Happy Cabrini Day!

 As is typical for us in October, we grapple with Columbus Day.  Christopher Columbus, put succinctly, was a terrible human being.  As someone of Italian, and like Columbus, Ligurian descent, I really think that a better exemplar of the Italian and Italian-American people is needed.

This year, I am inspired by fellow paisano Andrew Cuomo, who will be presiding over the dedication of a statue of Mother Cabrini tomorrow, and nominate Maria Francesca Cabrini, canonized as St Frances Xavier Cabrini, as a proper substitute for Columbus.  Francesca Cabrini, born in Lombardy in 1850, took holy orders and in 1880 founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the S67acred Heart of Jesus.  She was filled with missionary zeal, desirous of proselytizing in China, but was instructed by Pope Leo XIII to minister to the burgeoning Italian population in North America.

In the course of her missionary work, Mother Cabrini founded schools, orphanages, and hospitals, totalling 67 establishments by the time of her death in Chicago in 1917.  When she was canonized in 1946, the first American citizen to achieve sainthood, she was given the position of Patron Saint of Immigrants.

Whatever your opinion of the Roman Catholic Church may be, Maria Francesca Cabrini's contribution to society shouldn't be that controversial- no slave trade or heinous torture in her portfolio, no awkward explanations to schoolkids why such a horrid person is honored with a federal holiday.  The elevation of Columbus Day to federal holiday status was pretty much done to placate more conservative Italian-American interests, the sort of staid interests that are foreign to the Anarchist and Socialist impulses of many persons of Italian descent.  Even the most impious socialist Italian, though, can be brought to tears by a rendition of Ave Maria... none of us would object to swapping out Christopher Columbus for Maria Francesca Cabrini.  More importantly, isn't naming a federal holiday for a woman long past due?

Canadian Thanksgiving and Columbus Day

Today marks the celebration of Thanksgiving in Canada, the mysterious land to the north of the United States. Canadians are interesting- they are a lot like the citizens of the United States, but there are subtle, sometimes eerie, differences. One difference between Canadians and U.S.ers is the choice of bird eaten on Thanksgiving... in the U.S., the traditional centerpiece of the Thanksgiving is a turkey, while Canadians typically roast a loon for their Thanksgiving meal.

Uh, just kidding folks- I have a lot of Canadians on the blogroll, ranging from Ontario to British Columbia (C'mon Maritimers and Newfoundlanders, come out of hiding so I can get coast-to-coast coverage of your nation!). Happy Thanksgiving, jim, MenD, Laura, D-KW, SMcG, interrobang, and all other Canadians. This Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for Canadians- you folks are great!

Today is also Columbus Day, the day in which Italian-Americans celebrate their heritage. This pains me to say, because my paternal grandfather's parents emigrated from the Greater Genoa Metropolitan Area, but Columbus, the most famous child of Genoa, was pretty much a horrible person. Yeah, his accomplishments were many, but he was, in many ways, responsible for a legacy of appropriation of land, extirpation of cultures, and genocide. I think that Garibaldi might be a better exemplar of Italian achievements in the Americas- he even lived on Staten Island for a period of time. Whether or not you disagree with me about commemorating Columbus, you pretty much have to agree with me about cannoli. Cannoli are awesome- whenever it is an option, take the cannoli. I'll be celebrating my heritage with pride, but I'll be showing my allegiances by wearing a red shirt.

CONFESSION TIME: The red shirt also hides the tomato sauce stains...

Happy Garibaldi Day, or Is It Happy Granata Day?

Last year, I proposed that Columbus Day be changed to Garibaldi Day because Columbus was pretty much an awful person while Garibaldi was a paragon of liberalism and national self-determination on both sides of the Atlantic. As if that weren't enough, he was a Noo Yawkah for a brief time. Even though my dad's dad's parents emigrated from a small town near Genoa, I'd rather celebrate Garibaldi's achievements than those of the Genoese Columbus. To tell the truth, I'd rather celebrate Rocco Granata's legacy than Columbus'- as far as I know, Rocco didn't destroy an entire culture, as long as you ignore this unfortunate misstep.

So, do I celebrate my Italian heritage by memorializing a grand hero of Italian unification, who was also associated with revolutionary movements in South America, or do I memorialize the guy who wrote an accordion-driven classic which is played wherever drunk Europeans congregate? Should I even have to choose?

Giorno di Dio?

It's been our tradition this time of year to question the appropriateness of Columbus Day. As an Italian-American, and specifically a Ligurian-American, I have long maintained that Columbus, whose treatment of the inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere was horrific, is not an appropriate standard-bearer for my people and our culture. Today, Dr Zoom at Wonkette wrote a post articulating this, a post similar to my typical posts on the topic.

