Skip to main content

Non capisco!


About once a week I get an e-mail from something called the Italian Cultural Institute in New York.  I don't know why.  I know nothing about them and have no idea how I got on their mailing list.  But I generally take a quick look at the e-mail, because every now and then I see something interesting.

The other day I got one of these and saw what appeared to be a potentially interesting lecture today.  It was by a professor named Stefano Jossa, currently at Royal Holloway, the University of London.  He was going to be speaking on his new book, in Italian, but the title of which in English would be The Most Beautiful in the World: Why Love the Italian Language.  It sounded intriguing, it was free, all you had to do was register and get a Zoom link.  So I did.

It turned out that the lecture was actually being sponsored not by the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, but rather by the one in Montreal.  But who cares, right?  As long as it's not in French, which didn't appear to be the case.

And wasn't.  Not in French at all.  Unfortunately -- the whole thing was in Italian.

Needless to say, I left the Zoom meeting reasonably quickly.  But if you're interested, you can evidently see a recording of it here!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Warning Against Drink

I have gotten several things read over the last few days, but I keep forgetting to post any of it.  Some more Gotthelf, but also a couple of other things.  I'll try to break them up in order to get a few more posts out of them! Last Friday I finished another Gotthelf novella, Wie fünf Mädchen im Branntwein jämmerlich umkommen .  That title does not translate very well into English, or at least I don't think so.  Something like, How Five Young Women Perish Miserably Due to Brandy  (or literally "in brandy").  It is an early work of Gotthelf's and a piece of social criticism.  When Gotthelf was writing (1838), the canton of Bern had recently liberalized its system for granting licenses to operate a pub.  At the same time, new methods of producing cheap brandy from different sources, including even the ubiquitous potato, were developed.  As a consequence, inns and pubs sprang up throughout the countryside, creating a new temptation for poor...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Plague Time" Essay Contest

If you are a major or minor in History, Political Science, Augmented History, Humanities, or German Studies, you are eligible to enter a brand-new essay contest being sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science.  Details available here . And if you aren't a major or minor in one of those areas... it is not too late to become one now !
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Vacation

Let the summer begin!  I finally finished off my grading yesterday.  Now the summer opens up before me. Well, not exactly.  I do have a few random independent study papers hiding in my inbox, which has been overflowing for the past week.  But I can get them taken care of.  And a handful of students still owe me late work, which will come in over the next few days.  I'm also teaching a couple of online courses; the first exams from one of those come in next Monday. At noon today I have a committee meeting, a group pulled together to work on curricular planning for next fall in the face of continuing uncertainty.  And this afternoon all faculty have to attend the first of several Zoom sessions devoted to online teaching, to help us prepare for all eventualities moving forward. Hmmm.... And oh, yes, I just remembered -- rats! -- that today is the deadline for reviewing the department's catalog copy for next year.  There is also that long o...
Post a Comment
Read more