No Secrets

I can’t stand secrets.  They just use up so damn much energy - trying to remember who knows what, who can’t know what, who you’ve told, haven’t told and so on.   One of the earliest and biggest secrets I remember having to keep was shortly after I turned ten, when my parents told me I was going to have a little brother or sister in several months.  I was a relatively chatty kid, so it practically killed me to have to hold onto this information until such time as they gave me the signal to release it to our family.  Which they did on a spring Saturday when my grandmother, aunt and a cousin stopped off at our house while out shopping (living in Paramus we often had company who was out shopping).  

Prior to their arrival my parents told me it was now safe to tell them, so after they all sat down I asked them to guess what we were getting in September.  A new car, my aunt offered - which hadn’t occurred to me - but I said, nope, a new baby.  They looked at my almost 39-year-old mother, and my 50-year-old father, and all three started to cry.  Hadn’t seen that coming, either, having a 10-year-old’s blissful ignorance of such matters.  I just thought it was great news!  And, as it turned out, it was.

There have been many other secrets I’ve had to keep since then, for myself as well as others.  As a lawyer I’ve long been asked for advice about certain confidential issues, and I respect that - those are not my stories to tell.  Attorney/client privilege and all that.  Same thing when someone asks me to keep a personal confidence.  If somebody doesn’t want me to share something, I won’t.  But it’s tiring, isn’t it?  Particularly when your brain is an eight-cylinder working on six or seven.  

One of the reasons I created this blog was so I could simply be open, and not have to remember to whom I’ve told something.  Everybody can be on the same page.  Literally.  This just makes life easier.

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As this blog reflects what I consider important, here’s a referral worth taking. I don’t usually wax poetic about a television show but there’s one on Sunday nights on CNN that I cannot recommend too highly.  

“Stanley Tucci - Searching for Italy” is a travelogue through the country’s twenty regions focusing mostly on the foods indigenous to each.  So far, he’s eaten his way through Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples and their environs, dining with locals in out-of-the-way trattorias, osterias, cucinas, bistros and virtual holes in the wall, where he’s eaten dishes prepared by obviously master chefs that look so appealing you just want to have sex with them.  Not the chefs - the food!  When we were in Italy we ate very well, but not like what this show shows.  It makes me want to go back right now.

He focuses on everybody from young, newly starting out restaurateurs to Holocaust and World War II bombing survivors who still follow family recipes.  He also dives into the history of each region, where the foods originated and why, with local authors, food experts and historians.  In addition, the show addresses issues of local poverty and how it’s been overcome in some areas by people with drive, and the obstacles faced by new businesses.  Along with some really interesting personal interest stories.

It’s definitely worth a try.  I rate it five gnocchis.