Columns

Dear readers,  Deported is a word we associate with “ordered to leave the US” but it turns out deporting boats float both ways… Italy did not exist as a nation in the early 1800s, and the Italian exiles who arrived …

Dear readers,  A saint he ain’t but a reader wanted to know if I had any information on a saint with a Rossi surname who had been canonized in the late 1800s. I checked an old edition of Butler’s Lives of …

Dear Readers,  May jottings with an Italian Connection:  Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 14th, calls for a toast. Here is one shared with me by the late Frank Befera of Duluth, Minnesota: “Here’s to the happiest hours of my life, spent in …

Dear Readers,  April showers bring May flowers and an abbondanza of Italian connections. *** President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. If not for the assassination of President Lincoln, there would not be a Pullman Company. In 1865, Mr. George Mortimer Pullman was building railroad …

Dear Readers,  March, the third month of the year has 31 days and is short for Martius mensis, “the month of Mars.” In Roman mythology, Mars was the god of war and agriculture. Nerio, a minor Roman goddess was his wife. Jupiter …

Dear readers, The many Italian connections in March continue:  Judge John J. Sirica was born on March 23, 1904, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was the US district court judge whose search for the truth about the 1972 Watergate break-in was the first step leading …

Dear Readers,  May, we said, keeps on having many Italian connections, but for those of us who were fans, this is the month we had to say goodbye to Frank Sinatra: learning he had died, on the 14th of May 1998, was …

Dear Readers,  A June “minestrone” of Italian connections for you! “Grazie” to Tony Ghezzo, who has been a font of information on all things Italian for over thirty years.  ** La Festa della Repubblica commemorates the day of June 2, 1946, when the people of Italy, in …

Dear Readers,  April (Aprile) comes from the Latin word aperire, which means to open.  *** St. Francis of Paola was born in Paola, Calabria, Italy, in April 1416. He cured the sick, prophesized the future, and was a major influence on five kings …

Dear Readers,  Flag Day, June 14, 2023, is the anniversary of the adoption of our American flag, June 14, 1777. First designated for US observance in 1895, it is not a legal holiday but is widely celebrated, especially in schools and …