Strollerderby : Italy

Morning News: D.C.'s Lovin' Gay Families

Madeline Holler — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The walls of intolerance appear to finally be crumbling. It even seems like states -- and non-states -- are scrambling to show gay families the love.

On the same day that Vermont became the fourth state to recognize gay marriage, the Washington, D.C. Council voted to do the same. The Council's vote is the first step in passing a big fat gay marriage bill, which is just really exciting (and shhhhh, don't tell the Mormons!). All of this comes a week after Iowa (Iowa!) approved gay marriage. Man, when Iowa says gay marriage ain't no thing, doesn't that make California slap it's forehead once or twice?

Oh, oh, and as if recognizing gay marriage wasn't enough (and it's not, actually), those crazy Obamas invited a bunch of gay families to participate in the annual Easter Egg Roll. They've set aside tickets just for gay and lesbian families as a part of their effort to "reach out." Of course, with all this support and recognition of gay and lesbian families, the whole my-two-moms thing is going to lose some of its cool. Huh. Progress.

Speaking of losing one's cool, a couple of Gisele Bundchen's body guards apparently fired shots at photographers during Bundchen and Tom Brady's wedding. Costa Rican police are investigating.

Think Tom Brady had to give Bundchen a gift just to get her to sleep with him? We ask, because the Telegraph is reporting on a new study that says chimps will have sex for gifts and of course, we mean logically!, it follows that women put out for trinkets wrapped in pretty boxes. Oh, female primates. We're so simple!

We can also detect body odor better than men. Were just sniffing out biological information, the story goes (and also looking for a cute new purse!).

In bad economy news, the Juilliard School's program for poor students has been drastically slashed. While 50 students will return for a second year in the fall, the school won't be holding auditions for a new incoming group. The program was held up as a national model and is suffering the fate of so many arts programs.

The death toll from Monday's earthquake in Italy just keeps going up. The latest number is 228 -- many are young children.

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Photo: MSNBC.com

They Say: Vaccines are Safe - Take That Jenny McCarthy

JeanneSager — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:31:00 GMT

In yet another round of good news for those of us who vaccinate, the February issue of Pediatrics features a study out of Italy that says . . . wait for it . . . vaccines are good for kids!

In a month when I've written first about the meningitis vaccine working (yay!) and the death of a child from a disease his parents refused to vaccinate against (bad), I'm starting to feel like I'm beating the non-vaccinators out there over the head with all this pro-vaccine talk.

And then, there's more good news!

The study in Pediatrics comes out of Italy, and it's centered on the whole "thimerosal causes autism" debate. Children in Italy were given two different sets of shots in the early 1990s. According to the AP: Ten years later, 1,403 of those children took a battery of brain function tests. Researchers found small differences in only two of 24 measurements and those "might be attributable to chance."

Out of more than one thousand kids, only one case of autism was found - and that child received the lower level of thimerosal in his or her vaccine. Overall, the kids tested all scored - on average - within normal ranges on mental acuity tests.

The significance in this study is in the varying amounts of thimerosal, and its affects. If thimerosal causes autism, scientists who worked on the Italian study say it would stand to reason that increased dosages would show marked effect on kids. Yet the only autistic child in the randomized study to fall on the autism spectrum received a lower dose. The kids exposed to more thimerosal (which breaks down as ethyl mercury, hence some advocates' claims that mercury poisoning causes autism) should have been at higher risk if the theories held true.

"Put together with the evidence of all the other studies, this tells us there is no reason to worry about the effect of thimerosal in vaccines," said the new study's lead author, Dr. Alberto Tozzi of Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome.

So, is it time those who don't vaccinate their kids stop looking cross-eyed at those of us who do?

Image: USA Today

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Should Some Baby Names Just Be Retired?

Madeline Holler — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:01:00 GMT

For those of you following my own personal baby naming drama, an update: we're all set. Sort of.

My husband and I still can't agree on which of the boy names should be the first name and which one should go in the middle. But, you know, at least we have two names. What's been nice (or maybe a curse?) is the lack of pressure from friends, family ... and facists.

