When the Italian Sons and Daughters of America said they were going on a tour of the Pittsburgh Brewing Company, I wasn’t totally sold. I’m a wine drinker, but since this group is so nice and so much fun, I thought, what the heck, I’ll go. I envisioned a cavernous space that smelled like the basements of fraternity houses I frequented in my college years. That conjured up…
On Saturday I attended my very first Author event at the Northland Public Library. It was fun meeting people and getting to read a few chapters from my humorous memoir, Come on Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream. It was a little surreal being in front of a room like Jenny Lawson, or David Sedaris or Dave Barry, people who’ve made their living as…
I grew up in a very Italian Catholic household. We all went to Catholic school and knew all the feast days. I thought we were pretty good, but nothing prepared me for the feast that was put on for St. Joseph’s Day by the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, Lodge 174. Holy Zeppole! It was amazing. The feast day is March 19th, but our meeting was March…
I was in my bathroom, naked when the phone rang. I was in disbelief when he said who he was. Conan was lovely, telling me how much he enjoyed my book and wanted to have me on his podcast, Conan O Brien Needs a Friend. We chatted for about five minutes, then he said he’d have someone get back to me to schedule. To all my followers in…
I wanted you to read about something, other than my book: Come on Down! (which is still out there waiting to be bought…hint, hint) so this blog is about sausage making. Yes, sausage making! I apologize in advance to all my vegan and vegetarian friends for saying this, but this Italian had a great time making sausage. I try not to eat meat too often, but this was…
I’ve made you wait long enough! My book, Come on Down, A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream is coming out as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook as of February 24, 2026! And (drum roll please) you can win an autographed copy, which could be worth up to a whole 50 cents someday! Seriously though, all you have to do is post on Facebook, Instagram, Linked…
I always thought it was funny that people made such a big deal out of Groundhog day because…well…aren’t there always six more weeks of winter when it’s the beginning of February? That was before I went to the festivities myself. I now know that: a. There are thousands of people out there who are nuts enough to brave 5 degree temps and possible frostbite just to see a…
The great thing about getting older is that you forget so much, everything is new! Recently, I made a batch of polenta because I was worried the recipe in my book might not be accurate. I was sure I’d never blogged about polenta, then checked old blogs and realized that, not only did I blog about it, I made four batches to be sure it was good. It…
Back in 1994, I was living in Glendale, California when a 6.7 earthquake struck in Northridge, California at 4:30 am. The house shook so badly I had a hard time making it the seven steps to my son’s room. I’d just gotten out of the shower and was about to leave to go to my traffic reporting job. There was no power, everyone was wandering outside their condos…
Today I was going through old blogs I never posted and found one about an evening in 2012 I still remember clearly. It was an ordinary evening, but it stuck in my mind because every so often, those are the best evenings. Here’s what I wrote: You know, sometimes we sit around the table and talk; lingering because we’ve eaten too much and can only be moved by…