia to refuse to hand over their 
weapons to the Germans after their government signed an armistice with the 
allies is sometimes cited as the first act of the Italian resistance.

It was taken after an extraordinary democratic consultation among the 
soldiers, rather than being imposed from on high, and ended in a tragic 
sacrifice of human lives. It has been virtually eliminated from Italian 
remembrance, swallowed up by cold war imperatives that discouraged the 
recollection of atrocities committed by the German army - as opposed to those 
of the SS - so as to avoid embarrassing one of the pillars of postwar western 
defence. 

Today Mr Pampaloni hopes that the controversies over De Bernières' novel, and 
now John Madden's film, will serve to remind the world of one of the most 
savage passages of the war and of the courage of his lost comrades. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,471762,00.html
 

Please note that as a result of YOUR efforts, American Airlines, has NOT only:

WITHDRAWN the On Line Version of  Jim Shahin's offensive "Joisey" article,

American Airlines has offered to PRINT a Formal APOLOGY in the August Issue,

and in response to Dona De Sanctis of NIAF suggestion that American Airlines 
show sincere regrets, that AA  was receptive to running an article in October 
to help celebrate and commemorate Italian Heritage Month! (Good Move!)

Again, Congratulations to Professor Richard Juliani of Villanova, for first 
bringing this matter to our attention on the H-ITAM Bulletin Board. John 
Matteo for his tactical and diligent efforts. Dr. Manny Alfano, and the 
dedicated IAOV members. Francesca L'Orfano and her La Dolce Vita members, 
my loyal RAA Network members, and NIAF for effectively utilizing those efforts, 
All Working Together!  All of you take a well deserved bow! 

Another small victory, in an ever growing string, that should inspire us to 
greater efforts, in the face of what appears to be growing denigration, i.e. 
Maher's 5 part Series, which will be confused as investigative reporting, 
rather than "entertainment".

The communication from Dona DeSanctis of NIAF appears below.

AMERICAN AND THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN WAY

In a message dated 7/9/01 1:54:14 PM Pacific Daylight Time, dona@niaf.org 
writes:

American Airlines 
Date:   7/9/01 1:54:14 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From:   dona@niaf.org (Dona DeSanctis)

July 9

Dear Manny, Richard, and Bert:

    I just got off the telephone with Elaine Shrinka, editor of American
Way magazine.  She is profoundly sorry for the article by Jim Shahin and to
repair the damage has done the following:

    1.  run a formal apology in the August 1 issue of the magazine
    2.  pulled the article from the airline website

    I suggested that Mr. Shahin might want to do a column on Italian
 Americans and their contributions for October's Italian Heritage Month.  She
 was very receptive so I am sending her our collection of fact sheets on I/As
 in law, business, art, medicine, science, etc. which she will forward to Mr.
 Shahin.  We will work with him on the story if they decide to go for it.

    I gave her your email address, Manny, so she can send you a copy of
 the apology she plans to run.

    Thank you all for taking swift action. We are working together and
 that is a significant and important change!

 dona de sanctis
 NIAF
 

I am pleased however to report that AA has ELIMINATED the offending story 
from the ONLINE Version of the AA magazine "American Way". Congratulations to 
those of you were  responsible for that small victory!!

Nevertheless, if you have not yet communicated your dissatisfaction, please do so.
We must "raise AA's consciousness" to the highest level for future reference!! )

VINNY AND THE AMERICAN WAY

The following item was brought to my attention by Professor Richard Juliani 
of Villanova, a former President of the American Italian Historical 
Association, Member of it's Executive Council, Editor of at least 3 of its 
Annual Conference Proceedings,
noted author of numerous books about the Italian American Experience, and a 
person for whom I have great personal regard.

Professor Juliani is unquestionably a dedicated scholar, but like many 
Italian American scholars, has preferred to focus on adding to the archives 
of knowledge of the Italian American Experience, and have been hesitant to 
voice objections to I-A Negative Stereotyping.

However, what has become almost a daily dose of  ridicule, derision, and 
disparagement of Italian Americans, has apparently finally exceeded even the 
high tolerance level of Professor Juliani. 

Professor Juliani not only takes great offense to an article In "The American 
Way" Magazine published by American Airlines, but wrote them to object.

The article " A Tale of Two Coastlines" by Jim Shahin, in which he 
adopts/incorporates a pronounced "Jersey" accent. But instead of speaking 
from "Jimmy's" perspective he chooses instead the name "Vinny", and to make 
sure 
the reader has no doubt that he is ridiculing Italians, "Vinny" states that 
"In Joisey, de only wildlife you see is my sister Gina’s screwed-up kids." 

