A Couple Odds and Ends - Italianish

Ciao a tutti,

In this day and age I know for sure that so many of us get forwarded some interesting, and some not so interesting E-mails from our friends who think we need to see this or that, or read this or that, or do this or that.

You can imagine I get my share from not only some of my friends but from some of my fans as well. It can be a bit overwhelming to be sure, especially since I get the same thing sometimes from different people.

Mostly, I just erase them, otherwise, I would spend my whole day with them. But I must admit that every once in a while I happen upon something that I actually find interesting or funny or even important.


I decided it was time to put up a couple of those in this post, especially since they are Italianish. So, if you haven't seen these circulating, you will see it here. And if you have seen them, then you know how I feel, he, he.

But seriously, I thought this was really interesting. Above is a picture of the Statue of Liberty, or at least, a picture of an image of the Statue of Liberty. And if you look really closely, you will notice that it is an old picture of people "huddled" together, like the "huddled masses yearning to be free," as the song says.

The people standing together form the image of the statue. Isn't that interesting. I wish I had more information on it, who took it, why, who is in the pictures, etc.

But because the Statue of Liberty was such an important symbol to immigrants, especially Italians, (La Statua Della Liberta), I thought it was appropriate to include here.

Now this next set of pictures are Italianish scenes to me and my excuse to include them here. But also it looks to me that much of what is in the pictures is very Italian too. But can you see what the pictures are made of? Everything in the picture is a food item. I really think this is very clever.

Here too I wish I had the information as to who created these food masterpieces and how they were created. First of all I would really love to give the credit to whomever created them. Secondly, I would like to know if the food was actually placed and then photographed or were the imaged manipulated in some way. Either way, it is a feat and artistic and beautiful and very appetizing.

And don't they look like Italy, some of them? And doesn't the cheese look Italian? Maybe it's just me.

Finally, here is one of those you have to read, and this is so Italianish, in fact, it is stereotypical even, but hopefully not offensive to anyone. It is called

"The Italian That Came To New York..."

One day Ima go to New York to a bigga hotel...

I go down to eat soma breakfast. I tell the waitress

I wanna two piss toast. She branga me only onea piss. I tella her I wanna two piss, she say go to the toilet, I say you no understand. I wannt two piss on the plate. She say you better no piss on the plate you sonna ma bitch. I don't even know the lady and she call me sonna ma bitch.

Later, I go to eat soma lunch at the Drake Restaurant, the waitress bringa me a spoon, ana knife, but no fock. I tella her I wanna fock. She tellsa me everybody wanna fock. I tell her, you no understand, I wanna fock on the table. She say you better not fock on the table, you sonna ma bitch. I don't even know the lady and she call me a sonna ma bitch.

So I go back to my room inna hotel, an there's no sheet on my bed. I calla the manager ana tell him I wanna sheet. He tells me go to the toilet. So I say you no understand, I wanna sheet on the bed. He say you better not sheet on the bed, you sonna ma bitch. I don't even know the man ana he call me a sonna ma bitch.

I go to check out and the man at the desk, he say peace to you. I say piss ona you too, you sonna ma bitch!

I go back to Italy!!!

I would watch stories like this unfold before me with my parents of their immigrant friends and on occasion even to me as I was learning English. So though I am sure this didn't happen exactly like this, I am sure it happened lots.

Hope you enjoyed those.

Filippo

P.S. Now here is someone I can identify. He is Italian-American comedian Mike Birbiglia. It is a clip I got off of Youtube in which he mentions his Italian parents and a particular situation that is reminiscent of the story I wrote out above. (In English)