Apr 05 2009
Che Faccia!
One big announcement in Seven Red Land. The Brooklyn Famiglia has expanded by two, as my brother and his wife had their twin girls last night at around 11 EDT. I like that the twins were born on 4-4. Kinda fitting. Ellie, for her part, saw pictures of the twins and said, “We have to go on an airplane!” Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’re gonna have one version of this thing within the next week or so. We do miss being in NYC for this sort of thing, of course, but we’ll try to get back to see the girls soon.
In the meanwhile, more pics of Ellie for Granny.
This is the “Che Faccia” pic. My father was (and probably still is) a big fan of this phrase, which translates as “What a face!” But it really means more than that; I can’t quite convey it. He was also a fan of “che faccia di criminale,” which means “This person has a face like a criminal.” Needless to say, his expression was fairly predictably indexed to various southern Italians in the neighborhood. It took me a long time to notice that it was some holdover Lombroso-ism, as well as the prejudice against southern Italians that were part and parcel of my father’s upbringing in Milano and Genova. Ah well. I still kinda liked when he said it. We always used to laugh.
Granny says thank you..