I do hope everyone's Thanksgiving 2009 festivities were wonderful. We had about 44 people milling through our house throughout the day...most of whom I knew...several I didn't...and only a few from MY side of the famiglia Truverii. Still...a good time!
Wildcats Wring in the Anno Nuovo 2010 Update!
As noted in the previous FSHSGRAM, for the last eight or nine or ten years, we've been getting together on the first Saturday after New Years at a ristorante italiano in the Washington/Baltimore area. We've had as few as 14 and as many as 76 Wildcats and Wildcats Wannabes attend -- most local but a few from as far away as California and Washinton state.
For 2 January 2010, 7PM to closing, we've made arrangements at the Cucina Vivace trattoria e enoteca in Arlington/Crystal City, VA:
www.cucinavivace.com
Cindi Christenson (married to Eric Christenson FSHS 66) and I have worked with the owner and chef, Gordon Vivace, to come up with a family-style, fixed-price menu for $65 per person (food, tips, taxes included) that features:
Prima del Pasto/Cocktail Hour
Bruschetta
Toasted bread rounds served with white bean and anchovy spread
Antipasti
Granchi Con Aioli
Lightly seasoned lump crab meat served with a lemon and garlic aioli
Funghi Marinati
Fresh button mushrooms marinated in red wine, balsamic pimento and fresh herbs
Caponata
A savory, baked mix of eggplant, red bell peppers, garlic, capers and herbs
Insalate
Insalata Digiuna
Boston bib lettuce and cherry tomatoes with gorgonzola cheese dressing
Insalata Autunno
Mixed field greens, walnuts, dried cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette
Paste
Tortelloni Con Funghi
Fresh three cheese tortelloni in a sauce of mixed wild mushrooms, garlic and olive oil
Rigatoni Marinara
Fresh rigatoni in marinara
Secondi
Trota Infornata
Broiled trout fillet with an almond/lemon cream sauce
Arista Marinata
A thick cut pork chop lightly coated with olive oil and herbs; grilled to medium
Vitello
Free-range, pan-seared veal medallions in a cognac and green peppercorn sauce.
Dolci
Strata Di Bacche
A rustic variant of bread pudding with a layer of tart mixed alpine berries
Torta Con Nutella
Nutella, an Italian favorite, used as a glaze to coat fudge brownies.
Also included in the $65 cost are regular coffee, ice tea, and water.
All specialty coffees, wine, beer and liquor will be separate from the "family-style" account and the responsibility of individuals placing the orders.
So...we have ten Wildcats signed up already, and Cucina Vivace can easily handle 34. If we get commitments of about 25 Wildcats and Wildcat consorti, Gordon will close the ristorante for us. I'll need to get a final count to him by 18 December. Please let me know if you and yours can attend. I'll also need checks by 31 December; send to: Scott Truver, 281 Wilderness Road, Severna Park, MD 21146-2124. If you'd like to talk it over with me, here's my cell: 703-268-0634.
There are several hotels/motels within walking distance of the cucina, for out-of-towners.
Sad News
In a message dated 11/21/09 Napolitani@aol.com (who's not in the FSHSWACD...) writes:
We recently lost Mike Eddy and Jim "Red" Worthington -- both FSHS 58 -- to cancer. Mike graduated from the US Naval Academy and flew 299 missions over 'Nam in A4 Skyhawks and A6 Intruders. He is survived by wife Charlotte Dankworth Eddy FSHS 60. Condolences can be sent to Charlotte at 2430 North Moss Lane, Oak Harbor, WA 98277. More on "Red" can be had from his sister, and to whom condolences can be sent, "Teenie" Western FSHS 57 at Aworthington@verizon.net.
Napolitani, himself, is recovering from surgery earlier this month: "They believe they got all of the cancer, but my 70-year old body is slow to heal," he wrote on 24 November. Our best wishes for a complete recovery!
Sorrento (and Napoli) on My Mind...
