I'm a pretty demonstrative and "direct" speaker. I get excited. I used a lot of hand gestures. I even sometimes use crass, obscene and violent language.
My friends say I am "blunt" or "straight-forward", or, if they're being nice, "reflexively truthful".
But what I am...as this interesting column points out, is Italian.
My Dad was Italian. 100%. First generation American. His parents direct from the "old country" as a married couple, right through Ellis Island.
I have always been said to be "just like your Father". (Particularly by my Mother.)
I just assumed she meant the cute, outgoing personality, and funny parts.
Because, otherwise, I was just "American", if you will, because Mom was Irish/English, and so I wasn't surrounded by two extended families of only intense "Italian-ness" and lived in California, so didn't really imbibe what one thinks of as the very ethnic "Italian-American" culture one associates with the East Coast.
However, blood is blood, and it turns out...given the hilarious descriptions in this column...that I turned out pretty damned Italian after all.
There was some serious (figurative) mirror gazing going on during this read...!
NOTE: I do not necessarily agree with the political conclusions of this writer, but I sure was enlightened and entertained by his ethnic commentary and the self-awareness it prompted!
Thanks, Dad.
/gun
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