They (the RW's) don't take NO for an answer.

[SANDRO43]

'Old age' homes are quite rare here, usually limited to hospices for those last days on earth. 

Their numbers have been growing steadily here in the North. Some 10 years ago the owner of one of my favourite jazz clubs, Il Capolinea, told me his landlord would not renew his lease because he had received a good offer for the whole property. A costly residence for old people, with an unlikely name like Blue Skies or similar, was quickly built over the lot .

[BC]

Their numbers have been growing steadily here in the North. Some 10 years ago the owner of one of my favourite jazz clubs, Il Capolinea, told me his landlord would not renew his lease because he had received a good offer for the whole property. A costly residence for old people, with an unlikely name like Blue Skies or similar, was quickly built over the lot .

Yes, time is creeping up on us all..  We're probably 10 or so years behind the 'North' IMHO.  In fact remembering my younger years in the North, it was not that awful different than here now.  When I travel North now days it seems more Germanic with a huge immigrant population.  When are y'all going to ever stop talking out your nose? (Veneto)

 

[SANDRO43]

When are y'all going to ever stop talking out your nose? (Veneto)

When Global Warming will give us a milder local climate : see my Psammothermophonetic Theory (www.floriani.it/teoria-eng.htm), universally acclaimed as an epoch-making conceptual break-through by foremost linguists .

[BC]

When Global Warming will give us a milder local climate : see my Psammothermophonetic Theory (www.floriani.it/teoria-eng.htm), universally acclaimed as an epoch-making conceptual break-through by foremost linguists .

Highly illuminating 'pipe dream'.. what was in there? care to share?

We do get our fair share of African sand here, is really nasty fine reddish stuff, that's why I wash our car only one time in a year.  Is usually a summer phenomena so really mucks up the pool too.

Seriously though, interesting theory. Does seem to account for that southern drawl..

Is RU one of the most 'uniform' languages, only barely touched by dialect or regional influences?  Barese and Napolitano are languages unto themselves..  Iennii akaaa!

Ok back on topic... my wife doesn't take 'No' for an answer.. she may pout for a bit and it passes, or she will incessantly 'remind' me of the obscure promise and I lovingly give in.. LOL

-All in good fun!

[SANDRO43]

Is RU one of the most 'uniform' languages, only barely touched by dialect or regional influences?

Can't really say from direct field experience, but I'd expect not: local language variations/dialects are a UNIVERSAL phenomenon, the problem is that it takes a LOCAL ear to detect them. I already recounted how my father told me that in his youth (1930s) he could tell where a person lived in Milan from his slightly different dialect, both phonetically and lexically. Remember Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady .

Barese and Napolitano are languages unto themselves..  Iennii akaaa!

One of the most distinctive features of the Pugliese accent is changing most Italian As to Es (and Os to Us, common in Southern dialects), witness a saying once popular with their immigrants to Milan: Se a Milene ce fusse lu mere, sarebbe 'na piccole Bere (If Milan had a sea, it'd be a little Bari) . Neapolitan, on the other hand, displays a curiously Germanic trait: Ss before other occlusive consonants are pronounced as SHs: Ce shta nu shtrunze miezz'a shtrada (there's a t*rd in the middle of the street) . Ligurian and Sardinian are other Italian dialects almost incomprehensible to 'foreigners' from other parts of Italy.

[SANDRO43]

We do get our fair share of African sand here, is really nasty fine reddish stuff

We get that too, occasionally, when Libeccio (SW wind) or Scirocco (SE wind) blow in from North Africa, where sand is raised high into the air by a strong khamsin or simun and carried over across the Mediterranean.

[Gator]

We get that too, occasionally, when Libeccio (SW wind) or Scirocco (SE wind) blow in from North Africa, where sand is raised high into the air by a strong khamsin or simun and carried over across the Mediterranean.

This could be due to Sculpto when doing his dance, the one he describes as spinning fire naked in the desert.  For sure it can cause a lot of sand to become airborne in the night sky.