My Little Christmas Gift
So even as a stone-cold atheist I was, nevertheless, graced with one nice Xams present this season (other than the irreplaceable company of my immediate family).
Just before St. Nick was about to make his rounds I got, instead, a visit from the USPS. In a brown package were some sample copies of my latest book in its brand new Italian Edition.
For more than a year my good friends at the publishing arm at Rome’s Internazionale weekly magazine had been going over the translation and production details with me.
Now, the book is finally out. A great belated Christmas gift for all those friends of yours in Parma, Bologna, Milano, Torino and Puglia who would secretly rather be in Bally’s or the Bellagio. Chin-Chin.
December 26th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I thought the Italians built most of Las Vegas. Don’t rely on Babel Fish for translations.
It says
December 26th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Oops, I didn’t realize that I hit “submit comment.” Let’s try again.
If you rely on Babel Fish to translate this, here is what it says:
The last honest place in America
Welcomes in the new Las Vegas
Then, at the bottom it reads:
Jet Lag
That last one threw me.
December 26th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Lastly, and sorry for three consecutive posts, here is a link to the site that will also translate the web page that Marc references. http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Here you will learn:
Marc Cooper, great reporter and great player, we have lived six months. It is passed from the great casinos to the angles more oxen of the city meeting a irresistibile gallery of conflicting personages and illuminant: from the ipersindacalizzata dancer of lap dance transessuale to the old one croupier that it hates to play to papers, from…
…and, this review:
“One of the deeper and intelligent books never written on Las Vegas”. -Matt O’ Brien, Las Vegas CityLife
Okay, I hope that clarifies everything. I suspect that the book was translated better.
December 26th, 2005 at 2:49 pm
Oh yeah, congratulations, Marc!
(Nuts. That’s four in a row and uses up my allotment.)
Why did you change the picture on the cover? Do Italian images translate differently, too? I think the new one is better, but that’s not my speciality. Okay, that’s it, even if I do remember something else.
December 26th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
Very cool!
December 26th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Woody,
I believe one of the biggest proponents of the development of Las Vegas was Bugsy Siegel.
December 26th, 2005 at 3:55 pm
Congratulazioni, Marco. Lo saluto!
December 26th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Los saluto dos! Cool to have books and cooler to have them translated.
December 26th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
Unless I am mistaken, I think that Bugsy Siegel was from a Jewish family of Austrian origin. His partner in the Flamingo venture, Meyer Lansky was also Jewish, with Polish roots.
December 26th, 2005 at 5:36 pm
Congratulations Marc! I “bet” you are happy every time you get published–the chances of getting published are even more minuscule that winning at roulette.
Don’t mind Woody he is just jealous–we can hire both Woody and John as “coolers.”
December 26th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
Buon giorno, senor Marco. Well, maybe it’s more like buona sera, but no matter. I wonder how Italians will respond to the real Las Vegas and to the book, considering that they can already drink pretty much wherever and whenever they want, and they already have their own version of the Venetian. (I believe it’s called Venice, by the Americans.) Then again, I don’t think they have anything like the real Las Vegas, either in climate, intensity, or candlepower. I think the lesson to the Italian has to do with a place and people who start off almost entirely without history or cultural tradition (how un-Italian!), and get to make it up as they go along. The book told that side of the story very well. Anyway, if you’re passing through Sacile on a book signing tour next October, we’ll have a prosecco.
December 26th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
Ave, Marcus, ausus te salutamus!
December 26th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
Thanks to all. (Bowing)… GM, ur getting close to the sort of salute I appreciate… Like the kind Caeasr kept getting as he walked thru the set of the recent HBO series “Rome.”
Woody, those are quite literal translations that are of course way way off..but very funny for sure.
Actually Bugsy Siegel did NOT invent the Vegas vision… it was actually an L.A. mick by the name of Wilkerson…Bugsy muscled him out of his own Flamingo. ‘Course, then, Bugsy got popped by his fellow Yids who were pissed by his overspending (wouldnt you kknow it?). It was, indeed, the Italians who really built Vegas — financed of course by all those Michigan and Illinois slavic and Irish (and Italian) truckers who dutifully contributed to the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund!
December 26th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
P.S. Woody.. the “jet lag” translation IS correct. Fusi Orari is the name of the publisher imprint… either means times flies when reading such great books… or they are so damn boring it feels like you’ve just flown in from Katmandoo-doo.
December 26th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
I enjoyed the book (in English), and thanks for signing the copy I sent to you a few months back!
December 26th, 2005 at 9:38 pm
Congrats…I don’t know Italian, but it appears they lost the “paradise and perdition” part. Couldn’t they have done a play off of Dante…looks like the Italian secondary title is more prosaic than the English, which seems wrong.
December 26th, 2005 at 9:41 pm
Thanks Kevin.. and Reg ur right.
December 27th, 2005 at 5:35 am
Marc, that was what I intended: Hail Marc, we who are about to gamble salute you!
December 27th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Didn’t the Italians kill Jesus?
December 27th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
Troppi fessacchiotti in questo blog, la cui ignoranza della lingua e dei costumi (non disturbiamo la cultura) italiani provocano interminabili conati di vomito.
E non fa migliore figura il titolare di questo blog, il quale asserisce che “jet lag” è la traduzione corretta di “fusi orari,” che significa “time zones.” “Jet lag” è intraducibile e si usa nella lingua originale in Italia. Vedi:
http://www.demauroparavia.it/61213
jet lag
loc.s.m.inv.
ES ingl. stato di malessere psicofisico dopo un lungo spostamento in aereo, dovuto alla differenza di fuso orario fra il luogo di partenza e quello di arrivo.
December 28th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Always wanting to be helpful, I have provided another completely accurate Bable Fish translation of the previous comment.
Too many fessacchiotti in this blog, the whose ignorance of the language and the customs (we do not disturb the culture) Italian provoke interminable impulses of vomito. And not ago better figure the holder than this blog, which it allegates that “jet lag” it is the jet lag correct translation of “,” that it means “Time zones.” “Jet lag” is intraducibile and it is used in the language originates them in Italy. You see:
http://www.demauroparavia.it/61213
jet lag loc.s.m.inv. ES ingl. be of psicofisico malaise after along movement in airplane, which had to the difference of jet lag between the place of departure and that one of arrival.
If I understand him correctly and if turnabout is fair play, I wonder if he would understand the Southern expression of “you can kiss my grits”?
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