religion

An Unholy Alliance: American Conservatives and the Vatican

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I have had it up to here with the media frenzy over the Papal death-and-succession, and can only be relieved that the Conclave only lasted two days (to the disappointment of news crews, no doubt – hang around in Rome and wait for a chimney to smoke? Tough job.)

Though I’m glad it’s over, I’m not at all happy with the results of this “election” – in which only 110 or so of the world’s one billion Catholics had a vote, and women were completely disenfranchised. Catholicism is definitely not for me but, out of respect for my many Catholic friends (some of whom read this newsletter), I will leave that topic alone. I’d only start foaming at the mouth anyway…

I’m not Catholic, so what any Pope says or does shouldn’t matter to me anyway, right? Well, as Richard Cohen of The Washington Post points out, it’s not only Catholics who are affected by Catholic dogma:

“…There are other areas… where John Paul II’s teachings affected non-Catholics. I am referring now to his implacable opposition to birth control – not just abortion, mind you, but the mere use of condoms…

It is the underdeveloped world where birth control is most needed. It is there, where medical services are the most meager, that the AIDS pandemic poses its greatest threat and where condom use is the cheapest and most effective preventative measure. The pope counseled abstinence, a wholly unrealistic piece of advice…” (Indeed, if abstinence was easy for the average human being to achieve, the Catholic Church might not face the severe shortage of priests that it currently does.)

Opposition to birth control is also a Bush administration policy with devastating effects on non-Americans: the US government refuses to fund development agencies or projects where family planning includes so much as a mention of abortion, in spite of the fact that abortion is legal in America. Where American conservatives cannot impose their will by law in America, they are doing it by budget policy in other countries. Catholic dogma lends “moral” support to this stance, and Ratzinger, like Wojtyla before him, will no doubt continue to do so very vocally.

Ratzinger’s virulent anti-gay stance will also reinforce American conservatives in their homophobia. However, the Church’s opposition to the death penalty (and the Iraq war) will be conveniently ignored. Politics and religion make strange bedfellows.

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Italian language

It. Figures: Dealing with Numbers in Another Language

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I suspect that most people, no matter how well they speak a foreign language, find it difficult to deal with numbers in other than their native tongue. I’ve noticed many times that someone has asked me to give them numbers in their own language, “because it’s easier.” I’m no different: if I have to write down a phone number, I prefer to have it recited to me in English.

For starters, Italians have a completely different way of speaking numbers than Americans. Suppose you were reciting out loud the (fictitious) Washington phone number: (202) 123 4567. Most Americans would say: “two oh two, one two three, four five six seven.” Many Italians would say the Italian equivalent of: “Two hundred two, one hundred twenty-three, forty five, sixty seven.” Or, even more confusingly, they will break up the seven-digit number differently than Americans do and come out with: “Two hundred two, twelve, thirty four, five hundred sixty seven.”

Americans do use hundreds and thousands in phone numbers where they are round numbers, e.g. a toll-free number might be given as “one eight hundred four five five three thousand.”

Saying hundreds (never thousands) is more efficient in Italian than English, because the Italian for hundred is “cento”, and you don’t need to say “one” when there’s only one hundred. So “cento ventisette” (127) is quicker to say than “one hundred and twenty seven.” (Yes, we were all taught in grammar school that saying “one hundred AND…” is wrong, but many of us still do it.)

On the other hand, if someone starts saying “cento…” my instinct is to immediately write 100, before I hear that the tens and units columns are also occupied.

What about other kinds of numbers? Take years: the year 1956 is read by English-speakers as “nineteen fifty six” or, if you’re old-fashioned, “nineteen hundred and fifty six.” An Italian would say “mille novecento cinquantasei” (one thousand nine hundred fifty six) – twice as many syllables.

And then there’s the matter of dates. Americans write and say “April 25th, 2005,” or 4/25/05. Italians write and say “25 Aprile 2005” (venticinque aprile, due mila cinque – note that there’s no ordinal: it’s twenty-five, not 25th) or 25/4/05. Most of the rest of the world also abbreviates dates in the day/month/year format. Having lived all over the world, I can never remember which style is used where, so I’m always messing up forms that require me to fill in a date.

