“You telling me your word is no good?” Sonny asked. “I thought that was a big deal to you people.”
“You got a lot of nerve,” the old man said, and he took a step towards Sonny. Sonny raised his cane instinctively. The man looked plenty strong in spite of his years.
“It’s your choice,” Sonny said and he shrugged. “Maybe you should fight it in court. You got a good lawyer? My guy’s a fucking maniac; I swear you could cut him with a chainsaw and he wouldn’t bleed.”
Aroma: Brooding yet concentrated black cherry and blackberry. Lesser notes of cactus pear and dark chocolate.
Palate: Peppery blackberry with saline influences. Tart with some fine acidity (or spiciness if you prefer that term) lending itself more for food than sipping. Tannins build in intensity with a brackish short finish.
Personality: A lean Nero D’Avola to the point. Nothing fancy. On the perky side. Excitable and vibrant.
Food Match: Sicilian Polpette Pasta.
My Polpette Siciliana at Rosmarina Restaurant in Taormina, Sicily
In Southern Sicily on 13May2025 we visited the Villa Romana Del Casale, home of some of the most superb Roman mosaics in the world recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The villa was constructed by a prominent Roman aristocrat between the third and fourth centuries. This large countryside villa represented the height of luxury. Within the remains of the original rooms are more than 40 impeccably crafted mosaic floors and walls featuring different themes. Marvelously preserved, the villa’s vast collection reveals colorful scenes of mythological heroes, wild animals, hunting, circus games, female athletes, domestic life and more. Portrayals of life were for the masters while geometric designs were for the servants’ areas.
A stone’s throw away from the villa there is Agriturismo Trinacria Pizzeria a misnomer as it is a restaurant more than a pizzeria. Lunch, after visiting the villa, consisted of a starter antipasto plate of potato omelet pieces, home made fried ricotta cheese, cheeses, olives and home cured meats. A rich caponata followed then home-made sausages and potatoes with a Cannoli filled with home prepared ricotta cheese. The wine was what you might call a “simple Primitivo” served in large pitchers. Fruit driven and smooth but with enough traction to pair simply and magnificently with the food. No fancy bottles here but home prepared and organic from demi-johns. Expressing my praise the owner was so delighted, understanding I review wine, he filled up a 1.5 liter water bottle and said enjoy!
Returning to the Eurostars Hotel in Taormina, Sicily while the better half attended an evening opera performance, I tried to become more scientific and gave the wine a formal tasting. I felt like Luca Maroni the overly generous Italian wine critic giving the wine a 94/100. My happy state enjoying it in the Sicilian countryside caused my “scientific” mind to float above the wine reverting to a perfect moment in time of an early summer rustic Sicilian lunch and then again on my hotel patio overlooking the Bay of Naxos as the sun set.
Aroma: Enormously rich if not decadent black cherry rules the roost. Black plum, licorice and cactus pear with a hint of dark chocolate.
Palate: Extreme purity. Smooth yet powerful with black cherry gripping the palate. Blackberry, espresso and demure acidity with a clean long finish.
Personality: I match perfectly with simple local fare and your state of mind enjoying it in the Sicilian countryside. Take me out of the countryside from which I came I may lose my identity and outside the environs of the villa you will never find me.
And from a water bottle! A state of mind threatening a cold and calculated rating. Gotta love it. Luca Maroni move over!
“Pete sat across the table, flopped his hat in the chair beside, and took a long drink of beer. Ray sipped at his and adjusted the ball cap on his head. Cold beer was one of the things he’d dreamed about these past two years, that and firm breasts, smooth buttocks, thick steaks and clam chowder, Scotch on the rocks. The beer in his hand was all right, but just all right. Like everything else when you got older, the getting never seemed to measure up to the anticipating.”
Perhaps visiting Rome this year with its Jubilee is not advisable (unless you are on a pilgrimage) as massive crowds clog main touristic sites whether it be the Vatican, the Spanish Steps and an out-of-control mob scene at the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.
Just a few people at the Spanish Steps Fountain. Photo Robert K. Stephen
Americans appear to be leading the pack but all in all a truly international mix of tourists.
The restaurants in and about the main attractions and the once quiet and cool Trastevere District are clogged with tourists and what Italian wishes to commit culinary suicide at eateries offering “Happy Hour”. Sort of like a tequila cruise in Cancun!
Arriving in Rome from Catania via ITA Airways crammed in the airplane like tourists elbowing for room at the Trevi Fountain often led by tour guides with flags raised to be followed and listened to with audio devices I decided to partake of a stroll near the hotel and made it until a McDonald’s saved the day from a torrential downpour. Screen ordering was available in several languages.
A double cheeseburger, beer and fries were selected by me the gourmet and internationally recognized food critic. Who was eating here? Italians, mostly teeny boppers and young families with me about the only gringo in sight. So when it Rome do as the Romans do and eat in McDonald’s Italia. Did I just say that?
“The two of them seem to be together, except that he’s dressed a lot nicer than his buddy, who’s in a weathered hockey jersey that hangs off his skinny shoulders like a rag. No, this one has a jacket. A nice jacket. Where would I know someone who has a jacket this nice? Must be wool or something, so black that it seems to draw the light in. And his scarf is embarrassingly fashionable. Either he has a wife who picks these things out for him or he swings the other way, Which, since he’s sitting in a titty bar, is unlikely, but you never know.”