I usually propose better representatives of Italian culture to replace the problematic Columbus. This year, how about Italian-American singer Ronnie James Dio? Signore Dio started his career as a teenager in the band Ronnie and the Redcaps. Here's il giovane Dio singing about a missing angel:





Later in his career, he discovered that the missing angel had become a holy diver:





Signore Dio's album covers typically depicted occult themes, which many critics might chalk up to a crass attempt to boost sales due to controversy, but my guess is that Ronnie was paying tribute to Dante Alighieri's most famous work- Dante being, after all, the person most responsible for the formulation of the formal modern Italian language.

Since the man grew up in Cortland, New York, the best way to celebrate Ronnie James Dio day would be to cook some spiedies, the jewel in the crown of Southern Tier Italian-American cuisine:





Perhaps the best thing about changing Columbus Day to Dio Day is that the Spanish translation would be Día del Dio.

Once Again, We Consider Columbus Day

As is typical, on Columbus Day, I reconsider the meaning of this holiday. To put it mildly, although accomplished, Christopher Columbus was not a nice man. As not only an Italian-American, but a Genoese-American, I think that our community can nominate a much better representative than Columbus, who sailed for Spanish monarchs four centuries before Italy existed as a nation... and I'm not the only Italian-American to reconsider this representation. I wouldn't object to renaming the day Antonio Del Monaco Day- he was a handsome guy and he recorded one of the great Italian standards:





Of course, the holiday itself should be kept- when I got home from work after 2AM, I only found a parking space close to home because the alternate side parking rules were suspended. Che miracolo!

Indigenous Peoples' Day 2021

As an Italian-American (indeed a Ligurian-American), I don't feel that Christopher Columbus, a horrible person by all accounts (even his own) embodies the virtues that my contadini ancestors lived by, and brought to their new home.  Columbus Day was instituted in the US for interesting reasons, and was proclaimed a national holiday in 1934.

The European colonization of the Americas involved a crime so vast, it changed the climate of the planet... active genocidal campaigns and the passive onslaught of  'Old World' diseases largely depopulated North and South America.  Columbus kicked it all off with his numerous crimes against the Taino, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas are still suffering.  Women in indigenous communities in North America are often victims of violence, and Brazil's Bolsonaro has waged war on the nation's indigenous people.  Even Canada, gentle Canada, is grappling with its history of violence against First Nations peoples.

There are some encouraging developments, though, beginning with the issue over honoring Columbus with a national holiday.  The Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, the nation's first Native American cabinet secretary, has pledged to address issues faced by Native Americans, particularly the epidemic of violence against indigenous women.  The Biden Administration also restored the culturally significant Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to their original size after the former Maladministration reduced their size.  

The Biden Administration's treatment of Native Americans seems to mark a significant change for the better, even making an official proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day.  As always, we need to keep tabs on the government, and hold them to their promises, but at least there seems to be some hope for better conditions for our Native American population.

The Annual Columbus Day Post

It's an annual tradition here, when I, a Ligurian-American on my dad's dad's side, contemplate Columbus Day, and the implications of honoring a man who was a horrible person. Why hold a slave-taker who's actions precipitated a genocide which engulfed an entire hemisphere, as the best representative of your culture? There are plenty of other worthy candidates for the honor. Hell, why not celebrate this character, known for peering down Tura Satana's blouse?





Thankfully, there's a lot of traction for celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day, when the cultures of the autochthonous inhabitants of the Americas are celebrated. Discrimination and violence against Native American women remain a national disgrace, but these issues are finally receiving attention in the broader culture. The current administration's hostility toward Native American rights is a worrisome trend, though.

Speaking of thankfulness, here's also wishing that my Canadian readers had a joyous Canadian Thanksgiving, which I am pretty sure celebrates the adoption of the metric system by the Canadian government. As is my custom, on Canadian Thanksgiving, I blast the Canadian national anthem, which I am pretty sure is Aldo Nova's Fantasy:





Come to think of it, Aldo Nova is a paisan', so why not rename Columbus Day to Aldo Nova day?

Columbus Day Conflict

As a proud son, through my beloved paternal grandfather, of the boot, I have to confess that I feel very conflicted about Columbus Day, a holiday set aside to honor a horrible guy of Italian, indeed (like myself) Ligurian descent, which has been reconfigured into a holiday celebrating Italian heritage. I have alternately proposed changing the holiday to Garibaldi Day or even Granata Day. Marconi would also be a great candidate to honor, if one had to name the holiday after a particular individual.