Curt Hingson FSHS 65 (hing430@aol.com) writes of an October mini-reunion in the old country:
I was in Sorrento while the Vegas get-together was happening. Several of us FSHS old timers (Page Holbrook, Zilla Webb Hillin, John Lopez and wife Marjorie, Roscoe and Jackie Toles) were guests in a ocean view villa, thanks to Page and her local connections, and enjoyed life on the 'skirts of Napoli for 12 beautiful days and more, for some. Some pictures are on Facebook in our FaceBook group for FSHS (1965 or so). Attaching a couple for the next newsletter...
Mille Grazie, Curt...these are wonderful! If they don't generate an upwhelming of nostalgia and homesickness, I don't know what will!
(OBTW, Curt sent these in very high res, 2MB+ files, and I reduced for the FSHSGRAM. If you'd like original, high-res files, let Curt or me know. FSHSGRAM ed.)
More on Karen Fahy O'Neill FSHS 69 in Acquila:
I've attached a Word file of the IRISH DAILY MIRROR story about Karen's efforts to help the earthquake-damaged area.
That's about it for today...
Please let me know soonest if you can party with us on 2 January. It will be a great time!
Meanwhile, Napoli News below.
Ciao, Tutti!
Scott T FSHS 68
Napoli News
Will Drilling Into a Volcano Trigger an Eruption That Destroys Naples?
By Clay Dillow Posted 11.09.2009 at 2:30 pm
Pompeii Geologist will drill seven boreholes in the caldera at Campi Flegrie in around Naples, Italy, in an attempt to better predict volcanic disasters like the one that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79. Critics say the drilling could trigger that very volcanic disaster.
Scientific research has helped humankind avoid or mitigate many of nature's best attempts to send us to a violent end, but what do researchers do when the pursuit of research could trigger the very disaster from which science is trying to protect us? That's the question facing geologists in Naples, Italy that will begin sinking seven four-kilometer bore holes into the Campi Flegrei caldera, the site of a "supercolossal" volcanic eruption 39,000 years ago.
Those doing the drilling hope to learn more about the geological activity beneath the giant collapsed crater so they might better predict future volcanic disasters. Critics say the drilling could precipitate that very cataclysmic eruption the researchers are trying to avoid.
Previous studies show that Campi Flegrei is one of Earth's most volcanically high-risk places; just 4,000 years ago series of violent eruptions cut the landscape into what it is today. Prior to those eruptions the Earth's crust rose by several meters across the entire caldera. The crust has been rising again since the 1960s, causing concern among scientists that it might be ready to blow its top once again. An eruption now would be devastating: In a New Orleans-esque display of engineering foresight, the majority of the metropolitan area of Naples is situated within the caldera.
Predicting the next big eruption from Campi Flegrei, then, is of utmost importance not only from a scientific standpoint, but to avoid the kind of disaster that befell nearby Pompeii two millennia ago. The boreholes could reveal exactly where magma might surface and collect prior to eruptions, as well as reveal locations of fracture zones and pockets of magma underneath the caldera. Rock samples could also be collected and tested to help researchers model ground deformation in the area.
But drilling so deep into the earth is fraught with risks, critics say, not least of which could be eruptions of varying magnitudes triggered by the drilling. Explosions caused by super-hot magma flooding into the borehole and vaporizing the drilling fluid are common in such projects. The Iceland Deep Drilling Project, a geothermal energy play, was recently halted 2,014 meters down for exactly that reason. The difference, critics say, is that an explosion is worst case scenario for most drilling projects like the IDDP; hitting a main vein of pressurized silica-rich magma in Campi Flegrei could theoretically cause a complete disaster, sending the volcano into full eruption (and Naples to its demise).
The boreholes at Campi Flegrei won't likely hit magma, researchers say, as the holes will reach only half as deep as any known reservoir, and even if it does, the result will not necessarily be a disaster. It could, rather, provide researchers with important new information about the inner-workings of volcanoes in general, and Campi Flegrei in particular. Meanwhile, Naples will simply have to hold its breath.
6th Fleet gets new skipper
Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, November 21, 2009
NAPLES, Italy - Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. assumed command of the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, from Vice Adm. Bruce W. Clingan on Wednesday, according to a Navy news release.
Harris also becomes deputy commander of Naval Forces Europe/Naval Forces Africa, Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander Europe, and commander of Striking and Support Forces NATO.
He comes to Naples after serving as deputy chief of Naval Operations for Communications Networks and as Department of the Navy deputy chief information officer.
Clingan's next assignment will be as deputy chief of naval operations for Operations, Plans, and Strategy in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
Mussolini's 'brain and blood' removed from eBay auction after his granddaughter complains
By Nick Pisa
Last updated at 8:12 PM on 20th November 2009
Police were tonight investigating claims from the granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini that part of his brains had been offered for sale on eBay.
Alessandra Mussolini called police after being tipped off that three glass phials holding his brains and blood in a wooden box, and a photocopy of autopsy documents were posted on the auction site with a 15,000 Euro price tag.
Mussolini led Italy for more than 20 years. At the end of the Second World War he was shot with his mistress Claretta Petacci and their bodies hung upside down from a petrol station in Milan.
Following his execution his body was taken to a hospital in the city and his brain was removed on orders of the Americans and sent to a top secret military base for examination - and never returned.
Alessandra, who is a right wing MP, was tipped off about the sale during a conference and immediately went to a police station in Naples and reported the offer as well as telling officials at the Ministry of Communications.
Tonight the mother-of-three said: 'This is outrageous and I am furious that such a sacrilege should be carried out on the remains of my grand father.
'I am sure that these items were either stolen from the hospital in Milan and put up for sale by someone who had kept them or they could be part of the remains that were sent to the United States.
'I did not see the advert as it was taken down by the time I got to a computer but the police are investigating and they will be able to travel down who put the items on eBay.
Alessandra added: 'My grandfather's remains were kept in a box in Milan and when they were returned to my grandmother Rachele they were just a few bones. There was no brain or blood.
'This box of bones is what is buried in the family crypt. I am taking this matter very seriously and the police are investigating. I am outraged - it is disgusting and offensive.'
A spokesman for Italian eBay tonight said the offer was removed 'immediately' earlier today, but Alessandra claimed she had been told it had been on the site for two hours.
The eBay spokesman said that no-one had a chance to bid and stressed its regulations prohibited the sale of human parts.
Alessandra said that along with the three phials there was a photocopy of a document recording the handover of Benito Mussolini's body to his family for burial.
The document registered the Italian State's consignment of the body to his widow Rachele at his birthplace Predappio where it was re-interred in the family crypt which has now become a shrine to Neo Fascists.
Mussolini's remains have had a troubled past when he was first buried in 1945 in an unmarked grave. Fascists supporters discovered it, dug it up and kept it secret for ten years before handing it to his family.
Alessandra added: 'I am not sure if it was my grandfather's brains or if it wasn't - anything is possible and that's why I have made an official complaint and asked police to investigate.'
Nativity figures of 'Silvio Berlusconi's girls' sculpted
Italians will be able to add a whiff of political scandal to their Christmas nativity scenes this year -
carved wooden figurines of Patrizia D'Addario, the call girl who claims to have slept with Silvio Berlusconi.
By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 12:50PM GMT 25 Nov 2009
Figurines of Noemi Letizia, the teenage lingerie mode who calls the Italian prime minister 'Papi' or Daddy, will also be on sale next to more traditional nativity figures such as Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.
The nativity figures are produced by traditional craftsmen in Naples, who each festive season turn their hand to producing likenesses of politicians, actors and celebrities who have been in the public eye over the preceding year.
The craftsmen congregate in workshops around Via San Gregorio Armeno, in the heart of the southern port, Italy's third largest city.
Along with more conventional figurines such as the Three Wise Men, donkeys and cattle, the artisans are this year carving miniature figures of George Clooney, who is going out with an Italian actress; Michael Jackson, who died this year; and Mr Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, 53, who is suing him for divorce over his alleged womanising.
Miss D'Addario, 42, is depicted with long blonde hair, knee-length boots and a short black dress with a plunging neckline.
A book written by the professional escort about the night she claims to have spent with Mr Berlusconi after a party at his mansion in Rome was published this week.
In it she describes in graphic detail how the 73-year-old prime minister, dressed in white silk pyjamas, kept her up until 8am with his vigorous love making and then offered her breakfast in between his official engagements.
Mr Berlusconi has said he cannot recall the prostitute but has not explicitly denied having sexual relations with her.
Miss Letizia, 18, is depicted smiling and wearing a blue miniskirt and a white Dolce and Gabbana top.
The prime minister's decision to drop in on her 18th birthday party at a discotheque near Naples earlier this year outraged his wife and set off months of lurid revelations about his private life.
The loves of 'Papi' Berlusconi celebrated with a musical
Times Online
November 26, 2009
A theatre in Sicily is planning to stage a musical on the turbulent love life of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, called My Fair Papi.
Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, head of the Teatro Stabile in Catania, said the title was a play on My Fair Lady, Alan Jay Lerner's 1956 hit, itself based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. "Papi" is the nickname given to Mr Berlusconi by showgirls and models who attended parties at his villa in Sardinia and his palazzo in Rome.
It first came to public notice at the end of April when Noemi Letizia, the aspiring lingerie model whose 18th birthday the Italian leader unexpectedly attended in Naples, said she always called him "Papi", meaning "Daddy". It later emerged that some of the women who attended the parties were escorts who had been paid to do so.
Mr Buttafuoco said he was looking for an actor "like Danny De Vito" to play the flamboyant and controversial Italian leader and media tycoon. He told the newspaper La Sicilia: "We need someone with presence and versatility who knows how to sing, dance and dominate the stage. In fact De Vito would be our first choice".
He said the musical, which was in the early stages but was "more than just an idea", would not be left wing or a "hatchet job" but "light and amusing. It will take you into another dimension."
This week the Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine put Mr Berlusconi on its cover as "Rock Star of the Year" because of his "rock'n'roll lifestyle", saying that Mr Berlusconi's "daily behaviour, his furious vitality, his inimitable lifestyle have given him, especially this year, incredible international popularity."
NAPLES, Italy
Police arrested one of the country's most wanted mob bosses on Sunday,
a day after detaining his brother, dealing a blow to one of the most powerful
criminal clans in the region around Naples.
Pasquale Russo, 62 years old, had been on the run since 1993. He was arrested at dawn on Sunday in a remote farmhouse near Sperone, some 50 miles north of Naples. Italian authorities considered him one of Italy's top 10 mob fugitives.
In a statement, police said he was the chief of the Russo clan and described him as "extremely dangerous."
Mr. Russo was convicted in absentia more than a decade ago and sentenced to life in prison for 13 homicides and criminal association with the mob.
His brother Salvatore Russo, 51, was arrested Saturday after 14 years on the run. A third brother, Carmine, was also arrested Sunday.
Police described the Russo clan, based near the town of Nola, as a leading player in the Camorra organized-crime syndicate that operates in and around Naples.
The Camorra's grip on Naples, one of Italy's biggest port cities, has allowed it to become one of the country's top traffickers of counterfeit goods, narcotics and other contraband.
The syndicate also runs a vast trash-collection business, hauling waste from Italy's wealthier north to illegal landfills around Naples.
Unlike the better-known Sicilian mob, the Mafia, the Camorra doesn't have a highly centralized command, police say.
Instead, Camorra clans operate in shifting alliances that have produced bloody internal wars.
Over the years, scenes of brutal reprisals have made the Camorra one of Italy's most feared mobs, and a growing concern for the conservative government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Residents of Naples have become increasingly inured to the almost daily violence on the city's streets.
On Thursday, Italian prosecutors released a video of a murder in Naples that was met with indifference by bystanders. The prosecutors hope that releasing the video will help break a wall of silence over the killer's identity.
The video, shot by closed-circuit cameras, shows a man in a baseball cap shooting Mariano Bacio Tarracino, a 53-year-old man with an organized-crime record, in broad daylight on May 11 this year.
Mr. Tarracino is seen smoking a cigarette outside a bar in the Sanità neighborhood in central Naples.
The killer enters the bar, where there are at least six people, then emerges and shoots Mr. Tarracino at point-blank range.
When Mr. Tarracino falls to the ground, the killer finishes him off with a bullet to the head.
None of the bystanders move a finger, though it is hard to say whether that is from genuine indifference or from fear of retaliation. A woman is seen rubbing off her scratch-and-win lottery card as Mr. Tarracino is killed in front of her. A cigarette-seller moves his stall a few yards down the road, while a man holding a toddler in his arms looks at the victim and walks away.
The video prompted outrage from politicians. A member of the Green party in the Campania region around Naples offered €2,000 ($3,000) for information leading to the killer's arrest.
Alleged hitman arrested in Naples, Italy
Published: Nov. 19, 2009 at 4:07 PM
NAPLES, Italy, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Authorities said a suspected mafia hitman allegedly caught on video killing a man in Naples, Italy, has been caught.
The Italian news agency, ANSA, reported Thursday that Costanzo Apice, 28, was arrested for allegedly killing convicted bank robber Mario Bacioterracino in a broad daylight shooting this year.
Video released last month of the May 11 fatal shooting allegedly shows Apice shooting Bacioterracino in the side three times before administering a final gunshot to the man's head.
Apice disappeared into the crowd following the shooting and fled to the town of Caserta, police said.
Investigators would not offer specific details how they eventually located Apice in Caserta.
The release of the video on television and the Internet sparked concern from Italian officials like Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, ANSA reported.
''This video gives an impression of Naples very different from what it's really like," said Maroni, saying the video reinforces the theory that Naples is home to the Camorra crime syndicate.
Camorra boss arrested in Naples
Italian police say they have arrested an influential mafia boss in the southern city of Naples.
They say Luigi Esposito - who is on the list of Italy's 30 most wanted men - was held at a luxury villa in the city.
He is believed to be one of the heads of the Nuvoletta clan of the Camorra, which operates in the Naples region.
He had been on the run since 2003. He was sentenced to nine years is prison for drug trafficking and associating with mafia in 2006.
Mr Esposito, aged 49, is the latest in a string of senior mafia bosses held recently in southern Italy.
Last week, three brothers of the Camorra's Russo clan were arrested near Naples.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni described their arrest as "a heavy blow for the Camorra".
The Camorra is believed to have about 5,000 members.
Juan Camilo Zuniga Settled At Napoli
The full-back has quashed rumours of a January exit after yesterday's outstanding display in the 1-0 win over Cittadella...
Vince Masiello, Goal.com
Nov 27, 2009 9:02:44 AM
Napoli defender Juan Camilo Zuniga insists he is happy at the San Paolo and is hoping to build on last night's performance against Cittadella to force his way into the first XI.
The ex-Siena man has been linked with Serie A giants Juventus in recent weeks, after failing to make an impact in Campania following his summer move from Siena.
But the 23-year-old got a rare start yesterday as the Vesuviani progressed to the last 16 of the Coppa Italia and he shined in his natural role at right-back, even providing the assist for Mariano Bogliacino's winner.
"I have played on the right flank last night, but I can also do well on the left," Zuniga told the club's website.
"I like it in Naples, there is a wonderful atmosphere in the dressing room and I will work to be ready when the coach needs me.
"I am happy, because the goal came after one of my moves. I am satisfied with my display, but I am particularly pleased to have contributed to help Napoli go through."
The Colombian has mustered only six appearances in the league so far this term and coach Walter Mazzarri has often employed him out of position on the left side of a five-man midfield line, since Italy international Christian Maggio regularly patrols the right channel.
Fiat plans for Italy aim for more output, lower costs
11.27.09, 03:14 PM EST
Reporting by Gianni Montani and Jo Winterbottom
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009.
MILAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of carmakers Fiat and Chrysler, will outline a restructuring of production in Italy to the government next week as he hopes to secure a commitment for continuing tax breaks on new cars.
The proposals will include halting car production at its vulnerable Sicilian plant and possibly job cuts, increasing tensions with politicians and trade unions.
Fiat (has five auto plants producing solely its marques -- Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo -- in Italy, employing around 26,000 workers, and a joint venture site with France's Pugeot).
Fiat said in June its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily would halt its car production -- the Lancia Ypsilon -- by 2011, to be replaced by some other output which has not yet been specified.
Marchionne has said many times that Europe's car industry needs to cut production to face the slump in demand triggered by a global credit crunch that has crimped consumer spending.
Sales this year in Europe and Italy have found support in incentives to buy less-polluting cars from governments desperate to maintain jobs in the industry, but these are coming to an end and in Italy will cease after Dec. 31.
Car sales in Italy contained falls to just 3.87 percent in the first 10 months of the year, according to figures from the Transport Ministry. November figures are due on Dec. 1.
Marchionne thinks a gradual phase-out of the tax breaks over two years -- a 'foam on the runway' scenario -- would be preferable to a sudden halt that would slash sales.
Unions have already said the government should not extend the incentive scheme if Fiat completely closes Termini Imerese and Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, who is meeting Marchionne on Tuesday, has said it would be 'folly' to shut the plant.
That triggered a sharp retort from Marchionne on Thursday.
'In my personal experience, before you use an extreme word like folly, you should know the figures. Once you know the figures, maybe you will come to a different conclusion,' he told journalists in Turin.
Scajola admitted in a letter to Il Giornale newspaper on Friday that it cost up to 1,000 euros more per car to produce vehicles in Sicily. The island's poor infrastructure and weak links to markets hamper the plant's economics.
'Termini Imerese is too small, there are no scale economies, it's inconvenient for suppliers and it's inconvenient for Fiat,' said Pierluigi Bellini, a director at IHS Global Insight.
Rival General Motors has said it could cut up to 10,000 jobs as part of its European restructuring as it moves to reduce production across Europe by up to 25 percent.
Fiat's plans are expected to include shifting production of the new version of the Lancia Ypsilon to its plant in Poland, analysts say.
But to do that, Fiat will need to take some pressure off the Tychy, Silesia, plant -- which is currently running six days a week and producing around 2,300 cars a day.
Media reports and analysts suggest that Fiat could shift about half its production of Panda models from Poland -- around 270,000 vehicles annually -- to its Pomigliano d'Arco plant near Naples in southern Italy.
That plant has a workforce of 5,000 and currently produces Fiat's up-market and sporty Alfa Romeo models, which have higher margins than the Panda. In June, Fiat said the plant would stop producing the Alfa 147 and the GT in 2010.
'It wouldn't make sense to move all the Panda production to Italy. Aside from political or social reasons, I don't see a commercial reason,' Bellini said.
But Marchionne may be planning to get more out of his Italian workers -- and job cuts have not been ruled out although they are unlikely to be drastic. He hinted last week that workers in Italy would have to increase productivity.
'We have six sites in Italy which produce the equivalent of one factory in Brazil. What kind of industrial logic is that?' he said.
Fiat does not give details of production at individual plants. Its main Brazil plant, which produces Fiat models, employs 8,700 workers. Fiat produced nearly 624,000 cars in Brazil in the first 10 months of this year.
Earlier this month, La Repubblica newspaper said Fiat planned to boost Italian output about 40 percent to 900,000 units a year.
Be a Contributing Writer
About.com
Thursday November 26, 2009
About.com is looking for part-time Contributing Writers to write articles on selected subtopics for current web sites. One of the subtopics is Italian Cities for this Italy Travel site. Here's part of the description:
About.com seeks a passionate, qualified writer to help cover Italy's most-visited cities (Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Venice). While working alongside our Guide to Italy Travel, you will be providing first-time and repeat visitors a top-to bottom look at all these popular tourist destinations have to offer, without overlapping or duplicating existing content. Topics include in-depth city coverage of tourist information including reviews, profiles, and recommendations for accommodations, dining, things to do, attractions, nightlife, shopping, etc. The ideal candidate is a published writer who either lives or has lived in Italy, or who visits regularly enough to be considered an expert.
--
James P. Dillon
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