Billy Martin, baseball's brawling legend
The eternal return of baseball season invites a special nostalgia for a time when the game's greats didn't seem like the hothouse athletes of today so much as a national register of regular guys. Tall, short, skinny, fat: Baseball legends came in every shape, like the rest of us, yet managed to awe us with their unlikely mastery of a sport that has...
Despite protests, Expo 2015 a potential diplomatic setting
By Colleen Barry The Expo 2015 world's fair showed potential as a backdrop for serious diplomacy as it opened Friday for a six-month run, even as it also served as a lightning rod for anti-globalization protests. North Korea stepped out of its isolation as a last-minute participant, and there are signs that Turkey may use the occasion...
Italian comfort food coming to Carmel
by Camilla M. Mann The former GM of Cantinetta Luca is getting ready to open a home-style Italian restaurant of his own called Il Tegamino in the picturesque Court of the Golden Bough in Carmel. Giuseppe Panzuto and his brother Salvatore previewed their new restaurant Saturday as part of the 23rd Annual Winemakers' Celebration. "I...
Best friend you never knew
By John Ruane Sometimes you attend an event and the thought of it is gone the next day. Sometimes it stays with you, like Doug Buffone's wake and funeral. Having grown up in the 1960s in Chicago, the teams of that era were best known for two players, Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers. They were incredible football players and so much fun...
Festa Italiana is Calling all Foodies to Submit Recipes in its Second Annual Chef’s Choice Recipe Contest; Organizers Announce the Return of Celebrity Chef Rossella Rago
Festa Italiana, presented by Calypso Lemonades, is calling upon foodies everywhere to participate in its second Chef's Choice Recipe Contest taking place Sunday, July 19 in the Cucina Showcase. Beginning now through June 15, 2015, Festa Italiana is accepting Italian appetizer ("antipasti") recipe submissions by email or by mail. After the June 15...
Ageless: A legacy in Brevard law enforcement
by Fred Fernez My thoughts often wander back to the history of my family and to the path that led to three generations of law enforcement to serve this wonderful place in the sun. Our family legacy began with two Italian immigrants who embraced America and taught their children to be caretakers and protectors of our country. In th...
Fast food, good food: Italian panini and bruschetta
by Michael Kiefer From big-city Rome to small-town Umbria, you can't walk 40 feet without passing an Italian cafe with an array of panini laid out in a case. They may be squarely set in crustless white bread (cut diagonally like Mom did); eclair-size torpedo-shaped rolls or crusty rectangles that look like leavened matzoh, sandwichi...
'GI baby' reunited with American family after 70 years
by Neil Prior Tina Jones from Haverfordwest met up two of her three sisters after a two-year hunt with historian Gareth Mills. Ms Jones' mother, Rosa, met American-Italian GI Ignazio Parrino when his unit was stationed in Tenby ahead of the D-Day landings. He was already badly injured, at the Battle of the Bulge, by the time she was...
Leonardo's Self-Portrait Exceptionally on View in Rome
If you're in Rome this summer, don't miss the rare chance to admire Leonardo da Vinci's iconic self-portrait, for the first time on display at the Capitoline Museums, starting today. Normally preserved in the vault of the Royal Library of Turin, and rarely visible to the public, the delicate portrait, thought to be drawn around 1510, when...
Harlem Avenue activist Frank DiPiero
by Lou Carlozo DiPieroYou've got answers? Frank DiPiero has questions: lots of them. An affable and curious guy by nature, DiPiero has turned pride in his Italian-American identity into a shared Internet radio experience with a light-hearted name: "Keepin' It Real with Frankie D." For him, it marks another step in his effort to pr...
Paltrinieri wins 1,500 freestyle marked by Sun's stunning absence
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy won the 1,500 freestyle at the world swimming championships Sunday night in a race that shockingly went off without two-time defending champion Sun Yang of China. Sun didn't appear during introductions and Lane 3 remained empty instead of being filled by reserve Pal Joensen of the Faroe Islands. "Today I...
From Italian roots to EJ worker to Vestal businessman
by Valerie Zehl Even as a little kid, Romolo Romeo Mario Alexander De Ritis set his mind on getting his family out of poverty. That was when World War II raged around his native Fara Filiorum Petri in the Abruzzo region of Italy, a town measuring just over seven square miles. He would never forget the trauma of bombings, of Nazi occu...