At any rate, I figure a great way to pay respect to my heritage is to post a video for a live 1980 performance by Claudio Villa of a beloved Italian standard, Cesare Cesarini's 1939 Sogna Firenze:





Those Florentine dreams sure are a lot nicer than the dreams Columbus had for looting the New World and enslaving its inhabitants! Here's a version sung by some guy named Pavarotti.

Happy Da Vinci Day, or Is It Dante Day?

It's been my tradition the last few years to put up a post regarding Columbus Day. I am proud of my Italian heritage, indeed, my Genovese heritage (in the interest of full disclosure, la famiglia actually hailed from a small town in the Greater Genoa Metro Area... the Yonkers of Genoa, perhaps?). At any rate, Columbus, while being Genoa's most famous son, was not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination. Why make this accomplished, yet evil, individual the guy on whom Italian-American pride is pinned?

How about changing the name of the holiday to Da Vinci Day? Who doesn't love Leonardo Da Vinci? The guy was a bona fide genius and polymath- he was a pioneer of just about any scientific or engineering field you could think of, and a master of a plethora of artistic media. As a Nerd-American and an Italian-American, I would heartily endorse a holiday honoring Leonardo.

Alternately, how about Dante Day? Dante Alighieri not only holds the distinction of being Italy's greatest poet, but the Tuscan dialect in which he wrote formed the basis of the modern Italian language. Sure, a lot of Italian-American linguistics originates in Southern Italy and Sicily (that's why cafone is typically pronounced "gah-vone", "Marone" is how "Madonna" tends to be pronounced, and what is known on the "boot" as "pasta e fagioli" bears the Arabic-influenced name of "pasta fazul"). At any rate, Dante is the father of the lingua franca italiana, and he wasn't a horrible person.

At any rate, it's difficult to remain unconflicted about Columbus- his accomplishments were manifold, but many of them were evil. Why not concentrate on accomplished individuals who weren't bad guys? Lucky Luciano managed to accomplish a lot, but nobody is proposing naming a holiday after him.

Anyway, enough of my yapping, how about a classic Italian love song? Here's the original 1961 version of Al di là, sung by "Betty Curtis", born Roberta Corti:





Happy Betty Curtis Day!

What Do We Want? SCIENCE!

Yesterday was a great day- I took a vacation day and headed down to the NYC March for Science. I met up with
Yastreblyansky (nice to put a face to the name) at 65th and Broadway and we had to walk up to 68th St to queue up for the march due to the number of attendees. The crowd was amazing- there were a lot of really smart people, a lot of kids were in attendance with their parents and teachers. The signs were awesome, a lot of them played on Pi and the square root of negative one. Many signs, including my own, played on the whole 'Alternative Facts' dope-trope. Another popular theme was 'small hands can't grasp big facts'. One woman had a heart-wrenching sign... eight years of primary school, four years of high school, four years undergraduate college, seven years of graduate school, four years post-doc, under one year to take it away.

It was a coldish, rainy day- my sign started soaking up water before we hit Times Square- but spirits were high. It was fun meeting physicists and psychologists, and school kids, all of whom were advocating for funding science and for basing public policy on evidence-based science. There were a couple of places where the crowd started booing- passing a 9/11 'Truther' and passing the The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Columbus Circle. The march ended in Times Square, where, by happy coincidence, a samba group was drumming. The overall vibe in the Broadway pedestrian plaza was festive. I ran into Secret Science diva Dorian Devins, along with her fantastic husband and a couple of other SSC regulars. I also ran into the awesome scientist/adventurer Dr Evon Hekkala, her fantastic husband, and their lovely children. I had a great conversation with some folks from Jersey who had met at the NYC Women's March and were continuing their resistance activities (nevertheless, they persisted). I also ran into an alumnus from my Prestigious Bastion of Prestige who had graduated a few years ahead of my enrollment, but we had several biology professors in common. We must have spent an hour shooting the breeze about the teachers we had in common, about current mutual acquaintances. He hinted to me that Morbid Anatomy might be rising, Phoenix-like, from the ashes.

Finally, around 3PM, I decided that, in desperate need of a piss-break, I would retreat to the shelter of a tavern. After a warming shot of Tullamore Dew, I was fortified for the subway ride back to the Bronx- I passed small groups from the march and we greeted each other warmly. I walked all the back to Columbus Circle, and there were a bunch of Fordham University students hanging out outside the subway station. We shouted one of the slogans from the march:

WHAT DO WE WANT?
SCIENCE!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
AFTER PEER REVIEW!

