I know some have wondered where'd I've been since I haven't been blogging.

The answer: Facebook, so here are some posts from the past 3 months:

Gilbert Gigliotti...:

thinks himself a "shrewd youth," like Robin.

hasn't cheered for the Detroit Tigers since Al Kaline was on the team, but is considering jumping on the bandwagon. My fear is that, given the results of my rooting thus far this post-season (Reds, Nationals, Orioles), they may not appreciate my support. So, unaffiliated I shall remain.

thinks an earthquake in Maine would explain the unusual shaking he noticed of the Ava Gardner photo in his office. Too bad he's not bright enough to think it anything but the rumbling of some system (heating/ventilation) in the never-silent Willard Hall.

is VERY psyched: The first two desk copies (of the novels By George and Misfortune) arrived in campus mail today in preparation for his class in Spring 2013 -- Eng 214: The Allusive John Wesley Harding /Wesley Stace.  CCSU Pre-registration begins November 5th; seats are sure to go fast...

wishes a happy 2082nd birthday to Publius Vergilius Maro, born on this date 683 a.u.c. (ab urbe condita, "from the founding of The City"). The Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid...that's a nice life's work!

"Now, Muse, let's sing of rats."

says, "ENOUGH with Big Bird. Any parent worth anything knows his/her kid is watching the Disney Channel."

says, "No, not Pet Shop Boys, not Erasure, COMMUNARDS."

is, after listening to it for the first time in a decade (or two), pretty sure that John Cougar Mellencamp's "Scarecrow" album (1985) couldn't be more georgic if his name were Publius Vergilius Mellencamp! Homespun, political, mythic, personal, nostalgic, patriotic, angry... and, like Vergil's, it ROCKS!

is pretty sure that "Glee" makes the original "90210" look like cinema verite.

is fairly certain that, after Paul's Aunt Lil heard "Paperback Writer," her response must have been, "No, really, Paul, just write a song about a horse."

has no horse in the race (because his phone is as dumb as he is), but he is really enjoying the Samsung Galaxy S III ads satirizing the iPhone linestanders.

wishes his mother a very HAPPY 80th Birthday!  And, while he knows one isn't supposed to love someone else for specific reasons, he loves her for her meatball recipe; her homemade cavatelli; that whole giving birth thing; her braciole; her caretaking of his father with MS for some 40 years; her traveling around the world without him (despite her first trip to Italy being with him and his wife!); her loving support of him, his siblings, and all their familiies (including her 9 grandkids); her cinnamon rolls; her family; and, for good measure, that whole birth thing again. Happy Birthday, Mom! ;)

has just returned from tap class: an alphabet soup of cramp rolls -- c's , z's, o's. (And trying to learn to convince an audience he is as light as a feather while Lindying. Quick question: how much has the audience been drinking? To think for a moment I'm light as a feather, it'll have to have been a WHOLE LOT!)

wonders if the release of every bleepin' iPhone will be news for the rest of his life. If so, his 100+ years is looking longer than ever.

is enjoying diving once again into one of his best used book purchases ever: the 1895 London edition of Benecke's translation of Domenico Comparetti's "Vergil in the Middle Ages," purchased literally for pocket change (.50 or $1!) at a Catholic University of America library sale of discarded books in the late 1980s. (The only time the volume had been checked out? 21 January 1961 --- some 10 months before Gil was born.)  "In the eyes of Macrobius, Vergil is not merely an authority in every branch of learning, but he is distinctly infallible" (64).  When was the last time anyone thought THAT about a creative writer? ;)

stopped briefly on "Entertainment Tonight" tonight, when he saw they were playing clips from "All The President's Men." The host (some guy he'd never seen before) said, "You may not know that the film won four Academy Awards, but didn't win 'Best Picture.' That award went to 'Rocky.'" Now, what did the host say next? 
     Not "What the hell were the Academy members thinking?"      Not "Boy, was that a dumb decision!"     No, he said, "That was a good year for movies!" Oy.

and, finally,


really likes the film The Day of the Dolphin but didn't remember it's a Buck Henry screenplay directed by Mike Nichols. Throw in George C. Scott, and, he figures, that's the recipe for a pretty fine film.  "Pha, find Bea!"