Valentino: Stile Italiano

Ecco lo, Valentino Rossi even crashes with impeccable Italian style. We can only wish we looked this good whilst riding our motorcycles. E una poesia nel movimento!* (Click to enlarge photo.)

* It's poetry in motion!

Ducati: Non hanno felicita

Friends, all is not well with our team at Ducati Corse. The star rider of Ducati's MotoGP motorcycle racing team, 2007 World Champion Casey Stoner, has been afflicted with illness for several months now, resulting in poor results in recent races. When I saw him race at Laguna Seca last month, the poor lad could barely dismount from his Ducati racing machine. Che peccato, Casey is not doing well.

Now, those "in the know" realize that MotoGP is right up there with Formula 1 auto racing for physical requirements in a sport; so, Casey is--and must be--in prime physical condition in order to race the 240 horsepower MotoGP bikes. So why is he failing physically then? In the wake of top doctors here in California being unable to locate any severe physical ailments, there has been speculation that the pressure that Casey is under to repeat his dominance of 2007 is so intense, that he is cracking under it. Such a phenomena is referred to as "psychosomatic", where the body cannot handle the immense mental demands, and thus begins to shut down.

Of course, it doesn't help poor Casey at all when he looks over and sees Italia's own eight-time world champion Valentino Rossi laughing and joking his way to the top step of the podium, into the championship lead, seemingly effortlessly.

Ducatisti worldwide wish Casey the best and hope that he can recover from his illness soon. A presto, amici!
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To learn more about the illness and the latest developments in Casey's racing programme, here is an article from just today that you may wish to read. (Click to enlarge.)

Valentino Rossi to Ferrari F1 Team in 2011

Hello my friends! How wonderful to see you again!

My favorite motorcycle racer, Valentino Rossi of Italy, has recently been rumored to once again be speaking with Ferrari's Formula 1 team about driving for them. In fact, Rossi has made comments which suggest that it may already be a done deal, with him taking the seat of a Ferrari F1 car in 2011. (As you may know, Formula 1 is the pinnacle of car racing in the world.) Now, this story about Valentino is an intriguing development indeed, but there is a problem:

You see, recently I took a vow of eternal hatred for Formula 1. Why? Because both of the chief managers of the series, Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, have alternately done "things" and made statements which strongly hinted at an affinity for Nazism and Adolf Hitler. I am not joking...I wish I were. (Max Mosley's father was reportedly a well-known Nazi sympathizer in World War II, and was active in furthering the Nazi cause, with his son Max in tow.) Additionally, the various governing participants contained within Formula 1 have shown zero backbone by failing to remove the two slack-jawed weasels.

Now I won't go into the details of what these two sick clowns said and did--horribly sordid, and anyway that's what Google is for--but let's just say that they have proven to be really despicable characters, and I cannot stand either of the freaking limeys...other than that I have nothing but warm feelings for them. But, as they represent Formula 1, I won't watch their stupid races as my personal form of "protest"; the ramifications and results of said protest will be far-reaching, I'm certain.

My rant now complete, I am hereby pre-announcing that if Rossi goes to Formula 1, I will "suspend" my vow and do a complete reversal of all intimated convictions contained on this Blogiorno (tm) entry.

Good day to you.

Pray for the earthquake victims in Italy, my friends

Italian Makers of Prosecco Seek Recognition

Hello my dear friends the world over!

Recently I came across an excellent article in the New York Times, the favorite newspaper of angered-yet-cultured elitists across our wonderful globe. It is a very good read about Prosecco, which is a sparkling wine from Italia. You might say that Prosecco is Italy's version of champagne (though Italian Prosecco makers really wish you wouldn't). I've had opportunities to enjoy Prosecco, and I must tell you that I really am in like with it. It's quite easy to consume a bottle of it quickly, as it is quite delicious and very refreshing on a warm day. This article talks about Prosecco's beginnings and its current popularity.

A while back I had a semi-expensive Moet champagne, and it was stellar. However, I must still give the edge to Prosecco, not because it is actually better, but because I've had a hard time with the French at "various points" in my life. I believe this began with all the scowling from French hoteliers during my childhood travels to the Gallic country, a country that the Nat Geo Channel irreverently called, "The Land of the Frogs".

Now, while Nat Geo's shocking term is of course belittling (or even racist, some small-minded people might say) and may actually have been about a mountainous area of the Peruvian rainforest and not about France at all, I do not condone it in the slightest. That said, I can repeat it guilt-free because I have some French blood floating around in me. Additionally, for the purposes of proving that I am not a racist, I am announcing that I am now intensely proud of my French heritage. See? I went from anti-French to pro-French in the blink of an eye. It's that slippery politician-style turnabout, the little technicality, the little loophole which now makes this heretofore unfortunate situation a "win-win". Meaning, that both you and I supposedly win (though I'm not really sure how you win in all of this).

By the way, I always wondered why people swallow that term, "win-win", so easily, like famished picnic seagulls swallowing leftover hot dogs whole. Don't they know that the pronouncement of "winning" is completely subjective, and almost certainly intentionally skewed by the malefactors who use said evil term? Whatever, who cares.

So please take a few minutes to read this article; you will like it. Oh, and if you are not one of the aforementioned angered-yet-cultured elitists, I'm sure you will forgive Blogiorno for soiling your precious retinas and corneas with an article from the New York Times, whom I now cheerily thank for such an excellent article, and wish them Godspeed in their impending bankruptcy proceedings!

Finally, to my wonderful French readers, I actually do love you all, and I do so wish that you would find it within your proud hearts to love back an admiring world. Really, we aren't so bad.

To read "Italian Makers of Prosecco Seek Recognition", click here.

Note: The above link requires a free subscription, which I think is worth it since you'll be able to view all of the photographs and visuals in large scale, and in some small way it might actually help them stave off death a while longer. If you'd rather not subscribe, I am including the entire article below, albeit with small photographs. You can click the text to make it easier to read.

Okay then! Thank you once again for reading Blogiorno!

Ciao, a presto amici miei!

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