2008
-
Zia
His uniform was bituminous, bereft of medals, and luminous teeth illuminated an otherwise dark face. It was New Year’s Eve…
-
American Zoology 101
Obama’s victory made it clear “that America is ready to reconcile with the world,” wrote Zucconi. Italy has long tuned…
-
Tears
Only wounded and menopausal could Clinton bring women into her quest. Public crying in American politics is a small but…
-
Urn
Urn of Urns. What a curious country. Stolen urns, reacquired, return to champagne hurrahs in Rome while 100 miles south,…
-
Mitty-me
Antoine-Jean Gros’ Napoleon. On a slow day I led Napoleon’s armies. I was the general responsible for the indomitable left…
-
Snow
The next day, before the sky caught cold, I answered, “Percy Sledge.” This time of year we demanded snow. We…
-
Promised land
Martin Luther King in 1967. Political promise has two sides. The first responds to programs and schemes. The second is…
-
Ruta-Velt
Six years ago a popular left-leaning mayor of Rome quit his job and went for the gold — which in…
-
Clever Old Men
Berlusconi is the colorful haggler who won’t go away. For decades, three pre-enlightenment presidents lorded over global sports. They were…
-
Hawkers
The kept woman, now coming to a site near you. To digest the case of disgraced former New York Governor…
-
Radio Days
Do you have a common household problem you’d like solved?” Household problems were my specialty. I could fix a leaky…
-
Germination
It knows what you think of it. Late winter and early spring can be the worst part of the flu…
-
Commitment
Whatever the weather we must move together… Historian David Stafford recently published a commentary offering cautionary advice to critics of Bush Administration…
-
The Catholic Pope
Pope John Paul II at Shea Stadium, 1979. If, as an adjunct of muddled modernism, you’re the totality of your…
-
Lies
Henry Fond in “12 Angry Men” — Caught lying, corporations improvise shock. Found to plagiarize, reporters and authors blame haste.…
-
The Howling
Not yet a real race… Overkill isn’t the word. Numbing is closer. The Obama-Clinton Democratic face-off isn’t a story; it’s the only story. All…
-
Carmen
Summer of ’73, Rome. My favorite photograph of Carmen Scarpitta has me perched on an armrest staring at her in…
-
Clean-tom
Mr. Matteo, my cab driver, can’t get enough of American politics. Mr. Matteo thinks Hillary Clinton wants to sleep with…
-
Matrix
Neville Chamberlain and Hitler in Munich. The conflict between Barack Obama and the reigning American political establishment over global power…
-
Naples
Naples, 1950. Photo by Erich Auerbach. Getty Images. And in this corner Curzio Malaparte, undisputed poet laureate of contaminated Naples.…
-
Blondes
Jean Harlow in 1935. We’re arguing about blondes when the Russian boys come barreling in. Each has a moon-face. The…
-
Not With My Face
I post therefore I am… Not long ago a friend asked me to join Facebook. Why waste time on private…
-
Retro
Russia’s Sergei Semak and Greek goalie Antonis Nikopolidis mix it up. Fifty years ago the adjective “retro” kicked around in…
-
Hydra
Candidate as benign Hydra. According to an astute conservative observer, Barack Obama is two-faced. One half is articulate and compassionate,…
-
Watch
Happy birthday. In a time of watches, I never knew the half of it. My father swore by a chrome…
-
Kitty
Kitty and the author, June 2007. The Kitty-isms I remember are a dime a dozen. They usually began, “Well, I…
-
Chores
Norman Rockwell cover, “The Saturday Evening Post” My parents didn’t talk about the past. I learned this long after any…
-
Cheat-O-Meter
Amber is more than a little intimidating. Ihave a date with summer starlets. Let me count the ways. There’s Emmanuelle,…
-
American Idol
It’s not really about walls… Barack Obama’s status in Western Europe has little do with policy. It’s not about the…
-
ee-PER
Yes has the first word, and the last. Perusing my Favorite Big City Newspaper Online — call it FABCO — I find…
-
Che tempo fa…
