Word: messina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Giuseppe Scaffidi was a man of simple tastes. A stubby, barrel-chested farm worker, he lived happily with his wife Concetta and their four children in a shabby house in the Sicilian countryside near Messina. One day five years ago, when Giuseppe was 28, he met a young neighbor named Mariannina at a festival. Mariannina was very unhappy. Her husband was old and blind, and her family was forced to live on the husband's pension of $160 a month. "No problem," said Giuseppe generously. "Move in with us." So Mariannina, her husband and their three children settled...
...weak actors look worse perhaps because everyone around them is so good. Producers often flirt with the notion of casting a young girl as Juliet, but they come to their senses in time. Producer Cedric Messina unwisely plunged ahead. His Juliet, Rebecca Saire, is 14 and acts it. Her voice is thin, and her range of expression sadly limited. Shakespeare said Juliet was only 14, but he gave her the lines of an ardent and mature woman to speak. A less serious error was the casting of Keith Michell as Caesar's Antony. Michell is an accomplished actor...
...imagine that the plays could have been done better in the U.S. The complaints of American actors and producers that the British are taking over seem perversely petty. "Because they study Shakespeare at an early age and practice their craft, English actors are better suited to do Shakespeare," Messina argues. "Besides, the plays are there. There's no copyright. If the Americans want to do Shakespeare, then why don't they?" Good question. - Gerald Clarke
...reader vaguely recalls a lovely term for a mirage-something Italianate. He checks Bernstein under "mirage, especially as observed in the Strait of Messina" and finds fata morgana. "Midget or dwarf leads to homunculus. "Ecstasy of a religious nature" brings forth theopathy. "Misstroke or misplay" discovers foozle...
...know how to do it, you're out of it." The Hustle's biggest boost nationwide came from Van Me Coy's The Hustle, which has made the national charts for an extraordinary 18 weeks. Other popular Hustle records include Loggins & Messina's Pathway to Glory, Consumer Rapport's Ease On Down the Road (from the Broadway musical The Wiz), Herbie Mann's Hijack and Ester Phillips' What a Difference a Day Makes. None, however, quite matches Me Coy's hit. "Do it," exhorts the record. "Do the Hustle." And they...