Word: italiane
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Ponzi Schemes--in which a swindler touts outsize returns, parries questions about legitimacy with hefty dividends and creates the illusion of solvency by paying off early investors with capital raised from later entrants--are named after Boston businessman Charles Ponzi. From 1919 to 1920, the Italian immigrant coaxed thousands of people into sinking millions of dollars into a complex deal involving international postage rates, which he said would earn a 50% profit in 90 days...
...Born in Monterey, Calif. to Catholic, Italian immigrant parents who owned a restaurant and later a farm - Panetta worked for both businesses growing up. He received his bachelor's degree and law degree from Santa Clara University...
...Alexy was a stern critic of what he saw as increasingly lax morals in contemporary culture, calling on Europe to defend its Christian roots from the onslaught of secularism. Observers of both churches have noted that Benedict's first trip outside of Rome as Pope was to the southeastern Italian city of Bari, which is considered sacred by the Orthodox Church because it holds the relics of the revered Saint Nicolas. Benedict had been hoping to meet his Russian counterpart before Alexy's death, in what would have been an unprecedented act of public reconciliation between the churches. (See pictures...
Kept in the basement of the Asiatic Society library, a colonnaded marble building in Mumbai's colonial heart, is perhaps the Indian financial capital's least heralded relic: one of the two oldest surviving manuscripts of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Its some 450 richly illustrated pages, dating from the 1350s, are bound and wrapped in red silk. Though the book rarely goes on display, Society staff insist the medieval text is in excellent condition. It came to Mumbai in the possession of a 19th century British antiquarian grandee, the imperially named Mountstuart Elphinstone, and has stayed...
...Italian Bernardino Branca developed a cure-all he called Fernet - an 80-proof concoction containing myrrh (what's with all the myrrh?), rhubarb, chamomile, aloe, cardamom, peppermint oil and a number of other ingredients including a lot of grape-infused spirits and some opiates. Branca used the drink to treat a number of ailments, including hangovers and cholera. Fernet is still available (now opiate-free), although it's usually served as an after dinner drink...