"Joisey Accent, Vinny, Gina, AND screwed up kids"??????

But, it gets MORE interesting. As a result of at least Professor Juiliani's 
and 
John De Matteo's objections, we get (1)an "Official" explanation/apology, but 
we
(2) "accidently" also get the "real" Unofficial  response.

Here they are: 

(1) The "Official" Response from Richelle Thomson; AA Spokesperson: 

<<Mr. De Matteo,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us and to express your feelings
about a recent column written by Jim Shahin. We are sorry that it has
offended you, and can say with the utmost sincerity that the column was
intended to provide humor and a unique means of experiencing the Oregon
coastline. In no way was it meant to disparage Italian-Americans, and the
article does not single out any ethnic group. Obviously, the tone or dialect
used was meant to convey an East Coast narrator; and Jim often uses his
experiences growing up in the East and living now in the South to add flavor
to his writing. 

Once again, the editors sincerely regret any negative feelings that this 
column has generated... It is important for us to be able to monitor how the 
magazine and its contents are received in the marketplace.

With sincere regards,
Richelle Thomson
American Way senior editor
richelle.thomson@aa.com>>

(RAA: Someone needs to be taught where humor and flavor end, and bigotry and 
ridicule start.) 

(2) The "Unofficial" Response, from Gina Bertagni to several of her coworkers 
and John DeMatteo:

<<  FYI: Ever since the Sopranos hit it big, a small but vocal segment of 
Italian Americans has been up in arms about the way they're portrayed in the 
media. We should probably be extra careful about using such terms as 
fuhgeddaboutit,  and names like Vinny and Gina, which people associate with 
Italians. Jim used those two names, which is what got him (and us) in trouble 
with this group. Otherwise, we'd just be dealing with people from New Jersey. 
Personally, I think these people could find a better cause to put their 
energy behind, but that's just the way it is right now. Thank goodness the 
Sopranos has just one season left! >>
 
 

Gina is apparantly suffering from spending too much time at high altitudes, or
is merely "clueless" and "oblivious" to the damage the torrent of  I-A 
Negative Stereotyping has done to the I-A community. Gina is also unaware 
that we are not "a small but vocal segment", but that every Major I-A
Organization is concious of, and guided by the number of Reports and Surveys 
that substantiate that damage,
and are actively campaigning against it. 

I wonder what "better cause" Gina is involved in, rather than our dedication 
to protecting the  I-A Community from those thoughtless, insensitive, or 
prejudiced people feel like "dumping"  their ridicule and humiliation on 
Italian Americans as one of the last refuge of permissible bigotry. 

The article can be viewed at:
http://www.americanwaymag.com/lifestyle/shahin.asp?archive_date=5/15/2001

Those wishing to express a brief, pointed, but courteous response within the 
limits of your indignation may respond to:

Richelle Thomson
American Way senior editor
richelle.thomson@aa.com

While messages sent to editors may be discarded or ignored, the editors
are accountable to Mr. Doke, VP, Corporate Communications. For those that 
can take the time, he is the more appropriate person to be contacted.

Mr. Timothy J. Doke
Vice President –  Corporate Communications
American Airlines
PO Box 619616   MD 5333
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, TX 75261-9616

(I have been unable to find his Email address, and an Email request to 
Amercan Airlines was auto acknowleged , but Suprise!--No Response )

PS. You may be interested in:
American Airlines Suck - An anti-American Airlines site. Presents news, 
statistics, quotes, and personal stories. Covers baggage and ticketing 
problems, delays, safety, and AA personnel. 
http://www.aasucks.org 

CC: NIAF,Sons of Italy, UNICO, Coalition of Italo American Associations, 
Calandra Institute, Italic Institute, AIDA, NCIC,H-ITAM, FIERI, Fra Noi, 
Italian Tribune, L'Italo Americano, Il Pensiero,American Oggi, Italian 
American One Voice,La Dolce Vita, Sicilian Culture, Italy in St. Louis, Bella 
Italia Mia, Italians All, AMICI, Italiani, PIE, Italy-Gene, ITA-Sicily,
Sicily-Italy.

I retransmit it not because it is a rejoinder to Tonelli's recent "foot in 
mouth" comment, since Tonelli once again was more than sufficiently exposed 
as a shallow, pompous, partially intelligent, only superficially "well read", 
questionably talented, and "a shill " to boot.

