He Knew All The Words

Archive for September, 2010

“You and Your Town” — a story update from Marco

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You see that little link over there on the right that says Concettina Died and Other Storied of the East Side? Well, it’s been since January of 2009 that we had an update from Marco. Until today.

When Stephanie, Joe, and I were visiting Mom and Dad over Labor Day, Dad told a story that we’d heard before, but that never gets any less funny for the retelling. Something made me think of it today and I realized that it’s a classic that really shouldn’t be left out of Marco’s story archive over there at the Concettina Died section of my old site. So I asked Dad to write it out. He obliged within the hour.

Marco writes:

After high school graduation, my parents, who were busting their buttons because I was the first in the family to go to college, decided they would drive me to Athens, Ohio, where I would start classes at Ohio University. The journey was about four hours, and took us through winding country roads, and it seemed, through every small township and village in southern Ohio.

In one of these villages, a traffic jam had Papa’s car at a dead standstill. It was a two lane street, through the middle of that village, with the opposite traffic directly across from our car. September can be very hot in southern Ohio, so all the car windows were rolled down (no air conditioning in 1956). Papa, who had little patience when he thought the fates were acting against him, cursed in his native Italian, and was generally beside himself over the delay. In the car directly opposite ours, traveling in the opposite direction, a rather elderly little lady sat behind her wheel, patiently waiting to move forward. I seem to remember she looked at us, and smiled. Papa smiled back, and in his broken English, said to her, “eh ladee, thisa yu town?” She, probably expecting some nice word about her village, answered, “Yes, yes it is.”

Then with all his frustration ready to be unleashed, Papa leaned out his window and yelled to her, “Wella, poo! Go to hella you eh you town!”

Unable to believe what had just taken place, I slid as far down into the back seat as I possibly could, hoping for the traffic to begin moving soon. And that’s how my college days began!

I’ve added this story to the full archive, and if you haven’t done so recently I recommend going back through and reading all of Dad’s stories again. They’re funny and touching and it’s a wonderful blessing to have them written down. Thanks, Dad.

Written by David Zaza

September 28th, 2010 at 4:09 pm

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Arkansas Assholes

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It goes without saying that all the Republicans in the Senate are assholes, especially those two dopes from Maine. So it comes as no surprise that they voted in lockstep against the military authorization bill today because of the inclusion of an amendment that might someday lead the president to authorize the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell if a Pentagon study tells him it’s okay to do so and if his Secretary of Defense and his Chairman of the Joint Chief tell him it’s okay and if magical pixie dust paints rainbows over San Francisco or something. And so I’m not going to clutter up this page with pictures of all of them because that’s just too many assholes all at once. But to have Democrats also voting against the bill simply reveals them as the bigots they are. Blanche Lincoln is a fool, and Mark Pryor is a coward. And they’re both assholes. Lincoln will be gone from the Senate as of January, because she’s going to lose her reelection bid in November. Good riddance.

Don’t know about you, but I’m ready for Democrats to start acting like Democrats again. We’re the party of equality and equal rights, including equal rights for LGBT people. If Lincoln and Pryor’s big tent isn’t big enough for gays and lesbians, then my big tent is certainly not big enough for them. Assholes.

Written by David Zaza

September 21st, 2010 at 3:45 pm

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