Nina Laurin, “Girl Last Seen”, Grand Central Publishing (2017).
This Canadian documentary is based on a book of the same name by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. Dr. Abuelaish is a Palestinian doctor born of parents bulldozed off their land in Palestine by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab War. An estimated 500,000-750,000 Palestinians fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Dr. Abuelaish realized an education was necessary to lift himself and his extended family out of poverty so he studied becoming a doctor first working in Saudi Arabia and returning to Gaza to offer pro bono medical OBGYN services to Gaza refugee camp residents. He was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital.
The documentary gives us a brief history of Palestine. Hamas won the 2006 Gaza elections with 74/132 seats in the Palestinian legislative assembly. Hamas originally started as a welfare organization with the sole goal of providing social services to the residents of Gaza but gradually muscled out its opponents assuming dictatorial military rule.
In yet another Israeli miliary action in Gaza on July 14,2009 a tank waited outside Abuelaish’s 5 story family house with its gun aiming directly at the house. Abuelaish managed to contact Israeli friends who were successful in recalling the tank but two days later his unit was shelled by an Israeli tank killing three of is daughters. His horrific anguished calls were broadcast over Israeli television said to have such an impact the Israeli Prime Minister ordered a ceasefire. Not surprisingly an Israeli army investigation and the Israeli Supreme Court found no fault.
Instead of venting anger and bitterness while still at the hospital with injured family members he called for peaceful co-existence. Hatred is not by nature but by nurture Abuelaish states. In Gaza it is triggered by colonialism, occupation, poverty, violence, racism, discrimination and exploitation.
Within a year of suffering his personal tragedy he moved to Toronto with his five children and established Daughters for Life funding scholarships, fellowships and awards for young Middle Eastern women. He also raises funds for injured Palestinian children to receive medical treatment in Canada.
One must ask a question posed by humanity many times. What does it take for personalization to become universalism?
How would one describe the film? Fruitless? Naïve? Courageous? Depressing? Uplifting? Inevitable? Perhaps all the above.
Directed by Tal Barda. It is having its third week of screening in French theatres.
The Canadian documentary “Betrayal”, directed by Lena Macdonald, chronicles the whistleblowing of Cindor Reeves crucial to the war crimes conviction of Liberian President Charles Taylor by the United Nations backed special court for Sierra Leone in 2012. Taylor was convicted of sexual violence, physical violence, abductions, terrorizing civilian populations, forced labour and utilization of child soldiers.
Charles Taylor on trial in Sierra Leone in 2012
It was the brother-in-law of Charles Taylor, Cindor Reeves, that provided much of the information used to convict Taylor garnered through copying and downloading documents, eavesdropping and through knowledge of the players and transactions in the evil game of profiteering from blood diamonds that funded his civil war, that in Sierra Leone and even Al Qaeda.
Cindor’s sister married Taylor and Cindor as a young boy found his way to luxury living in Monrovia with his sister and Taylor a giant step from rural poverty. Taylor acted as a mentor for Cindor providing an education including on the political game and paternal guidance. Taylor an all-around nice guy until Cindor realized his promises of democracy were but a ploy for power while he organized a coup against Liberian President Samuel Doe and pursued a civil war in Liberia and in Sierra Leone to amass blood diamond and mineral wealth. Some estimated 250,000 were killed in the Liberian civil war with 203 mass graves found.
While acting as a liaison officer for the Taylor government in 1999 a contingent of Washington Post journalists visited Sierra Leone and deep throat Reeves helped them expose the blood diamond trade with Sierra Leone diamonds with Taylor the kingpin. Reeves notes that the international community and private enterprises assisted or turned a blind eye to the blood diamond trade that enriched Taylor and enabled him to purchase arms and smuggle them into Liberia.
Reeves eventually ended up in Canada after departing Liberia, Ghana, Netherlands and Germany with promises of extended witness protection quickly forgotten after Taylor’s conviction. An attempt was made on his life by Taylor supporters in Ghana. Wherever he may be now he fears for his life.
Canada granted asylum to Reeve’s wife and two children but strangely deported him. Justice may have been done to Taylor with a 50-year prison sentence but Reeves, the man who made it possible was left out hanging to dry separated from his family. Strange recognition for his services to the international community.
Reeves no doubt is a betrayer to Taylor but justifiably so. Taylor is also a betrayer to Liberia using fine sounding promises of democracy and the rule of law. The international community betrayed Reeves by failing to offer him security and funding. And what redress and justice for the victims of Taylor in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Retribution has a nice ring to it but for Taylor’s victims it isn’t worth much.
A word to the wise. Don’t be overrun by the multitude of facts in the documentary and focus on the generalities of family, loyalty, the teachery of politics and the two faces of Charles Taylor.
“Betrayal” completed its screenings at Toronto 2025 Hot Docs but its international run will continue.
“He followed me into the bathroom, peeling a banana. “Depressing, I was cranking up on a new poem when some dipshit called, trying to sell us a storage freezer. Writing is a lot like dreaming, you know? There’s a subconscious connection, you know. Once someone intrudes, it’s like trying to go back to sleep to finish your dream.” He yawned so wide I saw the chewed-up banana.”
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