The stout-hearted (and -waisted) people of Northeast Ohio are proud of their Left-wing pieties, and are surprisingly willing to display their silly ideas publicly. I say surprising because you'd think they'd understand by now that they're putting the region's economy in the crapper... But I digress! What has always fascinated me is the bumper stickers people attach to their cars -- gratuitous offerings to an indifferent world of some keen insight into the driver's normally-marxist worldview. Most often the message consists of some environmental nonsense or a general condemnation of America's national defense.

But just now, driving back from the supermarket, I saw something different. On the tinted rear window of a black Ford Explorer, I saw a decal that said "As I Lay Dying."

And I thought to myself, "Imagine that -- in an area where most people still haven't scraped off their repulsive Kerry-Edwards stickers, this guy is driving around displaying his affinity for the timeless work of modernist American author William Faulkner."

How odd. And yet how refreshing!

As we drove, it happened that we both had to stop at a red light on Bagel-y Road. His car was stopped right alongside mine and I noticed his windows were rolled down. I actually considered rolling down my own window, pumping my fist in the air and yelling "Faulkner rocks!"

Turns out it's good that I didn't. I may as well have called out "Absalom, Absalom!"; he would've been just as baffled.

Eh, thrash metal never appealed to me. I suppose it never will. Driving the rest of the way home I was passed by another car sporting a Hillary '08 sticker. I guess we're all out of touch around here, in one way or another.

At the risk of turning this blog into a Mastandrea Genealogy project, I just have to start figuring out who these people are. That group, posing at the side of the road -- that's some crazy picnic. Perhaps the car broke down and everyone had to psych themselves up for some heavy-duty pushing?

And speaking of the car -- it too fascinated me. There are other shots of it, but I cannot tell the make and model. All in due time.

And the girl: she looks to have been about two or three when this picture was taken in 1968. That would make her about my age. I bet Vinny remembers who she is.

These are some very cool pictures, but alas, many of the originals are not quite as cool -- faded over time, or perhaps underexposed at the time of development, or blurry at the time of exposure. Eh.

We need to do a shout-out to the cuz-brigade in Bari to start piecing all this together (well, at least those parts that have not been retained in the Big Kahuna's steel-trap memory). Maybe we need to start a foreign-language edition of the Macaroni Dish -- kind-of an "Il Progresso" of the blogosphere... except maybe one that doesn't go out of business the way that newspaper did.

I gotta get myself some kind of online photo account. I just don't think I can fit all this stuff on the blog.

Oh, and the photo with the giant wagon wheel -- a striking image. And a revealing one. To this day, Big Vin will not eat wagon-wheel pasta. Now we finally know why: take a good look at what's caked on the sides of those wheel edges. Yech.

See, it's all coming together. Who said history was a futile pursuit?

So here I am, playing with my new slide scanner, running through the heaps of ancestral detritus that has been locked in obsolete media formats... when I come across this.

Look at this strapping young man, ranging the wide and cobble-stoned avenues of a modern European city, in search of... in search of what?

Dig on the scenery: that's some busy metropolis, folks! Makes you feel like you've just joined a Fellini film, in progress. And check out the tram -- reminds me of the surface transit in Amsterdam, where if the bicyclists don't run you down, the trams or the automobile traffic will.

But back to the business of anthropological archeology...

I decided to study the situation a little more closely. Then I found it. Yeah, he was searching for something alright -- some t-bone steaks, a few bracciole, and maybe a nice key-lime pie to have with coffee after the dishes have been cleared.

That man has always been on a mission.

Anyway, I've got a heap of transparencies that need to be converted. I'll get to them, slowly but surely. So expect more to be posted here -- along with worldwide blegs to help us attach names to all the people portrayed in these snapshots. There may be some people in Giovinazzo who'll be surprised to see 40-something year-old snapshots of their aunts and uncles. And donkeys.

Got myself a new gadget this week (how surprising). It's a doo-hicky for scanning old slide transparencies into image files. Technologically it's a total piece of crap -- installed the app on three different PCs and could only get it to work on one, and even there it works only in a non-standard way.

