Are You Italian?

A slight deviation from the fiber path today, in order to pass along a wonderful link.

Despite the fact that I look like I just got off the boat from County Cork, Ireland, I am actually Italian. Ok, half Italian, but more Italian than anything else. My mom grew up in an Italian family in Jersey City, NJ, and that was definitely the culture I grew up with.

If that's your culture, too (or if you're just interested in a sweet little film), take a look at this movie.

My favorite memory in the movie is the discussion of "macaroni and gravy" for dinner. (that's "pasta and sauce" to the rest of you). Since I didn't grow up in an Italian neighborhood in Jersey City like my mom, most of my Western Massachusetts school friends were very puzzled when I discussed what we had eaten the evening before. (I'm pretty sure that they thought we were having elbow macaroni and brown gravy!) Add to this the fact that my dad was from Alabama, and that other nights we might have had ham steak with pickled peaches and black-eyed peas, and you can see why my school years were at times a bit of a challenge!