1. Air conditioning “fa male.” It’s just generally “bad for you.”There's more... and her readers remind her about the Italian obsession with the fegato (liver).
How did I live nearly three years in Phoenix, Arizona, without dying? (Italians are so attached to this one, I’ve no doubt I’ll get at least a few angry comments telling me that it does “FA MALE” and explaining all the reasons why. I give up.)
2. Sweating.
There’s a whole encyclopedia of italianate on sweating. If you sweat, you have to change clothes before it evaporates or you can get pneumonia. Don’t stand in front of a fan if you’ve been sweating. God forbid the air conditioner.
3. Wet hair.
Not using a hair dryer can cause any number of ailments, not the least of which is a migraine in the exact spot where you neglected to dry your hair. However, for example, when my husband didn’t dry his hair thoroughly the other day and I pointed out this grave error, he merely laughed and said, “But it’s summer, that’s different.” Doh!
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Italianate
Shelly of At Home in Rome is back with a post about some very Italian concerns:
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7 comments:
We here in the South don't sweat, we glow.
My sister lived for 2 years in Italy (Gaeta) with a little blonde, blue-eyed girl (6 months to 2.5 years). Poor Caroline was NEVER dressed warmly enough for the Italians. People would stop my sister on the street to tell her so!
I tell you, alot of the culture transferred over to Italian Americans. My mother always said the exact same things when I was a kid.
Who knew AC 'fa male.' Maybe this is the reason I'm leaving Arizona and the air conditioner's ubiquity.
+JMJ+
Filipinos feel the same way about not letting perspiration on one's clothes evaporate! I spent most of my childhood running around with a towel tucked into my top so that my sweat wouldn't soak into my clothing. A little towel is easier to replace than a top, after all.
Oh, yeah: and one Filipino old wives tale says that going to bed with wet hair--something I do a lot--makes one either crazy or blind. However, I have become progressively nearsighted over the years (and possibly also progressively nuts), so I'm hardly proof against that!
When I made my aspirancy in the monastery many years it was during a July heatwave and I would come down to Lauds with my WET HAIR and the sisters would be all concerned that I'd get sick and tell me that one should NEVER come into a room with A/C with wet hair.. I tried to explain that I did this everyday at home and what they didn't know was that this was the age of the hair gel/wet hair look and my hair (in a bob, the latest style) wasn't as wet as they thought it was.
I never got a headache, either!
I am moving to Rome in July...and I DREAD the heat...I am an Olympic Sweater...just thinking about it makes me sweat... :-)
Fr. Philip, OP
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