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Italian culture, religion

The Papal Funeral Bash

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I’m not going to say much about this; I wasn’t there, and ignored it as far as possible. The only footage I actually watched was on the Daily Show. But I do have a few items:

Early last week, I was riding the bus down to Lecco, at my usual time when it’s full of schoolkids. One girl was on her cellphone. “She only goes to mass ogni morte di papa!” she exclaimed, completely without irony, –nd now she wants to go to the funeral!”

Indeed, many of the Italians who traveled to Rome for the funeral probably don’t go regularly to Mass. I won’t presume to comment on why they went to the Pope’s funeral, except that Ross told me that some of her peers came back with cellphone photos of themselves drinking Limoncello (a strong lemon liqueur) in Piazza San Pietro.

I do know a number of serious Catholics – those who truly believe and practice Christianity, e.g., doing volunteer work. Interestingly, none of them went to Rome, and all were nonplussed by the outpouring of whatever this was, and disconcerted by the yells of “Santo subito!” (“Make him a saint immediately!”) As far as I know, it’s not in the church canons to saint somebody just because he was popular.

Rome rose magnificently to the occasion, managing to keep things in order and take care of the crush of people. Every cellphone in Italy received messages from the Protezione Civile (“Civil Protection” – the government emergency-response organization). The first read: “If you go to Rome to pay homage to the Pope, use mass transit and be prepared for organized but very long lines. Hot by day and cool at night. For information, listen to Isoradio [public information radio, mostly used for traffic warnings] 103.3.”

The second message said: “Due to enormous turnout, from Wednesday at 10 pm access is closed to the lines to salute the Pope. Friday for the funeral traffic will be stopped in Rome. The area of San Pietro is full. Large screens will be in the piazzas and at Torvergata” (an area outside Rome where the final rush of pilgrims was told to stop when the city couldn’t take any more).

My friend Alice Twain then sent her own message: “Protezione Civile: Before leaving for Rome, remember to turn off the gas, close the shutters, and water the plants.”

photo above: April 1, 2005 – the Papal Deathwatch. A TV transmission truck (belonging to RAI, Italian state television) parked outside the headquarters of Avvenire, Italy’s Catholic daily newspaper. The vultures are circling…

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what I do

Making Money from a Content-Rich Personal Site

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Millions of people have put up websites: many in hopes of making money one way or another; many, like myself, because we have something to share with the world, and don’t care whether it makes any money or not. On the other hand, making money wouldn’t hurt…

As I have mentioned, and you have no doubt noticed, I’m using Google’s AdSense service to place ads on my site, for which I get paid when visitors click on any of the ad links. I started this mostly to see how it works (my professional field – well, one of them – is online marketing), and it’s even earning a bit of money. Not nearly enough to pay for all the time I spend doing the site, but more than enough to cover my hosting costs. It’s interesting to see which pages generate the most revenue. I can try to guess from that which links are paying the most and why, and which are most likely to be clicked on (the living in Italy section is the most lucrative, though it’s also one of the larger sections, so there are more links to be clicked).

My site now gets over 500 visitors a day (NB: as of Dec, 2006, the number of visitors has doubled), a fact which has been noticed by companies who sell link exchange services to help boost traffic to their clients’ websites and improve their search engine rankings (that is, show up higher in the list of results when you search on a certain term in Google, Yahoo, etc.). Their pitch usually begins: ” am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in your site because it looks like it’s relevant to a site for which I am seeking links.– This is most often followed by mention of a site which has no conceivable relevance to mine, such as one –about specialized business products including caution tape and barricade tape.– I ignore these offers.

I have exchanged links with a few sites which truly are relevant, and happily link to some friends’ sites which may be of interest to my readers. But I’m becoming reticent about linking to just any old site about, e.g., tourism in Italy. Due to the amount of –qualified– traffic that comes to my site every day, a link from me is now actually worth something: it helps new sites get noticed faster by Google, and directs desirable (and not just random) visitors to relevant sites.

I’m not really set up to monetize and manage the value of such links, though, so I’ll just have to evaluate whether the requesting linkee can provide equal value in return. So far the track record isn’t good. I was recently asked to allow some of my articles to be used on a new site for expatriates in Italy – –We’ll put in your name and a link– was the offer. I have given away a few articles in the past, in exchange for links, in order to build traffic from sites which I knew had a lot more visitors than I did. But it makes no sense for me to give away content to a brand new site – I have far more traffic than they do at the moment. (I explained all this to the guy behind the new site, and he agreed that they might consider paying me.)

