– Italiano is an interesting language, so sing-songy. Methinks, though, that one of the reasons American English is rather flat is because so many other Romance languages (including the English accent) are musical-ish. Life isn’t a frickin’ musical, stop singing.
– MIMES!! So many MIMES. I don’t know if it’s possible to trust a society that allows the continued proliferation of MIMES!! They’re everywhere. Also, parents dress their children up in little costumes during the weekend – lions & princesses & Spiderman & Zorro.
– It gives Maher pause, I think. Are they just letting their children have active and healthy imaginations? Are they living vicariously thru their children – dressing them up as they wished they could’ve done as children? Or are they simply training their poor, innocent children for lives as MIMES?! (shudder).
– The Colosseum is an incongruously celebrated piece of ruinage. It was used to kill thousands and thousands of people in Bloodsports, a practise that we would find disgusting and uncivilised today. Yet the Colosseum is the one of the great attractions of this vibrant, modern city.
– I think among the more sortuv morbid highlights of Vatican City is the Tombs of the Popes. Naturally there was a crowd gathered around the tomb of John Paul II, the most recently deceased Pope. I stopped & paid my respects, read Surah Al-Fatiha, which is a common practise (at least in Bangladesh) when visiting the graves of the dead.
Is that an incongruous act, reading from the Qur’an for a Catholic leader. Karol Wojty?a was an unbelievably potent and charismatic figure. Although I don’t particularly agree with some aspects of conservative Catholic dogma, I think his papacy was an overall positive force, especially during the Cold War. Positive forces should be celebrated in life and mourned & revered in death.