No, I forward it because Miriani, (not a professional writer) of Bob's 
thoughtful style, his depth of knowledge, the disassemblage of the illogic of 
his adversary, and his poetic "turn of a phrase". 

Where I may be direct, Miriani is deft.

Where I use a broad sword, Miriani uses a scalpel.

Enjoy.

MIRIANI ON TONELLI - AMEN!

bill.tonelli@rollingstone.com

Dear Mr. Tonelli:

    You have a most unique talent: the ability to sit on one of the limbs of knowledge and then saw off that limb via Ad Verecundiam and tumble into the River Styx of even further fallacies.  Tell me, do you practice this feat often?

    Am referring to your posting of John Ciardi's following assertion written to a friend who complained about anti-Italian bigotry:

    "I have had various It.-Am. friends tell me that they have felt discriminated against. In many cases, I felt that their paranoia was justified because everyone did hate them -- because they were jerks."

    I especially liked your concluding remark:  "amen!" 

    Your dislike of we Italian-American activists, and our opposition to negative stereotyping of Italian-Americans, must be desperate indeed for you to have to revert to Ad Verecundiam: the fallacy of Appeal to Authority.  Have you run out of your usual illogical arguments as to why we must be wrong in your eyes? 

    First of all, while I have the utmost respect for John Ciardi as a literary luminary, I am not sure that I would place him amongst the ranks of psychologists or sociologists and quote him as an authority on the psychological make up of his friends.  Too, you'll note that Ciardi did not extend himself out on the limb of False Generalization and then sit there waiting for someone to cut it out from under him.  He left himself wiggle room in that he inserted the words, "In many cases..."  Thus, he was not saying that all of his friends who experienced 
"anti-Italian bigotry" were "jerks," but only some.  That you have implied, with your concluding remark of "amen!", that your opponents fall into this category of "jerks" falls itself under its own dead weight of being a Non Sequitur.

    Which brings us to the next point: the dangling "ergo" you so conveniently left your audience to conclude into or from.  In your posting of Ciardi's words you do not really come up with an overt or spelled out "ergo" but, rather, leave such a deed to the reader -- hoping no doubt that they will arrive at your own illogical conclusion that your opponents who see 
"anti-Italian bigotry" in the world are also "jerks" -- per the implied authority of poor John Ciardi, who is not here to tell us what he might think of the current state of affairs regarding the asinine negative stereotyping of Italian-Americans based upon a sample of only 14/100ths of one percent of the Italian-American Community, commonly referred to as The Mafia or The Mob.  It is pretty widely held, even in New York I'd assume, that the type of thinking that results from reaching a conclusion from such a small sample, 14/100ths of one percent, falls under the category of both stupidity and gullibility. 

    As regards examples of such "stupid and gullible" conclusions, you will recall that one scientific study found that 74% of American citizen respondents believed that Italian- Americans, as an identifiable ethnic group, were mob connected.  Not to mention that in a poll on the net, conducted by AOL, in April of this year, to the question, "Do you believe Italian- Americans are unfairly portrayed in The Sopranos?," found that 78% (note the close statistical correlation between the previous study mentioned and the AOL poll) stated, "No!"  Now it would appear to most rational people that these 78% of American respondents to the above question, must then be thinking/believing The Sopranos FAIRLY portrays Italian-Americans, if they don't believe The Sopranos UNFAIRLY portrays Italian-Americans.  With such current statistical evidence extant I don't believe that John Ciardi would be sitting on the sidelines of this issue nor do I believe he would be on your side, as he had a mental hardness about him that refused to tolerate ignorance and its consequences. 

    Now to your "amen!" conclusion, concerning what you posted Ciardi as having said.  Since the word "amen" is really an English spelling of the original Hebrew word AMN, I'll use the original definition of AMN as to what you might have meant: "Firm; Faithful; So be it!"  Of course, it is always possible that you have some type of personal esoteric linguistic definition 
for "amen!," reminiscent of Bill Clinton's infamous definition of "sex."  However, operating within the normal exoteric etymological definition of AMN, I'll try to make some sense of what you might have meant by "amen!" as your concluding remark on Ciardi's assertion.

