Quote of the day.

"Unfortunately, we continue to be the Mummy's boys of Europe."

--Simone Baldelli, youth coordinator of Italy's ruling Forza Italia party.

I told you they were mamma's boys...

In a recent Italian legal development, a court has ordered a father (who used to be a member of parliment) to continue paying maintenence to his 30 year old son until he can find himself "satisfactory employment" that "meets his aspirations." That's right, 775 Euros a month, or about $700, until Marco gets off his butt and finds himself a job.

But wait, you say. That won't even pay Marco's rent, much less the odd dinner out at the local trattoria. Even if he orders the house wine!

Ahhh, but Marco lives with Mamma, which ought to cover food and laundry. Marco also has a law degree and a house in a very ritzy area of Naples. Oh, plus a joint share in an investment fund worth more than $270,000.

Nevertheless, the judges have ruled that a parent's duty of support does not end until the child reaches economic independence or fails to do so through "culpable inertia." Whatever that is. Although it's pretty damn clear that the inertia generated by living with Mamma is not culpable. Hey, who could blame poor Marco?

Not the judges, apparently, who also added "you cannot blame a young person, particularly from a well-off family, who refuses a job that does not fit his aspirations." Not that we're sure what young(ish) Marco aspires to, aside from home-cooked meals and a limitless supply of clean underwear. Something "reasonable," no doubt. Prime Minister, media baron, partner at a prestigious law firm, something along those lines. Why should poor Marco, with his well-off family and all, have to get up early to be a faceless peon at some firm like the rest of his peers?

Of course, not everyone agrees with the esteemed judges. It has been pointed out that about one-third of all Italians in their early thirties live with their parents. I haven't been able to get a gender breakdown, but from what I've seen and heard, the males have an easy majority.

The ubiquitous Commentators have warned that this ruling could discourage young people from moving out of the family home, getting married and having children. Not that they seem to be in much hurry as it is, but hey, if Papa balks, now you can sue him! Which is always helpful, don't you think?

A trip to the bookstore

I had a decent weekend, provided you consider sitting around doing absolutely nothing of the eating/:drinking/hanging out in bars variety decent.

Did make my monthly trip to the bookstores, though.

Once a month, I venture forth to the three or four bookstores in the area that carry English-language books, armed with my wish list. Actually, it's my I'veGottaHaveItOrIWillSurelyDie List, but hey.

Currently (but not, alas, recently), Book IV of Tad Williams' excellent Otherworld series is at the top of my list. One of the drawbacks of living abroad is that recent releases are hardly recent by the time they wend their way here. To compoud matters, the books stocked in English mirror the buying habits of the Italian, or whatever, public. This means, for example, that we get all the bestseller-type stuff, which unfortunately for me, I don't read much of.

I got spoiled in Germany. Germans like speculative fiction. They also like to read it in English as well, so if I was still in Germany I'd be all set. Italians, on the whole, don't, which means that SF/F titles are a looong time coming. A lot of titles will never arrive at all. And I'm beginning to suspect that the exciting and dramatic conclusion to the Otherland series might be one of them. Of course, if I liked big, fat romance novels, I'd be in heaven. I don't, and I'm not.

It's not that I won't ever get this book. I'm sure I can get it on my next trip back to the US. Used, which ought to save me some money, but that's not much of a consolation, especially not in this case. You see, I thought Book III was the grand finale. About 100 pages before the end, I started to get nervous. Then, it looked like it was ending, but the author was just going to leave a lot of dangling plot-lines. Which is not like Tad Williams, by the way. Then, the book ended. With the characters standing around going "Shit! What do we do now?"

Just like the reader.

I can handle that. I don't like it much, but I read quite a few of these big fantasy epics so I certainly knew what I was getting myself into. Except...

The last book has been out for, what, almost a year now? From what I've read, it's a very "satisfying" ending, which is all very well and good. However, aside from dying to know what happens (although not enough for somebody to tell me, so don't bother), I feel left out. Sort of like when you're in fifth grade, and one day every single of your classmates shows up in brand new adidas, but you're still wearing the scuffed buster browns that Mom bought you at Strideright last year. And you want to remedy the situation, like, right now, but Mom points out that you haven't outgrown your ugly, sensible burgandy leather ones, and tennis shoes won't go with your uniform anyway. Like anything looks good with green plaid and fuzzy knee socks. So you look hungrily at everyone else's pristine white footwear, and when you've finally got your adidas, everyone else has moved on to reebocks or something.

On the bright side, I finally got Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, which I've only been trying to get ahold of for six months or so. Not a total loss, in other words.

Well, today I have to go to Italian class, then do the newsletter that I should have done this weekend while I was slumped in front of my laptop. Not that I got all the information I needed from the rest of the Board until late Saturday. Not that they gave me all the information I need.

Oh well, I'll just have to do some heavy padding. Again.

Happy Monday.