Tuesday, August 20, 2019



THE LOVERS OF POMPEII

What are the lovers of Pompeii doing here? the reader must be thinking. This is a book about things. 

And why the waste of i’s, when just one would be enough? And why is Chicken Vesuvio called that way, if it was created in Chicago where there are plenty of Italians, but no volcanoes?

One question at a time, please.

When Mount Vesuvius decided to throw the mother of all tantrums, the people of Pompeii were caught by surprise. Some were walking their dogs, some were on the toilet. And some were making amore. Those people were covered with molten rock and layers of volcanic ash before they could even move. The whole city remained buried for almost 2000 years, enough time to petrify even the softest of human beings.

So those people became things, and that’s why they belong in these pages. Do they miss the old times? You bet. Frozen at whatever they were doing when disaster struck, they sit in their museum platforms like living statues on Times Square, wondering if things can become people, too.

The other questions? There are no known answers to them.