by Bill Dal Cerro | Feb 23, 2021 | Uncategorized
At a time when Americans are so sadly split between political divides, it’s nice to recall a well-known American who unified everyone: Lawrence Peter Barra, better known by his baseball name, “Yogi.” The month of January was so tumultuous – with the...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Feb 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
It is a famous phrase: “Vedi Napoli e poi muori”– See Naples and die! The point is that Italy’s third-largest city is such an overwhelming feast for the senses – of food, art, history, museums, music, etc. – that there is nothing left to see once...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Feb 5, 2021 | Uncategorized
In 2018, the “Tucci Gang” of New York made a big splash in the national media. Was this yet another Italian criminal group, a modern incarnation of New York’s infamous “Five Families,” who dominated organized crime in that city for nearly...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Jan 23, 2021 | Uncategorized
It is no surprise to see that President Biden selected Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, to be in his cabinet, specifically, as his U.S. Commerce Secretary. Raimondo is the latest in a long line of strong Italian American women in politics – a link which is...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Jan 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
“Old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” General MacArthur famously said. Would that the same were true for American filmmakers who’ve made their careers exploiting crude mobster and moron stereotypes of Italian Americans in popular culture. Such a person is...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Dec 29, 2020 | Uncategorized
Last October, Abigail Napp, an editor at La Cucina Italiana, a national cooking magazine available in Eataly stores in the U.S., asked me to write a “food piece” for Italian Heritage Month. I tried to go beyond the usual simple fare by adding an ingredient...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Sep 15, 2020 | Uncategorized
They are a staple of modern television, and anyone who has watched political speeches or COVID briefings sees their presence: interpreters for the deaf, standing off to the sidelines to translate important information for non-hearing viewers. Indeed, every September...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Aug 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
In a letter to fellow psychologist Marie Bonaparte (yes, a great grand-niece to the Corsican-born Italian emperor, original family name: Buonaparte), Sigmund Freud famously asked, “What do women want”? Though he never found an answer, he did once write that “women...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Aug 4, 2020 | Uncategorized
As a film purist, I believe movies were made to be seen where they belong – in a movie theater where, on a 60-foot blank white canvas, ghostly images projected in the dark can fully engage our imaginations. Watching a film on a TV monitor, no matter how large, still...
by Bill Dal Cerro | Jul 29, 2020 | Uncategorized
Anyone who loves science, or who at least pays attention to American popular culture, knows the name Neil deGrasse Tyson. Since the late-1990s, via his lectures, books, and TV shows, Dr. Tyson has surpassed his mentor, Carl Sagan, as our nation’s most well-known...
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