Though we must confess, possums, that we were a tad disappointed he went with the blue of the sea rather than the blue of the sky. Didn’t anyone tell him just how stereotypically popular the cheesy Italian song “Volare” is at weddings? In fact, are we sure he didn’t sing it to Gail e le ragazze as part of his introduction?
After all, the lyrics are drowning in blue, all about flying in the sky, “nel blu dipinto di blu, felice di stare lassù.” Wouldn’t it have made for better patter? And it would have meant using birds of the air, which would have prevented the problem of using a putatively endangered fish and making it bland.
And while we’re on the subject of Fabio, we have to confess that we’re fascinated and amused by his Florentine accent. In “Two Gallants,” one of James Joyce’s stories in Dubliners, there is a description of the character Corley as “aspirat[ing] the first letter of his name after the manner of Florentines.” To aspirate means to pronounce a letter as if it were an “h,” which, for Joyce’s purpose, meant that Corley pronounced his name “Whorely.” Joycean epiphany and all that, vous voyez? For us, it is fascinating that this characteristic is still part of the Florentine accent a hundred years later. Listen as Fabio says “bahon” instead of “bacon” and “behause” instead of “because.” Whatever else may be true of him, Fabio certainly has aspirations.
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