The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 42: How Do You Kill Another Man? The Romanian Revenge Plan: Romanian Lightning Heroin

After dinner Don Lupara’s men dropped me off at the fully renovated seaside home on the Bay of Naples a wedding gift for a wedding that never was to be due to Ginevra’s murder. It was payback time. Cyclops who had planted a roadside explosive device that killed my sweet Campanian plum Ginevra and ourContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 42: How Do You Kill Another Man? The Romanian Revenge Plan: Romanian Lightning Heroin”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelllous (The Final Version):Chapter 40:  I Have Been Committed to a Psychiatric Hospital: Thank God for LSD and Pasta a La Nero! Lupara’s Deadly Cure

After my Ritz-Carlton meltdown in Manhattan for months I had no idea where I was nor did I really care. Was it post traumatic stress disorder or depression? I was told that I had been transported on a chartered jet courtesy of Don Lupara from New York to Naples where I was transported along theContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelllous (The Final Version):Chapter 40:  I Have Been Committed to a Psychiatric Hospital: Thank God for LSD and Pasta a La Nero! Lupara’s Deadly Cure”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 39: The Worst Day of My Life: Naples An Assembly Line of Death: My Sweet Calabrian Plum Has Been Wrenched from Me by Assassination!

I wanted desperately to return to Naples to my Ginevra who I was beginning to miss terribly. Physicians at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York were concerned the bone chip near my heart might be a potential risk so travel was forbidden until a round of tests was completed. I was in gnawing pain andContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 39: The Worst Day of My Life: Naples An Assembly Line of Death: My Sweet Calabrian Plum Has Been Wrenched from Me by Assassination!”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!

Upon our return to Naples we continued our holiday mode for a few weeks seeing the sites of Naples and eating for three. Ginevra was expanding rapidly. It would be two pizzas for dinner and many scoops of gelato afterwards. As my sweet Campanian plum was expanding rapidly and becoming more like a watermelon myContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!”

RKS 2025 Wine: A Rubin from Bulgaria

One of the most popular grapes of the Thracian region in Bulgaria is Rubin. Reminds one of the name of a sandwich. It was created in Bulgaria in the mid 1940’s as a cross between Nebbiolo and Syrah. Rubin is easy to work with and is early to medium ripening with high yields. Care mustContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: A Rubin from Bulgaria”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!

It was time out for a bit of sightseeing outside Naples suggested Ginevra and I agreed. We would be tailed only by two men in a car. Ginevra explained to me a cardinal rule of the Neapolitan Camorra that in the case of hostilities between families woman and children would be spared violence and deathContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!”

RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition

Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico) a Sicilian deserter from the Italian Army assists a local fellow deserter, Attillo, to return to the latter’s mountainous home village Vermiglio. It is 1944 and the Second World War is drawing to a close. Vermiglio appears untouched by the war with an occasional plane flying overhead being the only tangibleContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?

My romantic escapades have been brief and disastrous. Minah my 160-pound sweetheart ended up in psychiatric care and her brother Abdul murdered my mother. Reena was set ablaze by her evil mother-in-law and the Toad with her marriage obsession was enough to drive off any sensible young man. But heck better to have loved thatContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?”

RKS 2025 Wine: “Back to the Volcano”: Italian Red from ETNA

“Under the Volcano” is a novel by Canadian Malcom Lowry not to be confused with my heading above “Back to the Volcano”. I have had the pleasure of a day of intense fine tasting on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius outside of Naples 5 years ago and in May I am heading to Mount EtnaContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: “Back to the Volcano”: Italian Red from ETNA”

RKS 2024 Film: “Across the River and Into the Trees”: The Acheron River in Greek Mythology

Having recently returned from Thessaloniki, Greece attending the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival I was snagged by “Across the River” in this film’s title. I watched the short “Acheron” at the festival which is the river in Greek mythology crossed when traversing to the world beyond and hopefully not to Hades but the point isContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Across the River and Into the Trees”: The Acheron River in Greek Mythology”