In Italy, some nice couple is having to decide whether to take the money and name their child after Benito Mussolini or his wife, Rachele.

From the LA Times

The MSI-Fiamma Tricolore party, the descendant of Mussolini's fascist party, said the initiative in the poor, southern region of Basilicata was meant to keep alive names "at risk of extinction" and pay tribute to the movement's roots.

Italy's birth rate is already very low. And, well, nobody wants to name their baby after Musso-fucking-lini! Pretty sure Adolf isn't making a comeback anytime soon either.

Last-Minute Baby Namers

Lawyer sent twin sister to court when she was busy

Brett Singer — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Two Italian women have been accused of fraud because one of them pretended to be the other one – in court.

(Note: The photo is not of those sisters, whose last names were not used in the story. The photo is from "The Patty Duke Show," which was about twin cousins.)

One sister, Gabriella, is an attorney and part-time judge. When her judgeship conflicted with her court schedule, she sent her twin sister, Patrizia, to fill in for her.

Two problems: first, Patrizia would tell clients and colleagues that she was Gabriella. Second, Patrizia isn't a lawyer.

Actually, there's a third problem, which is that Gabriella would bill clients for her time even though she wasn't actually, you know, there. But that happens all the time, right? (OK, bad bad bad lawyer joke, sorry.)

For no reason other than the fact that this story made the song pop into my head, here is the intro for "The Patty Duke Show." ("But they're sisters / Identical sisters, each a star. / One pair of matching bookends / But only one of them passed the bar…")

Source: rte

Image: wikipedia

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55-Year-Old Births Healthy Quadruplets

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:25:00 GMT

A 55-year-old woman whose name has not been released to the public gave birth to four baby boys in Italy this week. Born two months premature, the babies are in incubators at the hospital, but they are all doing well. Their father, 38-year-old Pabla Maghar Singh, says that he and his wife are overjoyed about the new arrivals. Financial concerns about caring for four little ones—the mother works for a cleaning business, while the father is a metal worker—apparently could not damper their happiness at finally having the babies they have wanted for so long.

Italian law is not friendly to assisted fertility, so the mother returned to her native India for IVF treatments. Her decision is not uncommon: since the restrictive assisted fertility law was passed in 2004, the number of Italian couples who seek fertility treatments outside of their country has quadrupled.

The birth of Italian qraduplets to an Indian mother also reflects a nationwide fertility trend. Italy’s relatively low birth rate reached a 16-year high of 1.35 children per mother in 2006, in large part due to immigrant births.

And, in case you were wondering, the adorable quadruplets pictured are not the Italian ones mentioned. But I say, any chance you get to use a photo of newborn quadruplets, take it.

Photo: novelette.com

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The U.S. of A: Fertility Capital of the World

Jen Chaney — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:33:00 GMT

If you've got at least 20 minutes to spare and a few cups of coffee to drink, take some time to read this week's cover story in the New York Times Magazine. The subject: The fact that the birth rate in Europe is declining so drastically, particularly in places like Italy and Greece, that the world may run out of Europeans in the not-too-distant future.

Personally, I zeroed in on the portion of the story that attempts to explain why America's birth rate is higher than pretty much everywhere else in the developed world. (This section is located on page six of the online version, for those of you reading along at home.) Several potential explanations are offered, but Carl Haub of the Population Reference Board believes the most significant factor may be -- and do try not to spit up your coffee as you're reading -- the flexibility that exists in the American workplace. "An American woman might choose to suspend her career for three or five years to raise a family, expecting to be able to resume working; that happens far less easily in Europe," the story notes.

It also notes that, compared with some European nations, office culture here is allegedly more open to flexible hours. It's an interesting point. In general, I think American companies have made great strides in this area in the past decade. More of my friends now have at least partial work-from-home situations that make it easier for them to manage parenthood. But on the whole, I feel like we still have a long way to go.

Maybe I see things the way I do because I work in a particularly competitive industry (media) in a particularly ambitious town (Washington, D.C.). But even though some companies make huge efforts to accommodate the needs of parents, it still seems to me that we are a very career-focused culture, so much so that making time to spend with kids, much less have more of them, is an enormous challenge. In fact, the very technology that allows so many of us the flexibility to work from home also means that it's next to impossible to fully unplug and disconnect from our offices. I'm also not convinced that it's that easy for women to exit and re-enter the work force, either.

One thing that the U.S. government doesn't do to simplify life for parents: Provide subsidies for daycare or payments for the birth of a child. In Norway, the government doles out 4,000 euros when a family has a new addition. And the village of Laviano, Italy, where the birth rate is particularly low, may soon recommit to a previous plan -- offering 10,000 euros, or about $15K, to any woman who conceives and raises a child there. (Hell, for $15,000, I'll stop writing this post and try to make a baby right now.)

Obviously America doesn't need to resort to such dire measure since we seem to have plenty of kids to go around. The bigger question: Are the experts in this article right about what makes our population in the U.S. continue to grow? Is it the flexibility and the attitude that both moms and dad need to share the responsibilities of parenting? Is it that moms can take breaks from their careers without consequences? Is it something ingrained in our culture, with all its talk of "family values"? Or is it door No. 3: Americans just like to get it on like jack rabbits?

Woman held captive for out of wedlock birth is finally free

Brett Singer — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Just when you think you've heard it all…

A 47 year-old woman named Maria Monaco was found locked in a room in a house near Naples, Italy. Her family had kept her there since 1990. Her crime was getting pregnant out of wedlock.

The police were acting on an anonymous tip and found Ms. Monaco "in a confused state and surrounded with filth and excrement she was living in squalor." Her jailers were her siblings, Prisco (brother) and Michelina (sister). They've been arrested by the Caribinieri (Italian paramilitary police force); Monaco's 80 year-old mother has been placed under house arrest.

But what about the kid she gave birth to? Well, he's 17 now, and lives in a nearby town. He reportedly didn't know anything about this. Police are looking for the father, but they aren't releasing his name (the mother's name, they have no trouble telling everyone.) It has been difficult to interview Ms. Monaco because she has been so psychologically damaged by the experience, according to reports.

This is kind of like the case of the Austrian lunatic Josef Fritzl, although he's very clearly a lone sociopath. This is more of a conspiracy amongst family members to keep some family dirt a secret.

image: dailymail

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Italy's Full of Big Babies

Karen Murphy — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:29:00 GMT

Babies are cute, aren't they? It's wonderful when they're little and you're their whole world, and then, slowly, you watch them learn about the world aside from you and learn to make their way into and through that world. That's what kids do, right? Grow up and, eventually, move the hell out?

But what if your baby never grew up? What if your kid just hung around...indefinitely? That's what parents in Italy are facing, as over 7 million big babies, mostly men age 18-34 (that's THIRTY-FOUR, PEOPLE!), still live at home with Mom and Dad. That's about 12% of the population, not an inconsiderable number.

It's probably not for lack of desire to be on their own, but has a lot to do with unemployment levels: only about only 40 percent of Italian 20-25 year-olds have jobs, compared to 60 percent in the remainder of Europe. Not only that, but wages in Italy are consideraly lower than in the rest of the EU. Plus, Mom and Dad are living longer and accumulating less savings, thus having less to foist off on Junior to get him the hell out of the house.

Sure, in days past everybody, the whole extended family, lived under one roof, several generations sharing one home. Do you think you could handle that? Having your kids still in your house for...ever?

Image: art from the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, sculpture by Ron Mueck.

Italian Chair Boosts Fertility

Madeline Holler — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:38:00 GMT

This promise of a report about a fertility chair caught my eye. I was imagining some strange sex positioning device that boasts better than chance results for getting pregnant.

Instead, I was directed to this video of a wooden chair in Naples, Italy. Couples who sit in the chair and receive a blessing get a little extra help in being fruitful and multiplying.

What the locals call “The Miracle Chair” is where Sister Maria Francesca spent her dying days. Hair and bone from the long-deceased nun adorn a cross that the church uses to bless women and men who sit in the chair.

Of course, there are many stories of infertile couples who, nine months after sitting in the chair, now push around bambinos in locally made Peg-Peregos. Those couples who didn’t manage to get pregnant after sitting in the chair weren't available for comment (no doubt at home flogging themselves for their sins).

Teacher Suspended for Being a Porn Star

Kelly Mills — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:03:00 GMT

Anna Cirani is a teacher in Italy. She's also "Madameweb", an internet porn star. (No offense to Cirani, but the porn star name I came up with playing those porn star name games was waaaay better. Just call me Bootsy Santa Ynez.) The Italian press just calls her the "porno-prof". Anyhow, school authorities recently decided that her two jobs were not compatible, and suspended her. She says, "My behavior at school has always been professional and irreproachable...I am a normal woman, with my family and my work as a teacher. I am (also) looking for transgression and sex." Now there's a sentiment I can get behind! She used to teach Italian lit at a secondary school, but when students covered the toilets with naked photos of her from the internet, she was transferred and taught evening classes to foreign adult students.

Okay, I don't think she should have been suspended for her film career. When I wrote about a teacher who had barely-even-risque pics of herself on the internet, some people mentioned it was unprofessional of her and that she ought to be a role model. But I'm sticking to my guns: in the classroom, role model, okay. Outside the class? None of my business. Look, there's lots of stuff I don't want my kid exposed to yet--drinking, smoking, politics--but that doesn't mean I think teachers shouldn't engage in these things on their own time, and even publicly. And I'm very pro porn, so you know, more power to Madameweb. I hope no more kid students of hers would be in a position to view her work (and it's not really on her if they are) so if she's a good teacher, moonlight all you want.

Jailed Mob Boss Makes Bambino Behind Bars

Madeline Holler — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:26:00 GMT

Mama mia! An Italian mob boss has put a whole new twist on the meaning of “serving” and “hard time.” Though he’s been in prison for more than two decades, with no rights to conjugal visits, his wife of 20 some years gave birth recently to a baby girl. And it’s his!

The mother, appropriately named Immacolata (meaning “immaculate,” get it? Virgin Mary?), waged a battle with the courts and won the right to her husband’s sperm, batches of which he worked up from behind bars. The two married in 1983 after he had already begun to serve several life sentences, but they have never consummated their eternal love.

She plans to raise the girl far from the Naples-based Camorra crime organization. She doesn’t want the jailed Godfather’s baby daughter to suffer the same fate as his son from a previous marriage – he died in a gangland shooting at 25.

Rights for Unmarried and Gay Couples Controversial In Italy Too

Kelly Mills — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:04:00 GMT

When I read about European countries granting rights to gay couples, I start feeling like the U.S. stands out as a weirdly righteous nation of homophobes. But it looks like Italy has their share of gay rights controversy as well. Some people are all upset over proposed legislation that would grant rights to gay and unmarried couples. Demonstrators staged rallies in Rome to celebrate Family Day, by which they apparently mean "Hetero-Married-Mommy-Daddy" family. Protesters reportedly "listened to songs...whose words evoked the need for children to have both a mother and a father." Maybe something like this? "Kids need a mommy and a daddy to be happy/ Mommy should have a vagina, and daddy a penis/ they'd better be married/ otherwise God is really, really mad at us/ So don't be all liberal or we'll burn for eternity..."

Thousands of folks who support the legislation mounted counter-rallies, which were attended by some politicians, including Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio of the Greens. Wow, the Greens are a real party there? One married woman with a family was interviewed, and "she says it is only fair that even if she did not have a husband she should be entitled to basic civil rights." Yeah, that is crazy talk. Here we like to keep our single parents down.

The legislation doesn't actually legalize gay marriage (think civil union) but that hasn't stopped one very big religious leader from opposing it. Could it be... Benedict XVI who wants to defend the traditional family? Is the pope catholic?

Baby Fights For Life After Failed Abortion Attempt

Karen Murphy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:56:00 GMT

Picture this scenario: You are pregnant. You're told your baby may have some congenital "abnormalities", so you decide to have an abortion at 22 weeks gestation. The procedure is somewhat botched, and because your baby shows signs of life afterward, hospital staff are obligated to perform resuscitation efforts. After all that back and forth, no wonder the parents are described as being "in shock".

