Well, so much for PG-13. We'll be lucky to keep our R rating after Vito's epic tale.

And yet, nothing is really out of place on this blog (or in this world).

I recently ordered an audio lecture series on Vergil's Aeneid. You'd think that after four years of studying Latin, reading Vergil, and then taking college level coursework on the epic tradition I would've remembered something about that particular classic. But I didn't.

The CD lectures were great, and I feel like a newly-minted expert on Aeneas and his nation-building struggles.

"Epic struggle" was what first came to mind as I read Vito's harrowing tale of drunken debauchery. Nowhere in the narrative did he specify that the Furies were pursuing him -- and yet I could visualize them so clearly, the shadow they cast across his will, and the fate that would ultimately be meted out to him by the Olympian gods (i.e., Barbara and Vito Sr.).

Now, if you're paying attention, you will have already noticed that I just confused the Roman myth construct (Jupiter, Hera, Barbara, Vito Sr., etc.), with the Greek variety of hunters and bush-dwellers.

My response: what's the difference? We all eat salty olives and lupini beans with our red wine.

I know Vito planned to follow up his story with more. Not to jump the gun, but I'll add a piece from my own perspective: when Vito first told me that he got hurt at a bar, I told him that I might be able to help him with some of the legal aspects of his situation. When he told me all the details, I told him: my cuz, you're on your own.