“A CARNEVALE OGNI SCHERZO VALE!”

I mentioned in my last blog that even the coldest places on Earth (in the previous case, Alaska) have been touched by that great Italian hand (explorer Alessandro Malaspina). It’s now fitting to see what Italians are up to on their own turf during wintertime....

America is Well-Named

Forget Presidents’ Day!  The day we should be celebrating is February 15th; the day navigator Amerigo Vespucci took command of a Portuguese ship in 1502 and added two new continents to the world map. Amerigo Vespucci 1454-1512, aged 57 We all know the story of...

Hollywood’s Greatest Valentine’s Day Film

[The following essay was published in the NY Daily News on 14 February 2026] What is the perfect Valentine’s Day movie? Why, Rio Bravo, of course. According to Quentin Tarantino: “There are certain movies that you hang out with the characters so much that they...

UNFREEZING OUR MEDIA IMAGE

With colder temps comes thoughts of colder climates—the state of Alaska, for example. Never visited, but it’s on my (ice?) bucket list.  Why Alaska? Well, everyone knows Mt. McKinley—or, rather, its original Indigenous name of Denali (“the tall...

One Man’s Trash…

Last October, the Commission for Social Justice, an arm of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, tried to distribute positive image material to New York City libraries in celebration of Italian History Month.  Two Manhattan libraries considered the material...

Out of One Neighborhood

The Giglio Festival Yesterday I read about an Italian American neighborhood that was the original Little Italy in New York City.  No, not Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan but East Harlem above 96th Street. Today, both those areas are “Italian” by the skin of their...