Oh well, at least I was able to scrape a few old snapshots from some long-forgotten media that has been mouldering in my attic. Here's an utterly fantastic shot of our patriarch and Maximum Leader taken on the day of a certain wedding, many many years ago...

The blog should be lots of fun this summer -- especially now that we can say pretty much anything we want about Steve without any fear that he'll read our comments, his PC being heisted and all. That guy has the worst luck. Even the ocean hates him. And so does Bazzukajoe's car.

(Not even sure what that means...)

It's warm and muggy at Berea-Rose today. Da Chimpz are halfway through their summer vacation. Yep, they were home today with no scheduled play events. Same tomorrow. But next week that all changes -- day camp every day. They love it, and so do I -- morning drop-off time is much earlier than regular school and I plan to take full advantage of that. Nyuck nyuck.

Uncle Vinny owns several chairs -- each of varying capability, suited to somewhat different terrains and circumstances.

But as of this very moment, he needs only one.

Yeah, for some reason I just read this again, and I really do worry about the mental health of our old friend Steve. I mean, the man is truly f'd up.

Another baseball game last night; another loss. The score was something like 16-12, so it's not like it wasn't fun. Da Chimpz made some pretty good plays in the field, and Cookie hit for a double.

Tonight I think I need to fire up the Berea-Rose grill. I have some chicken that wants to perfume itself in marinade and dress itself in dark vertical grill marks.

I find it very difficult to cook chicken these days without saying out loud:

Mastandrea's chickens...
Are coming home...[waving hands like sorcer]
To roost!

It's not unlike my old Fish Eye reflex. I really must learn to keep these eruptions to myself -- the Giant Beagle security team probably keeps a highlights reel of some of my more involved aisle-to-aisle conversations... just me, making small talk with the merchandise.

I'm waiting for Steve to come on the blog and tell us about Habachi Grill. I love the name -- it makes me think of Hitachi Grill, which doesn't exist -- but if it did, it would be an appliance store in Brooklyn and Vito would make Vinny drive him there so e could buy a gigantic console television that wouldn't fit in Vinny's trunk. Does that make sense to anyone except me?

But a wheel of cheese just isn't quality unless it has a cow encased inside it. That's how you know you're getting a truly sophisticated cheese.

Yes, the cheese that dare not speak its name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpzEF0D2xfE

Yes. I am planning on taking part in that event as soon as I possibly can.

Da Chimpz had a great time last night over at their friend's house -- and so did we. Finally, the weather improved from its wet-cold nastiness and turned gave us a picture-perfect evening.

The party really got started when the giant slabs of meat emerged from the smoker -- that was good stuff. We sat outside, got a fire going, played some corn-hole (yeah, corn-hole), and generally stayed up way past everyone's bedtime.

And speaking of party, it was Bazzukajoe's birthday yesterday. I didn't get a chance to talk to him. Hopefully, we was too busy eating alternating forkfuls of cake and pizzaiola. We haven't heard any of his "tales from the workplace" recently so I must assume he is just saving it all up for some future brain-dump.

Today is rainy again, but maybe we'll get motivated and get our grill going later. Might even re-assemble that little-house-on-the-prairie tent we had a couple years ago. Should be a really interesting process, being the instruction booklet is long gone.

Due to the incredible lack of events in my life, it has been awhile since I last blogged. Last night for the first time in quite some time, I actually went out with a friend and did something adult like. It was a great change of pace. I got to see Eddie Izzard who I believe is incredibly funny. I have never seen a comedian live or been to a comedy club so I wasnt sure what to expect. He was great. He did 2 hours straight. Which I think is what amazed me. He explained at the onset when he messed up a joke that it was all scripted but to keep all that insanity in your brain is indeed an amazing feat.

In other news, I received a promotion at work. That's about all on that.

Today begins the Memorial day weekend and the chimps and I shall head off to the place where they bury the dead--I tried to spell cem...and it kept saying it was wrong--to place flags on veteran's graves. If the weather holds there are also plans to try the new mountain bike trail and hike the giant rocks left by glaciers. I believe there may also be a picnic involved.