Inarea

If we were to choose an image to represent the lives of famous people and their children, it would be a comet whose tail – the child – eventually decides to detach itself from the parent star, leaving the latter to shine in all its brilliance. But the moment such children decide to go their own way, one can be sure that even the Milky Way will turn out to be a way that has been “paved” for them… That’s how it was for Anna Freud. The last of six children, when she was born her mother refused to nurse her while her father had already chosen a name for the new baby – had it been a boy. Nevertheless, Anna became his favourite child and, above all, the only one who continued in his footsteps, investigating something that Freud had, in a way, neglected: the Ego, squeezed as it was between the Id and the Superego. According to Anna, an investigation into the defence mechanisms of the Ego had to start with the observation of children’s behaviour; she devoted hours and hours to this in the nursery school which she founded in London in 1941 for children whose lives had been disrupted by the war bombings. Anna Freud’s ‘soft’ approach (which had also been inspired by the methods of Italian pedagogue Maria Montessori) often brought her into conflict with her colleague Melanie Klein and the latter’s belief that psychoanalysis was necessary also for three-year-olds. Anna disagreed strongly and felt that it was totally wrong to touch the little ones, even if only with ideas. Anna evidently believed it was important to fill even their first few months of life, in the cosiness of their playpens, with sweetness. Name Day: St Francis Xavier

One of the totally forbidden moves in Greco-Roman wrestling is the “neck hold”. And if our Greek prima donna could speak to us today, she might be able to recount several episodes when she either struck, or was herself struck, below the belt: her presumed collusion with German officers during the occupation of Greece, followed by those unhappy loves of hers, first with impresario Giovanni Battista Meneghini, then with Aristotle Onassis. And, last but not least, with film director Pier Paolo Pasolini who, unbeknownst to her, cut out her voice and had her dubbed in his film “Medea”  where she played the title role. At a certain point in her career also her vocal chords were cut short and never recovered. But what this “dramatic coloratura soprano” managed to accomplish during her heyday (from 1952 to 1957)  is unrivalled to this day. Callas had an incredibly wide-ranging, powerful and dark voice: they’re not our words, nor those of the critics, but of the public who to this day, and in all the languages under the sun, still leave comment on her videos on YouTube. Maria Callas died alone in Paris in 1977; her ashes were scattered in the Aegean Sea. This flower may not be the “sacred ancient plant” she sings about in “Norma” but, if unravelled and turned into a silk necktie, it’ll certainly be more comfortable that the infamous “neck hold”. Name Day: St Bibiana

Here’s a colourful lady who has been the prima donna of velvet-upholstered sitting rooms since 1885: the Tiffany lamp. She was invented by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), a painter, designer and decorator who was the son of Charles Tiffany: yup, none other than the founder of the famous jewellery shop where certain young ladies like to have breakfast. According to The New York Times, in 1913 Louis indulged his passion for ancient Egypt by hosting a costumed party at his Manhattan home: it came to be known as his “Egyptian Fête”. But although he produced lamps, he didn’t like being in the limelight himself; on the contrary, he preferred to remain unnoticed in the shadows, leaving his creations to get all the attention. Indeed, Louis was so shy that he asked his friend Gustav Mahler if he could to attend rehearsals of the New York Philharmonic in concealment so that he wouldn’t have to speak to anybody. Now let’s image him as a 17-year-old boy packed off to Europe to complete his training. In those days, Paris was the city of the Impressionist painters. But also in the French capital Louis liked to shy away from attention and began to think instead about the relationship between colourists and painters: “Colorists are men apart” he once wrote. “But always they are antagonized and decried by artists and critics who lack the gift and see nature in outline rather than in color.” So off Tiffany went to look for his colours in Africa and, later, even further afield from Europe. Thanks to his stained glass lamps, he entered in shining glory the world of Art Nouveau which, thanks to him, also spread to America. At that point Louis may have taken his leave of the Europeans saying something like: “Strangers have the best candy”. Name Day: St Eligius

There was no such thing as the Nobel Prize in 1753 and the Copley Medal was one of the most prestigious awards that a gentleman could aspire to. At the time, the British considered anyone born on the other side of the Atlantic not quite on a par with them; hence bestowing the Medal on an American citizen was quite a breakthrough. The “American” in question was none other than Benjamin Franklin, who may never have been president but is nevertheless the face on $100 notes. At 42 years of age, Franklin had become so wealthy that he could afford to engage solely in what he termed “Philosophical Studies and Amusements”: the pastimes of a gentleman. And so, partly as study and partly as amusement, he flew a silk kite attached to a metal key during a storm. Having ascertained that the flashes of lightning were not being hurled down by the fury of Zeus, he began to think about how to ‘channel’ such energy: this led to the invention of the lightning rod. There isn’t unanimous consensus that Franklin actually carried out this experiment: but we don’t want to burst his bubble. After all, it’s notorious that Benjamin was an inveterate womaniser and so, to stay in the realms of mythology, let’s imagine that he had been struck by Cupid’s arrow – or, as the French say, a “coup de foudre” (literally, “thunderbolt”) – and that he was multitasking at the time, combining… studies and amusements! Name Day: St Andrew the Apostle