    I'll assume for starters that we can eliminate that you meant "Firm or Faithful."  Thus, we are left with only one conclusion:  that you meant "So be it!"  My question to you would be, "So be what?"  We've already established that Ciardi's assertion was only applicable to SOME ("In many cases...") of his friends and was not meant to be a generalization of all Italian- Americans who felt they have been the victims of "anti-Italian bigotry."  Thus, are we to conclude that you are saying that some of your opponents who stand up against negative stereotyping of Italian-Americans are "So be it!" "jerks?"  Even if your "amen!" meant only some of your opponents, and you are using Ciardi's authority as a basis for such a conclusion, that too would not make much sense since Ciardi was only reaching such a 
conclusion based upon their being "friends" he knew, which cannot be said regarding your relationship with your opponents.  To the best of my knowledge, and perhaps I'm wrong, you really don't know a sufficient number of your opponents, us, as friends and/or personally, so as to come up with a logical conclusion that a sizeable majority of us are "jerks" or "geniuses?"  In short, I can only conclude that you don't know from hence you speak, and 
if this is so, then outside of your quoting John Ciardi as an authority on "jerkism," we are left with little except your illogical plushplash, which doesn't really get one very far regarding coming to a logical conclusion about anything. 

    Perhaps in the future when you contemplate, even remotely, using Ad Venecundiam as a defense for your position, you might want to remember the admonition of Delores E. McGuire (Mrs. McGuire's daughter, Delores):  "Authority is no stronger than the man who wields it." 

        "The power of a thing, thought, or act  is in its meaning and understanding."
                                                              -- Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man

                                            With the utmost sincerity,
                                                Bob Miriani 
                                                P.O. Box 372
                                                Pentwater, Michigan 49449

I am forwarding these comments from an exchange I had with Professor 
Emeritus James Mancuso, with his permission. 

MANCUSO ON CIARDI AND TONELLI

Richard: Thanks for circulating, through your RAA Network, Tonelli's note in
which he quoted John Ciardi. I couldn't resist sending you a comment on 
Tonelli's "cheap shot," in which he tries to capitalize on the name and fame 
of John Ciardi as he plays his games.

A serious scholar should take some time to study about John Ciardi and his
efforts to make it in a WASP world. That would be a study worth reading.

As a start, that scholar should read the great selection of autobiographical
poetry that Ciardi entitled "Lives of X."

Does Tonelli intend, by quoting that piece from Ciardi's letter, to indicate
that Ciardi regarded EVERYONE who complains about bigotry toward
Italian-Americans to be a "jerk."  Or does Ciardi intend to say that
"various" of his Italian-American friends who complain about bigotry toward
Italian-Americans happened to be "jerks."

If Ciardi would have meant that everyone who complains about bigotry toward
Italian-American must be classed as a "jerk," then he would have needed to
indict himself.  Several of his poems in "Lives of X" represent to me,
elegant indictments of people who expressed bigotry toward him and his
Italian-American family.

Aside from that, anyone who understands the ways in which Italian-Americans
were pressured to refrain from identifying with their background should
study John Ciardi as a very interesting case in point.

Ciardi built a fabulous career, and there is no doubt about it.
Nevertheless, he was always sensitive about being identified as a person from
an Italian background.  He expressed his resentment about being regarded as
an Italian-American poet, claiming that he wanted to be identified, solely,
as a poet -- PERIOD.

In his later years, Ciardi refused -- with a rather high sounding letter --
to accept an invitation to join an association of Italian-American scholars,
saying that he could not see why identification as a member of that group
counted for anything in particular.

And, we can respect him for his views on these matter.  After all, he was
one of the first descendants of l'avventura to make it big in the scholarly
world of The USA, and he needed to come to terms with these issues.

It would have been useful, however, if he had been able to see how his
Italian roots -- even if they were roots that went solely into the peasant
culture of Italy -- influenced his thinking, his approach to life, and his
general life orientations.  It would have been useful if he had been able to
describe some of his efforts to come to terms with his Italian peasant
background as he moved into the top ranks of American Literature.

And, in terms of how his Italian-American background influenced his literary
work, was it solely by some trick of fate that he chose to produce the first
AMERICAN English translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy?"

In terms of his life orientations: why was Ciardi intent on taking sides
with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War? Was it because he had some
feeling for the working people (having emerged from a family of working
Italian-Americans), and didn't think that the elitists of Spain should be
able to install a dictator that would look after their needs?  We don't
know, but it would have been useful to have had Ciardi's discussion of this
matter. Why didn't he devote some of his great literary skill to explore
these matters?

In an interview with Studs Terkel (in the book "The Good War.") Ciardi
reports that he got into serious trouble over his youthful political
activity, and as a result he had no opportunity for a commission, despite his
education. Instead, he was assigned to the most dangerous position in
WWII -- the tail gunner on a B-25 bomber. (Compare this history with that of
another descendent of another major immigration, William Saroyan!!)