Emanuela, Hi!

I fervently hope you don't think of little worms!
Don't think I knew about the small strings.
I am partway through the Mother Tongue book--thanks to all
who lauded it so highly--I am loving it! Mr. Bryson says
there that there really is no "Italian" language as such,
that you-all really have several dialects.

Along the same lines (oh, I know I'm going to stir up the
rattlesnake nest with this one): as far as I am concerned,
Shakespeare did NOT write in English! I can read his words
but have not the foggiest idea of what he was saying.
I hate that! I understood Robbie Burns' Tam O'Shanter a
LOT more than I ever understood Shakespeare--even if I didn't know the exact meaning of every single word, I was
able to follow the action and general thread of the poem.
Shakespeare might as well have written in Greek for all I
understood of his meaning.