The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 3/3

Saturday, March 3, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/3 - Sicilian Omelet

I had a few laughs at today's session of the floating book shop. A lovely middle age woman with a Russian accent, who I believe purchased Killing a couple of years ago, remarked at how good strategically the spot in front of the Chase bank on Bay Parkway and 85th is - in the sun and out of the wind. She nailed it. That building has shielded me many, many times on blustery days such as this one, and enabled me to work when the temperature dipped into the twenties. My thanks to the gentleman who purchased three thrillers in Russian, and to the young man who selected Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business: Shocking Declassified Details from the FBI's Greatest Undercover Operation by Charles Brandt & Joseph D. Pistone. Ralph stopped by after doing business in the bank. He's discarded the crutches he was using two weeks ago after back surgery. He's far from 100% but doing much better. He purchased a book on success and Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg. He teased me when I asked for the rubber bands that bound them. I use them to keep the covers exposed on windy days. I said my Sicilian mentality doesn't let anything go to waste. He replied with a joke: "How do you make a Sicilian omelet? - First you steal two eggs." He apologized and said he's half-Sicilian. No apology was necessary. I love ethnic humor.

Here are translations of Sicilian proverbs from thoughtco.com. Many are familiar. I had no idea their origin is Sicilian:
Every dog barks at a poor man.
Buy at the cost of four and sell at the cost of eight.
Latin hides the stupidity of the priest.
Strike while the iron is hot.
Buyer beware.
The early bird catches the worm.
Who seeks, finds; who perseveres, wins.
Who starts many things, finishes nothing.
Who doesn't intend to pay, signs any contract.
Who looks for a quarrel, finds a quarrel.
Who gets married will be happy for a day, who butchers a pig will be happy for a year.
In war, hunting, and love you suffer a thousand pains for one pleasure.
Everyone wants to go to heaven; the desire is there but the fortitude is not.
The more you have, the more you want.
Too compassionate the doctor, too inadequate the treatment.
Repentance washes away sin.
God made things straight, the devil came and twisted them.
There's honor among thieves.
When love knocks, be sure to answer.
When the cat's away the mice will play.
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Not every pain comes to harm you.
We learn by standing on the shoulders of the wise.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Ticks and money are difficult to pluck out.

I can't leave out my favorite Sicilian character of all time, Frank "Five Angels" Pentangeli, from The Godfather Part II (1974), played precisely by Michael V. Gazzo, as genuine a depiction of a Sicilian-American as there ever will be: "Your father did business with Hyman Roth, your father respected Hyman Roth, but your father never trusted Hyman Roth."