Charlie’s existential response when asked how he having finished a significant amount of homework and received good feedback from his teachers. Clearly if he’s asking this question now he’s going to find high school and college assignments event more existentially perplexing.

[Because I know everyone reading this cares about their health. Eat more beans. – MD http://www.wsj.com/articles/want-great-longevity-and-health-it-takes-a-village-1432304395 The secrets of the world’s longest-lived people include community, family, exercise and plenty of beans. In Sardinia, there are 21 centenarians in a population of 10,000. Only about four in 10,000 Americans reach the 100-year mark. By DAN BUETTNER In a string of whitewashed villages in the mountains of the Italian island of Sardinia, there are 21 centenarians in … more →

[Difficult for Italians, more difficult for immigrants. No easy solutions, but this sure seems like the wrong thing to do.] By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO MAY 15, 2015 ROME — The bulldozers pulled up after some of the residents had already left for work. They lumbered through the encampment, methodically mowing down corrugated tin walls, laminated sheet roofs and concrete blocks. They razed the camp’s ramshackle lodgings, as well as its whitewashed prefabricated dwellings, indiscriminately crushing their contents: … more →

I met up with sister-in-law Kim Shaw who had a rough first day in Rome – no phone, no cell. She couldn’t connect with me or with her AirBnb host. When we finally got together around 6 pm she was dogeared. A little Rosso di Montalcino, Da Bucatino’s famous carciofa alla piastra and pasta amatriciana, a walk along the Tiber and through the Jewish Ghetto, a cappuccino (and for me amaro averne) at Marenaga’s, and … more →