Archive for the ‘current events’ Category
the votes are in…
yes we did!
For those who don’t speak Italian, this sign means the Way of Hope:
And now, after eight LONG years, it feels like America is on it again.
Congratulations President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden.
Do us proud.
i’m not going to tell you who to vote for…
But my Obama dogs will.
A message from Lol-Luna:
And Lol-Stella:
BARACK THE VOTE!
news from italy: love, olive oil, and lamborghinis
Ninety-nine-years-young Maria Caterina Reitano moved to Australia at age 41 from Reggio Calabria and will turn 100 years old in January. She has turned down several marriage proposals in her lifetime (two from the same man) and has never made love to a man, but that doesn’t mean her search for love is over.
When she was interviewed by The Daily Telegraph for a story on her, ahem, status, she made it a point to say, “Tell them I’m single.”
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Do you think you know your olive oil?
If so, you might look into joining Italy’s anti-food piracy unit, 20 specially-trained officers who are in charge of tasting olive oil and identifying counterfeit versions claiming to be extra-virgin.
In April of this year, 25,000 liters of oil were confiscated and 25 people arrested when it was discovered that what was being sold as olive oil was really vegetable oil infused with beta carotene and chlorophyll. Similar tales of fake olive oil have become disturbingly common in recent years, so hopefully this squad knows their stuff.
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As the home of Armani, Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Dolce e Gabbana, Italians are known for style. Rest assured the police can continue that reputation now that Lamborghini has donated a specially-designed car to the polizia.
This €175,200 ($220,000) Lamborghini Gallardo has a 560-horsepower engine and can reach speeds of up to 325 kpr (200 mph); it also has a mini-refrigerator inside for organ transport and a built-in defibrillator for emergencies.
Pretty stylin’ huh?
So what’s up where you are?
important notice for americans voting from abroad
We interrupt today’s regularly scheduled What’s Cooking Wednesday (but do come back Friday for La Buona Cucina Americana and Mom’s American as Apple Pie!) to remind Americans abroad who want their voices to be heard, from the US Department of State:
If you haven’t received your ballot within three weeks of your state’s ballot receipt deadline, and you are required to return your voted ballot by mail, you should complete, sign, date, and send in a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB). Make sure it is witnessed, if required by your state. If you subsequently receive your regular absentee ballot, execute it and return it regardless of when you receive it. Court decisions sometimes require late counting of ballots voted by Election Day, but received by local election officials for a specified period of time following Election Day.
How can you get a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot?
You can find instructions here (PDF) at the State Department website, through the Overseas Vote Foundation here, or through VoteFromAbroad here.
Want something more interactive?
Check out this tutorial from the Overseas Vote Foundation:
And here is a great post from expat James at Wandering Italy on why he votes.
No excuses! VOTE!!!!!!!!
Sex, Lies, Handwriting, and Presidential Candidates
A few months ago, I was working on an article about graphology, or handwriting analysis, and I came across the website of Michelle Dresbold, author of Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting. Dresbold is one of the country’s top experts on the subject of handwriting interpretation and analysis, and has been helping law enforcement agents solve cases for a decade.
In fact, go HERE to enter to win a free copy of Dresbold’s book!
Hurry! Contest ends October 31!
OK, I don’t know about you, but I find this sort of thing fascinating. I find it most interesting that people can’t really “fake” their handwriting consistently without their “true” handwriting revealing itself. No, graphology doesn’t predict the future, but it can reveal a person’s motivations, intellect, idealism, vanity, honesty, psychological strengths and weaknesses, and even emotional and physical health.
And all of this is nothing new. Confucius philosophized, “Handwriting can infallibly show whether it comes from a person who is noble-minded or from one who is vulgar.” Aristotle wrote, “Just as all men do not have all the same speech sounds, neither do they have all the same writing.”
So why am I bringing all this up now? Well other than to give you a chance to win a copy of Dresbold’s book, I also want to point you to some analyses that Dresbold has done on signatures that you might find interesting about now:
Interesting, no?
Have you ever had your handwriting analyzed?
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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