On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:04:20 +0000, Larry wrote:

Bruce In Bangkok wrote in
:

Being a grouchy old man who speaks Thai and having a rather outspoken
Thai wife, the only people who stop by my boat are newbes who don't
know me :-)



Yeah, I can make out a little green from the tarp from way up in space.
Amazing technology, space photography.

When I was a sailor, our ship pulled into Naples, Italy and sat there
for 4 months servicing the fleet (destroyer tender, a floating
shipyard).

One of the guys I hung with was name Contino and his Italian parents
spoke Italian in the home, so he was right at home in Naples.

It was great fun. Here we were in our US Navy sailor uniforms sticking
out like sore thumbs in any bar/restaurant/store. Italians, especially
bar girls, would start making some derogatory remark about American pigs
or such in Italian. He'd let them go on and on for a while as they
worked it off their chests, then he'd speak to them in perfect Italian
and tell them exactly what he thought of them. The astonished look on
their faces as they ran away embarrassed was simply priceless....

We bought a lot of "stuff" in Naples with his help haggling over price.

I had a collage mate who's name was Pietro Pietro-Paula, from
somewhere in N. Italy. It was amazing the number of little Italian
restaurants where Italian was still spoken he could find in Miami.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)