Category Archives: language

Footnotes

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Two small footnotes to one aspect of Bush’s wasteful and unnecessary visit to Rome. The day before he arrived someone scrawled an anti-Bush message on a stone designed to commemorate the murder of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro and … Continue reading →

Posted in bush, language | 2 Comments

Family Day: countdown

Posted on May 9, 2007 by Charles Lambert

A few years ago, holier-than-thou British programmes like Eurotrash revelled in the excesses of Italian television. Remember the strip-tease housewives? The super-camp fortune tellers? The surgically enhanced tits and bums of showgirls and B-list actresses newsreaders and members of parliament? … Continue reading →

Posted in church, civil union, DICO, homophobia, language | 1 Comment

Running Babel to advantage

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Like some mythological beast, the university language centre I work in is about to undergo what looks like its final metamorphosis. Its first director treated it as a centre of power and money cow, running the place as an occasionally … Continue reading →

Posted in barone, language, lettore, university | Leave a comment

Tiny bitter-sweet unions

Posted on January 30, 2007 by Charles Lambert

This sign has been put up at the entrance to the Jewish quarter of Fondi, where I live, as part of a council drive to attract international tourism to the town. The missing word in line three of the English … Continue reading →

Posted in fondi, language, nepotism, translation | Leave a comment

Three things wrong…

Posted on January 25, 2007 by Charles Lambert

The art critic Federico Zeri claimed there were three things wrong with Italy: the Mafia, the Vatican and the University. I don’t have any personal experience of the first (though I know someone who did, and I’ll get to his … Continue reading →

Posted in barone, language, university, vatican | Leave a comment

God’s ferret

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Cardinal Ruini was on the news last night. If Ratzinger is God’s Rotweiller, he must be God’s ferret, skinny and fast enough to get into the tightest of holes and root out heretics. It’s an ever-growing category, always one step … Continue reading →

Posted in gay, homophobia, language, marriage, PACS, ratzinger, vatican | Leave a comment