Experiencing Latin from the Corner Pastry — Installment II
How Latin leads to remembering the Scorsese wise guy classic “Goodfellas”
Welcome back readers. In the first installment of this series, I gave some background on the inspiration that drove me to embark on this small project. which I called “Pastry Shop Latin”. You might ask what do Italian pastries have to do with Latin? It is simple. I spend many of my Saturday mornings working on my creative writing while enjoying a few crunchy mini sfogliatelle chased down with a cappuccino at De Lillos Pasticceria. It is my favorite spot in Little Italy in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Yes, that Little Italy where Robert DeNiro filmed the movie “A Bronx Tale” [7]. The Pasticceria , the pastry shop, is literally a few doors away from the famous stoop where little Calogero Anello, who played NYC bus driver Lorenzo Anello’s son, got to watch gangsters exercise their dominion over a 1960’s rapidly changing enclave of Italian-Americans.
“Pastry Shop Latin” is an exercise that utilizes professor Jon R. Stone’s book “Latin for the Illiterati”, a useful compendium of Latin expressions [1]. As explained in my first installment, the book provided me with the drive to select a few words, and expressions, often one per page, and let the creative juices flow. This outlet is not intended to be…
