Word: marcovaldi
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Soon two angry factions faced each other in the square. The coffee-house owners hastily cleared the tables. This gave watching Mayor Cavaliere Giovanni Marcovaldi, who is stone deaf, an inkling of what was going on. His paunch protruding majestically, he carried himself to the middle of the square like a ship in full sail and shouted: "Children, children, don't let's be children. You are citizens. If you have a disagreement, appoint a committee. Don't make Fiumicino the laughing stock of the countryside...
...Helper of Virgins." In the whitewashed committee room, whose unpainted, rickety shutters open on to the rusty municipal balcony, Marcovaldi declared: "I suggest that the differences be met halfway. Let 3,000 lire be given to church funds and 3,000 to municipal charity...
...Marcovaldi had of course not heard a word, but could see that there was trouble. He proposed the formation of the "Clock Dispute Settling Committee." Its decision was that the priest would get the bills, approved by the Clock Committee, then would pay the amount of the bill over to the Clock Dispute Settling Committee, which would hand it over to the Citizens' Committee, which would hand it over to Rocchi...
Then Gallo delivered a memorable line: "Speaking as perhaps the only honest man here. . . ." The rest of his speech was drowned in angry shouts. Only deaf Marcovaldi was unmoved by the uproar. The Great Compromiser proposed that a Comitato per la Posizione dell' Orologio-Committee for Determining the Clock's Position-be formed...