Query: are Black people offended by Black Friday?
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Not much for today. Our Thanksgiving dinner went very well, but we did not get home until 1:30 a.m and did not get to bed until 3 a.m.
Walter took a lot of pictures which I will post. We had two people cancel an hour before when their child fell ill. Had 31 guests in total.
Food was terrific but camaraderie even better. Lots of bonding went on. I had everyone stand up and introduce themselves and Barbara and I made comments about each with respect to how each of our guests impacted in a positive way our lives in Italy.
We heard wonderful stores from our friends that we never knew and learned, for example, that our driver Mauro was at one time an accomplished saxophone player. He has attended many of our dinners and drives us to the.majority of our lunches in the countryside. He never said anything, and, for some reason I do not know, brought his saxophone last night. All of a sudden, with no notice, he just stood up and entertained everyone with half a dozen or so songs from the Great American Songbook.
We met our friend JulieAnn Gerace's terrific 22-year-old son. She, now Giuliana, was a distinguished lawyer in Palm Beach. Her son came to Italy for one year to play soccer and said he was never coming back to live in the States. So JulieAnn moved to a really nice place outside of Florence. Her son is now in dental school. Both Giovanni and Riccardo Bindi attended. They are the best dentists I have ever encountered trained all over the world. Barbara and I both swear by them. Anyway, they could not have been nicer to Julien, Julie Ann’s son, and were very helpful.
The head of my law firm’s Milan office, Luigi Macioce, attended for the second year. I doubt there is a better lawyer in Italy. Luigi has become a great friend. He could not be nicer. I hope to be able to work with him in Italy and bring in some clients. There are already 22 lawyers in the Milan office. It is important to have top lawyers anywhere, but there are some places, Italy being one of them, that if you try to cut corners and things get screwed up, it is almost impossible to fix things and it can take a decade to do so. I was told by another guest, a prominent businessman in Florence, that if one gets into a tax dispute with the Italian government, the government prevails 98% of the time.
Gianni and Gabriella and Marco Scaletti have attended every one of our Thanksgiving dinners, which we have been doing for over twenty years. They always help make the evening a success. Both Gabriella and Marco have wonderful singing voices and just stand up and get everybody singing Italian favorites.
Everyone loves Marco from Sabani Leather. Beth and her family spent several hours in the store and saved a seat with them at Marco’s request because he came right from work. I think every guest that has ever stayed with us not only bought many things from Marco when here, but continue to order things from him that she ships back to the States. One cannot beat his service, his prices, or the quality of his leather. Just like Florentine steak, there are many qualities. If the price of the steak is low, it means the quality of the meat is low. Ask Beth and Walter as they experienced first hand what I am talking about.
Stefano and Luca's cake was the best ever. A picture of it was posted. These dinners would not be nearly as successful without Stefano’s help. His relationship with the restaurants he frequents regularly are extraordinary. If you're a friend of Stefano’s and know the routine, which includes cash payment, it makes a huge difference
Even each of the four waiters who served us enjoyed the evening. Each went out of their way to say how much they liked everything, and that now they understand what Thanksgiving is all about.
We started at 8 p.m. and did not leave the restaurant until almost 1 a.m.
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Barbara and I will go shopping today. Tomorrow, we have a concert at four and then we will follow the Michigan game.
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I think the market is open today but only until 1 p.m.
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Today’s Hobson’s choice: McConnell or McCarthy?
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Go Ukraine.
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