I’m also not equipped to require a subscription to my newsletter – even if I wanted to, which I don’t. But, in case anyone’s inclined to contribute something, I’ve added an Amazon Wish List link.

This is partly a sociological experiment. Some people are reportedly making enough money to live on from purely voluntary donations: Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, for example. Jason Kottke, a popular blogger, recently announced that he hoped to do the same. Kottke evidently has a large and enthusiastic following, to even undertake such an experiment. Cohen has created something truly useful (not just to pirates) and deserves to be paid for it (I really must get around to that one of these days…).

I doubt that my material would engender or even deserves such monetary affection, but what the heck – the worst that can happen is I get pleasantly surprised someday by a contribution! I have seen a couple of examples of people offering their readers the chance to express appreciation via an Amazon wish list, so I’ve added links to mine. And I suppose my wish lists offer more insight (as if any was needed!) into my personality.

The Amazon experiment continues: whenever I happen to mention a book or movie that I like, I put a sponsored link on my site so that, if you click through from my site and actually buy something, I get a small commission. It appears that if you follow a link from my site to Amazon and then click around and buy something else, I still get money, even if it’s an item not mentioned on my site. Someone recently bought a very expensive set of headphones after arriving at Amazon from my site, so by the end of the month I’ll receive a gift certificate from Amazon (which I will immediately spend on books). Millions of people have put up websites: many in hopes of making money one way or another; many, like myself, because we have something to share with the world, and don’t care whether it makes any money or not. On the other hand, making money wouldn’t hurt–¦

As I have mentioned, and you have no doubt noticed, I’m using Google’s AdSense service to place ads on my site, for which I get paid when visitors click on any of the ad links. I started this mostly to see how it works (my professional field – well, one of them – is online marketing), and it’s even earning a bit of money. Not nearly enough to pay for all the time I spend doing the site, but more than enough to cover my hosting costs. It’s interesting to see which pages generate the most revenue. I can try to guess from that which links are paying the most and why, and which are most likely to be clicked on (the living in Italy section is the most lucrative, though it’s also one of the larger sections, so there are more links to be clicked).

My site now gets over 500 visitors a day (NB: as of Dec, 2006, the number of visitors has doubled), a fact which has been noticed by companies who sell link exchange services to help boost traffic to their clients’ websites and improve their search engine rankings (that is, show up higher in the list of results when you search on a certain term in Google, Yahoo, etc.). Their pitch usually begins: ” am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in your site because it looks like it’s relevant to a site for which I am seeking links.– This is most often followed by mention of a site which has no conceivable relevance to mine, such as one –about specialized business products including caution tape and barricade tape.– I ignore these offers.

I have exchanged links with a few sites which truly are relevant, and happily link to some friends’ sites which may be of interest to my readers. But I’m becoming reticent about linking to just any old site about, e.g., tourism in Italy. Due to the amount of –qualified– traffic that comes to my site every day, a link from me is now actually worth something: it helps new sites get noticed faster by Google, and directs desirable (and not just random) visitors to relevant sites.

I’m not really set up to monetize and manage the value of such links, though, so I’ll just have to evaluate whether the requesting linkee can provide equal value in return. So far the track record isn’t good. I was recently asked to allow some of my articles to be used on a new site for expatriates in Italy – –We’ll put in your name and a link– was the offer. I have given away a few articles in the past, in exchange for links, in order to build traffic from sites which I knew had a lot more visitors than I did. But it makes no sense for me to give away content to a brand new site – I have far more traffic than they do at the moment. (I explained all this to the guy behind the new site, and he agreed that they might consider paying me.)

I’m also not equipped to require a subscription to my newsletter – even if I wanted to, which I don’t. But, in case anyone’s inclined to contribute something, I’ve added an Amazon Wish List link.

This is partly a sociological experiment. Some people are reportedly making enough money to live on from purely voluntary donations: Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, for example. Jason Kottke, a popular blogger, recently announced that he hoped to do the same. Kottke evidently has a large and enthusiastic following, to even undertake such an experiment. Cohen has created something truly useful (not just to pirates) and deserves to be paid for it (I really must get around to that one of these days…).

I doubt that my material would engender or even deserves such monetary affection, but what the heck – the worst that can happen is I get pleasantly surprised someday by a contribution! I have seen a couple of examples of people offering their readers the chance to express appreciation via an Amazon wish list, so I’ve added links to mine. And I suppose my wish lists offer more insight (as if any was needed!) into my personality.

