In Love with France, At Home In Italy

I am not being fickle when I say I am in love with both these gentlemen. IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER JUST TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE THEM IN THIS WORLD. Of course they're not really in this world at all, but since I've lived in Italy, they have become part of the interior world of my head. It's true that as an adolescent I went through a crime novel phase, mostly delving for the sex scenes ("And when she took off her clothes, I realized she was a REAL blonde..."). Yes, at age 14, I thought Mike Hammer in "I, the Jury," was a very sexy dude. But once I was a so-called adult, I never went near mystery lit. Until now, that is. I am currently pondering the mystery of how I fell under the spell of Donna Leon's Brunetti, whose "beat" is Venice. At first I resisted, since my heart already belonged to Commissario Montalbano, from exotic-to-me Sicily. But this summer I have worked my way through 22 Brunetti novels, and am already in mourning...

I was concerned that I might have been taking a wrong turn by mentioning the 50’s TV show, “Dragnet” in two recent postings. After all, who but a Baby Boomer was likely to remember that show? Well, (maybe) not to worry. The latest issue of “Vanity Fair” just arrived with an article titled “Pepe Le Perp” about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. The pullout quote said: “IT WAS REMARKABLE HOW RAPIDLY DSK’S ALLEGED ATTACK WAS PERCEIVED AND POPULARIZED AS INTRINSICALLY, INIMICALLY FRENCH.” But what caught my eye was a reference to none other than Jack Webb and “Dragnet.” The article mused about DSK’s arrest: “So accustomed are we to the privileges of rank and authority conferring royal immunity that seeing the long arm of law enforcement snag a high-ranker, like an outfielder reaching over the fence to rob a home run, restored one’s faith in the virtues taught us by Jack Webb in “Dragnet.” As I said in an earlier post, Webb was a man ahead of his time. But he is turning out to be a man fo...