" Spaw has elucidated on this colourful Italian-American expression in the past - by continuing to use it, he is practicing his Own Good (immigrant) Culture."

LMAO.....I rarely get a good belly laugh Ruth, but that was just priceless.

See WavyFunkyWhiteBoyRacist, I'm both glad my grandpa caught the boat and happy to be an American with Italian and German and English and Welsh and Native American roots. My grandfather was happy too and although he loved both countries, he was smart enough to recognize each for what it was and how they made him. He never tried to remake his new home into what he thought it should be. He was happy about what it was (as long as the Cleveland Indians were having a good year).   

He was married to a German and lived in a small community where he was surrounded by many Italians.....and Germans......and Irish......and a few Welsh......and a large Amish contingent just up the road........and Czechs.....and a number of English origin who often had Scots and Native American blood mixed in with their own.........and African-Americans who were still sadly second or third class citizens.......and a few Greeks plus one family from Albania. All of these folks gave of their own and made up a whole. In hundreds and hundreds of other small towns, these same plus additional nationalities met and mixed and made something new.

And when they went to church they went to churches that were Methodist, Presbyterian, Moravian, Nazarene, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, Episcopal, and a few others. They were all there in that small east Ohio town. They played baseball and football and went bowling but they also played Bocci and Darts and soccer and basketball. When I was a young boy there were kids named Pittis and Terakedis and Pickenstein and Neel and Washington and Clark and Smith and Jones and Gardena and Geannakopoulos, andWinzenreid and Pirilla................We didn't know from cultures......we just were.

Unlike yourself, they longed to be a part of what the country could be and they helped to form by looking to the future and not trying to live in an artificial past. As time passed, some felt they didn't get their fair share or were unhappy because they had expected more than they were willing to give and began taking it out on those who had. Like yourself, they were and are racists and bigots. Almost every nationality has come under their wrath but later they are absorbed as the new group replaces them.

I was about to go on and on but why? WavyFunkyWhiteBoyRacist is the kind of pissant jadrool who watches "Blazing Sadlles" and misses all of the jokes........"Okay, we'll take the niggers, but we NO IRISH!!!"..........Franks needs to walkabout sans pen and with open eyes and an open mind (which would probably require a lobotomy in his case).

Its very sad to create a "Life's Work" where the end product is the likes of David Franks.


Spaw