More tidbits: This is the same hospital that was in the news recently for having used organs in transpant procedures from an HIV-positive donor. And: testing was first performed on the fetus in question at 11 weeks, with results suggesting there were abnormalities. Subsequent tests showed nothing. Again, however, in the 20th week, tests showed that the baby had no stomach, leading doctors to suspect that it might have an oesophageal atresia or tracheoesophageal fistula - or both. Both conditions can be corrected with surgery, successful in Italy in 75 - 80% of cases. However: a simple MRI would have proved once and for all whether this condition existed or not (it doesn't). Instead, the mother was advised to have an abortion.

Where do I start with this one? Let me begin by saying that I am completely in favor of abortion and the right to choose. Completely. Let's not debate that one. I do, however, have some trouble with the idea of people aborting babies because of suspected "abnormalities". But this is a tough one. Had I done this, for instance, there's a gorgeous little boy who wouldn't be here, but at the same time I can honor the fear and unknowingness that results from the thought of having a baby with, say, extreme medical issues. But where do you draw the line? It seems to me that in this case, the hospital and the doctors steered this poor woman wrongly, giving her bad information, and now she's got a tiny tiny baby who may have some major issues simply from being so tiny at 17 ounces (not to mention the cerebral hemorrhage, which they're not sure was caused by the unusual "birth" procedure or not). And all this could have been avoided had someone advised the parents correctly about having an MRI. The baby would still be where it should be, and there would be a content pregnant woman happily eating Italian food. I can only hope that everything turns out well in the end.

Irate Italian Parents Beat Up Principal Over Bad Grades

Karen Murphy — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:07:00 GMT

So...maybe it's something of a free-for-all in Italy's education system? First teachers go postal, now it's parents. A family of a middle-school student, including the father and the gradnfather of the student, beat up the school's principal in protest of recent low grades and a ban imposed on cell phones. Yeah, those are a good reasons to send a guy to the hospital with contusions, isn't? Principal Ugo Castorina has been running the school for 22 years; you think he's jonesing for early retirement about now?

Ouch! 3rd Heaviest Baby Ever Born in China

Karen Murphy — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:37:00 GMT

Ginormo-baby was born in China this week, weighing 13.75 pounds, and is thought to be the heaviest baby born in China since the Communist takeover in 1949, and is the 3rd heaviest baby born anywhere in recent history. My, oh my. And I thought it was hard birthing my tiny-by-comparison 6-something pounders. Ouch! Typically such heavy babies can be due to excessive prenatal weight gain in the mother or diabetes, and although the former athlete and new mom is built like a linebacker at 264 pounds, there's no family history of diabetes.

So you're asking yourself about now, well if this is the 3rd-heaviest baby born in recent history, what about #2 and especially what about #1? The most recent heaviest baby was born in Brazil in January 2005, weighing 7.6kg., which is 16.72 pounds. And the #1 heaviest baby, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was born in Italy in 1955, and weighed 10.2kg. That's 22.44 pounds.

Everybody, all together now: "OUCH!"

Judge's Orders: 13 Year Old must Abort Baby

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:13:00 GMT

Everything about this story sucks. A 13-year-old got pregnant. That is sad. Her boyfriend was 15. Her parents didn't want her to have the baby, but she wanted to keep it, also very sad. Even worse, a judge ordered her to have an abortion. The girl is from Torino, Italy and in Italy a minor cannot make a decision to about a fetus, so that power is given to the girls parents.

First of all, I am shocked that abortion is even legal in such a predominantly Catholic country. I was so surprised that I actually looked it up, but it is true. Second, I've never before heard of anyone ordering an abortion. I am 100% pro-choice, but I mean pro-choice. I don't think anyone should be telling anyone else that they must have an abortion, particularly not the government. That is just a little bit too totalitarian for my taste.

Oh yeah, and after the abortion, the little girl completely freaked out and threatened to kill herself. Something is very wrong with that system.