Flowers When You Re Dead And Italian Food While You Live

Flowers When You’re Dead is a childhood memoir covering the first eighteen years of my life. Included are well-known, frequently prepared and much-loved Italian cuisine recipes from my female relatives. The memoir also takes an historical look at two topics currently in the news. The first is immigration. The second is ancestry. Daniel Delfucho renders a touching and revealing history of his family as viewed through these lenses. You will laugh and perhaps cry a little, too. Along the journey you can also learn to cook Italian and Italian-American dishes. Buon appetito!

In mid-2014, passionate grower and gardening author Fabian Capomolla decided to up stumps and move to Italy for a year with his young family in tow. He reconnected to his Italian roots by putting down new roots of his own in the beautiful Renaissance city of Lucca, Tuscany. From his time living in Lucca and working in the community garden there, and from watching as a child his nonno grow his own food, Fabian discovered that growing food the Italian way is defined by how they approach the task: with simplicity and without overcomplicating it, which is the way they cook food, too. This book will show you - in simple, Italian-style terms! - how to set up and maintain your veggie patch, and the extensive A-Z plant guide will help you decide what to grow in it. There's a chapter on problems you might encounter and remedies to fix them, along with handy tips scattered throughout. Some of these tips have been expanded into easy-to-follow activities like how to build your own barbecue or make your own insect repellent. You'll also find a selection of simple and delicious recipes so you can cook just like Nonna, and a glossary to help decode common gardening terms. In Italy the most important things are family and food. Growing your own food is about providing for yourself and your family. It is a celebration of food, which is a celebration of life. To grow the Italian way is to enjoy life. Nothing else really matters. Basta! This is a specially formatted fixed-layout ebook that retains the look and feel of the print book.

GEORGE CLOONEY: THE LAST GREAT MOVIE STAR REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION

In 1900, King Hubert of Italy was assassinated. The country was new yet weak. The people were poor. The economic and political future of Italy was uncertain. Two patriarchs with large families emigrated from Italy to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. Both men hoped for better lives for their children. They could almost smell World War I on its way. One father, Alonzo Manonero, prospered. He had three sons and seven daughters born in the United States. The other father, Vincenzo Delfucho, relied on his children to support him in America. He refused to work his trade which left his family poor. In spite of their poverty, he fathered five more children born in his new home. In schools, the workplace, and even in the military, these Manoneros and Delfuchos faced prejudicial hatred. Slanders were hurled viciously at unwanted Italians who came to these shores at the turn of the century. Americans did not accept these immigrants, and often met them with violence, oppression, and even death. The families became one large clan when Ambra Manonero married Danelo Delfucho in Newark, New Jersey in 1942. They had two children. Their daughter Alicia was born in the summer of 1943 and a son came in the spring of 1951. Alonzo Manonero owned two fourplex brownstones in Newark. With a unit for himself and his wife, the proud patriarch rented apartments to five of his ten children. Ambra, Danelo, and their children occupied one of these. In the fall of 1952, tragedy struck, a premonition of Ambra's youngest sister. Daniel L. Delfucho, the young couple's seventeen-month-old son, contracted polio overnight. The toddler suffered and nearly died. His survival was thought to be a miracle, despite the loss of Daniel's ability to walk. Danelo believed his son's disability was a curse on his long-held dream of raising a son to be a professional athlete. Flowers When You're Dead is a record of Daniel's life from birth through high school graduation. His untenable relationship with his father is offset by the loving ones shared with his over-protective mother and troubled sister. Physical damage, a consequence of polio, kept Daniel close to home. It limited his contact with other children. As he grew up, Daniel was perpetually in the company of adults. His stories reveal the impact of polio on his life. Daniel's sedentary and sometimes solitary existence changed the trajectory of his life. The norms of childhood were not his to know. At an early age he was forced into options a healthy child might have ignored. This fictionalized memoir takes a long, detailed look at those options. It exposes the impossible nature of Daniel's relationship with his father and his search for love from a parent who did not have love to give. Italian immigrant families brought their food with them to America. Collected over the years, Daniel saved twenty old-world Italian and Italian-American recipes that can still be prepared today. In between meals, there are moments of high comedy, such as Daniel's attempt to become a Boy Scout. Another is a coffee klatch between the seven Manonero sisters as they attempted to plan a holiday. Yet another was Daniel's childhood caper to fill his piggy bank! Immigration issues are still problematic in America today. The persistent theme of Flowers When You're Dead is the survival of Daniel's mother and how she protected her son. Not only from an abusive father, but from the physical and emotional challenges in Daniel's specialized world. Follow these two emigrated families and the author as they adapted. His relatives to American cultural attitudes and Daniel to an unexpected and indelible love

Ancestry is big business these days, but mere biological genealogy fails to tap into our spiritual roots. The shamans of indigenous cultures have known for millennia how to do this. In this comprehensive cross-cultural survey, Dr. David Kowalewski, scholar and practicing shaman, offers several techniques for engaging the Old Ones the old-fashioned way. Although modern people have largely lost this tradition, the ancestors are coming back strong, along with the shamans—a welcome happening that may reverse our ancestor-deficit disorder. Drawing on a global survey of ethnographic reports, direct teachings from shamans of many continents, and experiences from his own shamanic practice, the author presents a wealth of useful ways that shamans have developed, around the world and across the ages, to connect with ancestors in both our realm and theirs. These include spirit-plates; effigies; pilgrimages; walkabouts; and trips with plant-spirits. Using these ancient techniques, indigenous peoples receive a variety of gifts from their Old Ones, including destiny guidance, healing, protection, and wisdom teachings. Yet some ancestors may behave like hooligans, causing psychological distress and physical woes, and even curses against a whole lineage. But these maladies are both prevented and countered by shamanic methods such as home cleansing, disposal of the deceased’s property, severance ceremonies, and the like. The author ends with practical takeaways—lessons from the lineages so to speak—showing how you and your ancestors, through concerted spiritual action, can co-evolve to higher spiritual planes. As a team.