Now that our grandson’s first birthday has come and gone, it’s time to highlight an interesting coincidence – the season of your birth! You see, three out of your four grandparents, along with your mother and yourself, all made your debuts during the most celebrated time of the year: football season! 🏈
Of course, we’re well aware that your mother and aunt (both former college soccer players) might argue that it’s actually “football” in the global sense, also known as soccer, but that’s a lively debate we can always have some fun with!
As much as I’ve tried to remain impartial in the football vs. soccer debate, I must admit, it’s been quite the challenge. I even went as far as to pick up a Napoli Calcio jersey for you during our visit to Napoli. In the spirit of fairness, though, I also made sure to grab you a Browns onesie right from the start of your journey.
So, my dear grandson, whether you find yourself drawn to the gridiron or the pitch, just know that you come from a family that appreciates the beauty of both sports! 🏆👶🏈⚽
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Nebalatan Word of the Day – Son of Mu Gonya (sonamongona)
My mother (Grandma Joanne) had a penchant for using this phase frequently. It was one of her go-to expressions of exasperation. Interestingly, it even found its way into a song by Lou Monte called ‘Skinny Lena.’
‘Son of Mu Gonya,’ or ‘Sonamongona‘ – pronounced as ‘sun-a-mu-go-n-ya.’ This delightful Sicilian term is a real gem, meaning ‘sleepwalker’ or ‘someone who’s exceptionally lazy and utterly useless.’
I had to embark on a quest to uncover its true meaning, but I finally stumbled upon it on the Sicilian-English translator at Glosbe Translate website. Oddly enough, you won’t find this word in your run-of-the-mill Italian translator. It appears to be a dialect reserved for the southern regions of Italy.
- Now, here’s a scenario involving Grandma Joanne:
- Me – “Ma, I decided to give the Comet a little push down the driveway with the door wide open. Unfortunately, it got tangled in the bush and, well, the door isn’t looking too hot now.”
- Ma – “You Sonamongona!”
What brought ‘Sonamongona‘ to my mind was tour we took in Bari, Puglia. There, we were introduced to a fascinating contraption known as a ‘gogna,’ pronounced as ‘go-n-ya.’ Believe it or not, I had never heard of a ‘gogna’ before!
On a lighter side, Lou Monte’s Skinny Lena uses the term sonamongona in the “2nd Page”. Lou (the singer) is being called a sonamongona (sleepwalker) by the father of Skinny Lena during their courtship.
The Long Snapper
The position of the long snapper in football is like being in gogna. Think about it, your head is between your legs, you snap the ball, and before your head can rise back up, you’re getting whacked by the opposition. It’s not supposed to be on the head, but refs can’t see shit, and most could care less about the long snapper! That sounds like the picture of the guy in a gogna above.
And, on special teams plays, everyone watches the kicker. What? Is the long snapper just a sonamongona (sleepwalking)?
On special teams plays, I focus on the poor schmuck long snapper. Both our son and I were long snappers. Whereas I was a backup long snapper in high school and college (I believe that I only snapped once in a college game when we were beating John Carroll by 30!), our son long snapped in HS and college as a 4-year special teams starter.
Long snappers are less “poor” now that you can’t hit the snapper directly after the snap (the Pucchiac’ – a Nebalatan Word of the for the future…maybe never since it’s not pretty!). In my day, we got hammered as soon as we snapped which was right after we’d walked 20 miles to school in the deep snow.
The sports media always says that there are only 32 QB jobs in the NFL. That’s not true. There are actually 96 when you include backups and 128 when you include the practice squad. BUT, there are only 32 long snappers. If you read the following SI article (NFL Long Snappers: The Position’s Evolution, politics, and Economics – Sports Illustrated) you’ll see what happens when one of those 32 gets hurt in a game…it’s not pretty!
What’s even less pretty is BEING THE PARENT OF THE LONG SNAPPER! In our son’s first college game, he played on the same field where I played in college at Alleghany. His snaps were flawless in the rain! The parents that were around us were happy that a freshman could snap so well and would be around for a while EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN’T KNOW HIS NAME!
That happy, happy, touchy, touchy, warmly, warmly feeling lasted exactly one week when our son sailed a snap over the punter’s head for a safety. THEY ALL SEEMED TO KNOW HIS NAME THEN!
Under my breathe, you might’ve been able to hear, “That Son of Mu Gonya!”
If you’re really interested in long snappers, here’s some more reading:
Pizza Review – Farinella, Fiumicino Airport, Roma, Lazio, Italia
On our last day in Italy, we flew from Palermo to Rome as we inched our way back home via 4 flights! It was the first time that we’d been in Fiumicino (FCO, Rome’s main airport) in 8 years. There’s been quite of bit of remodeling since then. It’s nice.
But at mid-day, it was also packed! During our layover, we decided to get a bite. Since we had 4 hours, we decided to make this a long bite and sit for awhile. Of course, I wanted pizza and a glass of Falanghina from Feude di San Gregorio
| Date | September 25, 2023 |
| Website | FARINELLA, Fiumicino – Via dell ‘Aeroporto di Fiumicino 320 – Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews – TripAdvisor Corporate site – FARINELLA RESTAURANT – Una Moderna trattoria tradizionale |
| Style | Neapolitan |
| Location | Roma, Lazio, Italia, Fiumicino Airport |
| Ambiance | As airport restaurants go – menza, menz! (see definition here). There’s a restaurant side with waiters/waitresses and a walk-up bakery side. We chose the restaurant side. The airport’s high ceilings and tile caused Farinella to be annoyingly noisy. All the conversations and suitcase wheel clatter on the tile floors echoed off the tile and lingered at the high ceiling! This made it difficult to relax and hold a conversation. If you look at the corporate website above, you see that Farinella is a chain that’s mainly in malls and shopping centers which further explains the design. |
| Dough | Great Neapolitan style, thin, light, with airy/puffy cornicione. Nice char and YEASTY. The yeasty taste was not expected from a “mall” pizzeria – BOY EVERYONE FROM SBARRA SHOULD GO VISIT HERE! |
| Sauce | Tangy and spicy. Part of the spice is from the salame, but it was really good! |
| Cheese | There was ample moozedell, unfortunately the moozedell seemed to pool in the middle the pizza and away from the cornicione as the cornicione puffed in the oven. Overall good and tasty |
| Sauce to Cheese Ratio | Sauce – a little to medium amount Cheese – Medium to a lot Balance – pretty good |
| Value | Not a very good value for Italy (would be a steal in the USA!). E13 for a Diavola (E11 for a Margharita) for a 12″ (although the 12″ plate was not filled as most of the rest of Italy) |
| Overall | Good, not great, but much more than I’d ever expected in an airport or mall |
| Would I Go Back? | Sure, if I’m ever in FCO again! |
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