At Home He's a Tourist

Every once in a while, it's nice to experience one's hometown while in tourist mode. Even though my sister grew up in the NY metro area, she hasn't lived here for over twenty years. Her husband decided he needed to get out of his winter rut, so he took the family up to the Big Apple for a change of pace. Additionally, a Prestigious Bastion of Prestige is courting Boy B., my eldest nephew. We made plans to meet in the vicinity of The Cathedral of St John the Divine, and then head up to the campus of the aforementioned Prestigious Bastion of Prestige. The unfinished cathedral is pretty bizarre- it began as a Romanesque church, but a decision was made to complete it as a neo-Gothic cathedral. The nave makes a somewhat abrupt transition from a diaphanous, Gothic dreamscape tinted beautifully by huge stained glass windows into a dark, heavy Romanesque bring-down. Did I mention that the cathedral is unfinished? When one looks at the Western facade, one can instantly tell that the top of the tower is much newer than the rest of the facade, yet it still seems truncated. The northern side of the church really looks half-formed- one looks in vain for a transept that seems like it should be there, and some of the roof is covered with weathered plywood.

Just south of the church, the Peace Fountain forms a funky centerpiece of a nice little park which is surrounded by sculptures designed by schoolkids. The fountain itself has some delightfully disquieting features, such as a severed devil's/satyr's head and an archangel who seems to be getting disturbingly friendly with giraffes.

After our cathedral visit, and a quick swing by Morningside Park, we headed over to the campus of Columbia University. Columbia University is an extraordinarily pretty urban campus, and the neighborhood is disconcertingly quiet for Manhattan- there was very little automobile traffic, and the vibe of the community is more small town than huge city. Of course, we were visiting the area the Sunday before Christmas, while most of the student body was away on break, but the area is sandwiched by parks, so it doesn't ever really get too bustling.

We then headed over to Riverside Church, another stellar example of neo-Gothic architecture, before heading to Riverside Park and Grant's Tomb (to all the wags out there, U.S. Grant is interred there, along with his wife). My nephew Boy A. waggishly asked if Grant's Tomb was the Tomb of Horrors... I told him that it certainly is, if you're a Confederate sympathizer!

After our sojourn at Riverside Park, we strolled down to the Hungarian Pastry Shop where we split a couple of linzer tarts (one apricot-filled, one raspberry-filled) and a poppy seed hamentasch. I had an excellent "Hungarian coffee", flavored with almond extract and topped with a glob of whipped cream. As much as I love the place, it's a little annoying to discover that the cutely-painted menu behind the counter has absolutely no bearing on the actual menu. The sweet counter girls kept telling us "no, we don't have that" until they finally admitted that the whole menu was a cruel hoax perpetrated by a management that doesn't want to paint over the pretty colors.

After our coffee-break, we leisurely sauntered down to 97th and Amsterdam where we hit El Malecón, one of a mini-chain of Dominican rotisserie chicken restaurants (I usually go to their location on Broadway near 231st St in the Bronx). El Malecón never fails to deliver the goods- the chicken is perfectly cooked- crispy skin and moist meat, and served with a citrus/garlic mojo sauce. We ordered a whole chicken, an order of tostones, an order of mofongo, and an order of fried pork chunks. Sides of yellow rice, black beans, and a rich vegetable stew accompanied the main dishes, which we ate family style. The twenty-three block walk from Grant's Tomb was a prerequisite for such a delicious gut-buster of a meal. I parted from the family afterwards, because I had to get home to take a nap before working the graveyard shift. Their plan was to hit the Columbus Circle Christmas Market, then figure out their next move.

It was a good time hanging out with the family, and getting to a neighborhood that I don't often visit. I hadn't been to Grant's Tomb in about fifteen years, and I'd never been inside Riverside Church. I know it's not a Christmas song, but the most appropriate soundtrack for the day would have to be the Gang of Four's At Home He's a Tourist:





Maybe that should be a Christmas song...

Bizarre Day, Bomb Day

What a day for nutty news- a rash of attempted bombings targeting various bêtes noires of the Right, and specifically of the White House Occupant. Strangely, most of these bomb scares happened in my backyard- the Soros and Clinton residences are up the road from my beloved Yonkers, and the CNN NYC headquarters is in Columbus Circle, an area I am intimately familiar with (my typical Saturday morning subway stop had to be evacuated during the CNN bomb crisis). I spent much of the day glued to the radio before I had to head off to work.

With no real information available, all sorts of rumors are flying- the righties are claiming 'false flage' attacks (though wags have been claiming that, if that were true, the names and addresses would have been spelled correctly), and the left-of-center Twitterati have coined the hashtag MAGAbomber, which became the number one trending topic on the platform. I would say that it's premature to assign blame, or a motive, but Trump has incited violence against political opponents and the media. It's not that far a stretch to make the assertion that at least someone in Trump's audience would make the leap from 'lock her up' to 'blow her up'.