Behind the Thrones

I how four Italian American ladies figured in recent news stories:  Jill Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Gina Raimondo, and Lisa Monaco.  You may not know the latter two, but they are among the movers and shakers in Washington, DC. Pelosi saving democracy At last...

Trade Secrets

Another John Cabot anniversary is upon us—that fateful landing on Newfoundland on June 24, 1497.  It was the ‘discovery’ and claim that launched England’s empire and the reason we speak English. I have written often of this event and how Benjamin Franklin cited...

G-7 Italia

It was Italy’s turn to host the G-7 meeting of the wealthiest democracies last week.  Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chose the southern region of Apulia to impress the member nations, which include the U.S., Canada, France, UK, Germany, and Japan. The...

MONTANI SEMPER LIBERI 

In the 1987 film Matewan, based on a true story in 1920s West Virginia, filmmaker John Sayles dramatizes the stand-off between corrupt factory bosses and the coal miners whom they exploited: poor whites (Appalachians, largely of Anglo or Scottish stock), African...

There from the Start

It isn’t often that I reminisce about this enterprise we call the Italic Institute.  Now in our 37th year with a modest following across the nation, I was recently surprised to learn of the passing of someone upon whose shoulders the Institute depended. ...

The Defaming Fathers

Someday there may be a monument to The Godfather, where the corpses of its founding fathers will be interred and worshipped.  Gone now are Mario Puzo, author of the original bestseller and co-screenwriter of the film; Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone), James Caan...