The Amazon experiment continues: whenever I happen to mention a book or movie that I like, I put a sponsored link on my site so that, if you click through from my site and actually buy something, I get a small commission. It appears that if you follow a link from my site to Amazon and then click around and buy something else, I still get money, even if it’s an item not mentioned on my site. Someone recently bought a very expensive set of headphones after arriving at Amazon from my site, so by the end of the month I’ll receive a gift certificate from Amazon (which I will immediately spend on books).

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Italian food

Customs and Etiquette When Dining Out in Italy

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House Wine

In many Italian restaurants, you can get a low-cost house wine (usually one white and one red selection) in carafes of 1/4, 1/2, or a full litre. In some places this is a decent though not stellar local wine, in others it will be something completely unrelated to the area. Personally, I’d try something local, even if you have to buy a whole bottle – local wines are part of the authentic Italian food experience. And sometimes the house wine is very special indeed.

The house wine does not necessarily have a lower alcohol content than what you get in bottles; it has whatever alcohol content is normal for that type of wine.


Is a Pizza a Meal?

A normal Italian pizza is just right for one hungry person to eat – the size of a 12-14″ plate. True Italian pizza, at least in northern Italy, bears little relation to the huge thick globby thing they call pizza in the US and, for my money, the Italian version is a lot better. It’s a thin crust with a thin layer of tomato sauce and mozzarella (usually) plus whatever else you order on it – every pizzeria has a long list of options from the classic to the bizarre, but usually you can subtract ingredients just by asking. In the better pizzerie, pizza is cooked in a wood-fired oven. Don’t settle for anything less.

Italians don’t often drink beer with meals, except with pizza. Beer may be on tap or in bottles, and is served by volume (piccola, media, grande).

About Water

Aqua gassata (pronounced “gazata”) or frizzante (“fritz-antay”) has bubbles, naturale or non-gassata does not. While tap water is safe to drink all over Italy, Italians usually drink bottled water because they prefer the taste (not because the restaurants are looking for an excuse to make you pay more). You can insist on tap water, but be aware that in most parts of Italy it is very hard (lots of calcium), and you may not like the flavor. In some mountain locales where the local water is very good, they serve that in carafes for free. Anywhere else, it can be difficult to get tap water brought to your table, but, if you want to try, ask for acqua del rubinetto.

No, gassata is not the default choice, unless for some reason your waiter has preconceived notions about foreigners. The Italian population splits pretty evenly on the gas or no-gas preference, so why would any waiter assume otherwise?

Dining “al Fresco”

NB: To an Italian, al fresco is slang for being in jail!

Weather and facilities permitting, the waiter may ask if you prefer to sit indoors or outdoors. If you want to smoke with your meal, outdoors may be your only option nowadays. Prices should be the same for a sit-down meal no matter where you sit.

Sitting or Standing

At many/most bars you will be charged more if you occupy a table, even if you fetch your drinks/snacks from the bar yourself. Bars care about rapid turnover, so they charge you more for table service. It’s a conflict of interest between tourists wanting a place to sit down and rest their feet while enjoying the human scenery around them, and bars needing to make money from the space they’re sitting in. The more desirable the location (e.g., Saint Mark’s Square in Venice), the more ridiculous the price of a cup of coffee at a table. If you just want coffee, have it standing up at a little bar on a side street. If you want to rest your feet and enjoy the view, be prepared to pay for that.

Cover and Service Charges and Tipping

Most restaurants charge coperta (the term actually refers to the place setting), a minimal (1-3 euro) cover charge which includes the cost of bread, table settings, etc. Most do not charge for service, and Italians tip only minimally. Waiting tables is a trained and valued job in Italy, and waiters make decent salaries. Of course they do appreciate any tip that you leave but, unless you’re spending more than 50 euros a head on a meal, a tip of more than 5 euros is extravagant. I usually leave 1-2 euros plus whatever loose change I want to get rid of. (NB: In the US I tip very well – several of my friends worked their way through college on tips!)

Paying the Bill

Getting the bill in an Italian restaurant can actually be an ordeal. Unlike many American restaurants, Italian restaurants are usually in no hurry to get rid of you (and most Italians would react very badly to a restaurant trying to rush them out). I don’t know why, but it can take forever to get the bill. Maybe it’s because only the restaurant owner has access to the cash register, and he/she may be busy chatting with regular customers.

Note: Restaurant recommendations are here.

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia