Fillide's activity

I'm with you that it is unlikely to be coincidence, but it seems to me legitimate focussed advertising rather than naughty!

Yes - it's funny, you have to get your mind into Italian gear to realise you don't buy thick polythene sheeting from the builders' merchant - etc etc! I don't know just where you are located, but cat flaps and automated feeding systems will be found in the biggest 'agricultural' merchant close to you. It is maybe misleading to call the emporium an agricultural merchant - they'll likely have something like Zootecnica in their name, and they will almost certainly have seedling courgette plants outside, nestling up to young olive trees.  However, if you want a fancy microchip reading cat flat - believe me you will save yourself petrol and shoe leather (and money)  by getting it shipped from Amazon.co.uk.

I agree this new Archbishop in the UK "seems to be a very nice person". Maybe he'll do a good job - I quite liked the last one, who definitely had better theological qualifications, (and a quite excellent hairdo) but I truly cannot understand the conversion from Mammon to the leadership of the established Church having happened. This - I acknowledge - is a lacuna of my own: for those of us who have no faith it is utterly inconceivable that you flit from CEO to CoE in the bat of an eyelid. Maybe Religions have just got too large and too centralised - they are like NGOs (though in the case of the CoE it is de facto a GO) - so it might be a good time to ignore religiosity and appoint on perceived managerial skills. And - just as an aside on the Falklands/Malvinas - it is fascinating that this pile of rocks thrusts itself above sea level when there is a ghastly woman in charge (1983) of the UK and (2013) Argentina. It all gives the lie to the notion that if the world was run by wimmin all would be peace and light! The UK Queen sent a very pleasant harmless cove - the Duke of Gloucester - to the Pope's enthronement. This has been seen as a slight on the Pope by the UK. Probably this was intentional, but I imagine that the unassuming Duke (as far as Dukes can lack assumption) was rather thrilled to have a side trip to Rome.

Look, Rickardo, you are really not following the bigger picture discussion about what (whoever) is interpreting what Pope Francis is all about. Okay, it is not credible that anybody (currently) is going to point a finger at this Pope - hopefully the finger isn't being pointed because there is no reason to point it. But yes, your query about how he perceives 'muslims' is important - absolutlely the most important position (or semi position) which he will need to take. I think he will fudge it - in his position I would fudge it, because it is not resolvibile 'today' - but in a tomorrow, piano piano, once Pope Francis has sorted out the othtordox and the CoE, he isn't so far from the Imams. Of course, you will tell me I am dreamnig on - but it's quite nice for me to have a forum where I can dream on!

Look, Rickardo, you are really not following the bigger picture discussion about what (whoever) is interpreting what Pope Francis is all about. Okay, it is not credible that anybody (currently) is going to point a finger at this Pope - hopefully the finger isn't being pointed because there is no reason to point it. But yes, your query about how he perceives 'muslims' is important - absolutlely the most important position (or semi position) which he will need to take. I think he will fudge it - in his position I would fudge it, because it is not resolvibile 'today' - but in a tomorrow, piano piano, once Pope Francis has sorted out the othtordox and the CoE, he isn't so far from the Imams. Of course, you will tell me I am dreamnig on - but it's quite nice for me to have a forum where I can dream on!

Now this is a most hopeful story - let us just allow this new Pope to have a bit of a free run! His choice of Francis (which surprised and delighted me) accords totally with the missions of the Franciscans - so I'm really thrilled (okay, maybe I'll be disillusioned) that it seems Pope Francis has clocked the imperative that a notion of 'faith' could be universally 'a good thing'. I'm an atheist, but at the same time I understand that much of the world feels a need for a spiritual leader, and if the whole of the spiritually needy world can come together behind a coalition of benign people that cannot be a backward step. http://www.cnewa.org/blog.aspx?ID=1015&pagetypeID=35&sitecode=HQ

Couldn't resist this snippet - apparently Pope Pius II (C15th) wrote porn. There is (if anybody happens to have the book to hand) a  citation here.  Cawthorne, Nigel (1996). Sex Lives of the Popes. London: Prion. p. 151. ISBN 185375207X. Looks like a book worth reading if it has more than two pages!!

Just a day or so ago Sebastiano told us he was getting LPG at 61c per litre. That makes 75c sound rather costly!

It's effing priceless what you've elicited this time! Complimenti. As for the new pope fellow - he seems like a nice enough cove, if a bit old - but I have very little information on which to base my analysis of his character. Everybody from il correire to the BBC say he's very holy and a thoroughly good egg - which rather makes me wish I was back with the Farnesi appointments when the bitching and backbiting got entertainingly serious. Surely somebody has some dirt to dish on this guy - I mean, what's his take on Las Malvinas, for a start? He's chosen a nice name, and you'd have thought Assisi would have cranked up its social media presence, or at least updated their comune tourist site: nah, give it until the Easter visitor season has passed - one does despair. They didn't even clock a Pope bearing gifts as a branding opportunity.

This piece gives a bit of history about the huge unions - Ggli Csil and Uil - and their closeness, and funding by, the state. Grillo has no beef with worker organisations on a more local company by company  basis. Worth a read - especially abut the funding which Caf gets - the only reson for Caf to exist is that the state organisations fail.  http://www.investireoggi.it/economia/beppe-grillo-la-casta-dei-sindacati...