Pricip is cool… until it bears down. Colonel Bernaca got five minutes at the end of the evening news. “Now,”…
-
Bitch
Laika, the Soviet space dog, RIP. While naughty Russia does the nasty to Georgia and Michael Philips liquefies Chinese gold,…
-
Thrill Kill
Biden and Obama: Addition by subtraction. Chic is a funny thing. It rarely announces itself. It can drop in overnight.…
-
Huge
Historic, awesome, once-in-a-lifetime… Hyperbole can get in the way of measuring the genuine impact of American political events. Depending on…
-
Nuance
Closer than meets the eye. Anewspaper report detailing a television exchange between conservative television host Bill O’Reilly and Barack Obama…
-
Sweat
Paul Robeson. Bumbling down the streets near my Rome apartment with twin six-packs of mineral water I look suspiciously like…
-
Catastrophism
Kansas-born clown Emmett Kelly. August in America featured the latest apocalypse now, otherwise known as Hurricane Gustav. Its epithets salivated:…
-
Tease
1969 King Crimson, front… This week I sampled the latest tool offered by my computer’s free music program. It scans…
-
Lipstick
My girl, meanwhile, is behind Door No. 1. Lucky me. I’m kissing a girl with blood-red lipstick who’s pinned against…
-
Looting
Capitalism can be spooked; it cannot vanish. Only companies can. Two lessons stand out among the many emerging from the…
-
North through me
It is October 17, 752 and 30,000 Islamists soldiers are parked in French wine country. Charles de Steuben, 1834-37. Charles…
-
Spotted
With help from southern Democrats… With the presidential campaign in its waning days, much is made of an under-radar view…
-
Obama
Barack Obama. Photo by Damon Winter, The New York Times. Shake out a century and snapshots slip from its pockets.…
-
Holes
If you see this sign, take a 10-year break. Rome honors holes. They’re on streets, along sidewalks. They have their…
-
Tanned
Forattini’s La Nazione cartoon, “American Nursery” What’s nastier, insult or opportunism? Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s awkward remarks about U.S. President-elect…
-
Radiance
The Road Runner (“Meep, meep!”) and Wilie E. Coyote in pursuit. The Road Runner typically hid behind a cliff, smirking.…
-
Swan dive
FDR’s resolve led to Truman’s desktop motto. Spotlighting ciphers is a bad idea. Ciphers are divas. They work hard to…
-
The nasty
The clues are in here somewhere… So much for television’s consoling effects. Pummel disbelief long enough and it does the…
-
Pizza
Filippo at the Taverna Rossini. With the recession getting spicy, restaurant owner Filippo got wise. “Now we don’t close any…
-
Lingo
Calamity (“calamitas”) demanded a more well-qualified ambassador — disaster. Language means elbow room. The 17th century workplace was crowded. To…
-
Marmy
Never the tail… Every Christmas we cooked a squirrel. Everything but the tail, that is. Petie said the tail was…
-
Yousee
Berkgkamp in ’97: The visuals take over… From time to time I translate for an Italian company that wants to…
-
Bullies
The Gori legions. There’s a pop theory making the rounds in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Georgia and China’s…
-
Malaparte in letters
Curzio Malaparte was born Kurt Erich Suckert. By late 1949, noted Italian author Curzio Malaparte (born Kurt Erich Suckert to…
-
Numeral stew
Berlusconi III puts him among the “greats” … For decades, the only way to tell between Italian carbon-copy governments was…
-
Quo Vadis, Italia Nostra?
Political campaigns are good for a party, but Italy is stalled. Every January the Italian think tank Eurispes issues a…
-
Red boy, Hitler boy
A Tartar named Galimzyan Salikhovich Khusainov put the Soviets ahead. In June 1964, I was a Communist. Exactly two years…
-
The fight club
Rome’s Olympic Stadium is a cauldron for clashes. Early in Richard Ford’s latest novel, narrator Frank Bascombe ponders American mobility.…
-
Voice of America
Bloggers and satirists run amok… Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks English in the way many Americans do, excitedly and…
christopherwinner.com 