Who knows why nostalgia always puts in an appearance, blushing shyly, when strawberries are mentioned: from Bergman to The Beatles, this fruit is something of a gateway to long-lost childhood. For song-writing John Lennon in particular, “Strawberry Fields” was the garden of an orphanage in Liverpool where he used to go and play: a place where “nothing is real” and “living is easy with eyes closed / misunderstanding all you see”. This song came at a delicate moment for The Beatles: personality conflicts were emerging, together with long periods (sometimes weeks and weeks) of creative lethargy from which, instead, no music was emerging. Although Lennon-McCartney never actually intended the song in question to be performed live, in November 1966 the band started recording several different versions of “Strawberry Fields Forever”. They seemed undecided vis-à-vis the number of beats and the key, with the song fluctuating between pop, psychedelic and orchestral versions. Much splicing took place (the digital era was still a long way off!) and in the end Lennon finally found the path that would take him down to Strawberry Fields. In today’s world any link (physical or digital) is like a zip that opens onto infinite possibilities, so it’s comforting to think that someone has chosen just the right note to take us back to memories of the past, leaving out all the fuzzy noise of the present. Name Day: St Saturnin

Oggi parliamo della compagnia aerea con il simbolo dell’arpa che, dal 1922, è anche quello dell’Irlanda. Il motivo per cui questo strumento è così legato all’identità di questa nazione, è da cercare nel fatto che era suonato dal mitico re Brian Boru, vissuto attorno all’Anno Mille. La sua arpa, oggi, si trova al Trinity College (anche se non manca qualche disputa sulla sua autenticità). Querelle conservative a parte, quello che più ci interessa è l’evoluzione del significato di questo strumento. Nel XVII secolo, dire “Tuning the harp / Accordare l’arpa” alludeva al controllo dell’Inghilterra sulla terra verde. Dall’epoca di Enrico VIII, infatti, le arpe sulle monete irlandesi erano sormontate dalla corona di sua maestà: un sottotesto politico che lasciava poco spazio all’immaginazione. Nessuno aveva detto a questi inglesi che, secoli dopo, sarebbe nata la Ryanair, con la sua arpa che suona ad alta quota e a basso costo, offrendo a noi passeggeri una certezza: viaggiamo stipati come in un pacco di pasta e, quando arriviamo, anche se siamo un po’ cotti, grazie al risparmio, ci sentiamo comunque al dente! Onomastico: San Saturnino

The way food has been depicted in images has always mirrored human cravings. Starting, for example, with the late Renaissance paintings of butchers and meats hanging on hooks, as well as of tables laid out for feasts (which were really allusions to memento mori). Nowadays, there’s always a rich panoply of dishes on our mobile ‘phones. Composition, light, saturation: everything seems cooked to perfection. Yet, food on social media looks about as fresh as the victuals on display at the waxworks. We’d like to invite you instead to visit the tableaux vivants which you’ll see in shops and supermarkets around Italy today where a lot of sorting out, organising and donating will be going on. Finally, it won’t just be a question of merely looking at the ‘artwork’ but of actually stepping inside it. It’s the National Food Collection Day which, for the past twenty-five years, has been teaching us that solidarity can be just around the corner. And in order to convey to you the full meaning of this special day, we’ve put the freshest ingredients we could get our hands on into our ricotta basket. Name Day: St Virgil

What colour is chemistry? Anyone who’s seen “Breaking Bad” will reply that it’s blue, rock crystal blue rock. Anyone who’s thinking about the plastic that surrounds us everywhere will say that there’s too much of it and that it’s too colourful. Anyone who’s thinking about burning oil wells will have only black in mind. But what colour will chemistry be in the future? To answer that question, we’ll have to consider the analogies between the Nobel Prize awarded in 1963 and the one assigned a few weeks ago. The key word for both of them is “catalyst”, an agent that intervenes in a process and speeds up its outcome, then quietly recedes. The 1963 Nobel Prize was a relay race between Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta: the former recreated natural rubber in a test tube, the latter the substances that accelerate this process. Since then, plastic has gone wild and now rules every aspect of our lives. The 2021 Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to Benjamin List and David MacMillan. And here too it’s a question of speed, because the two engineers have discovered a third kind of “organic catalyst”, one that – so the Royal Swedish Academy of Scientists informs – will make chemistry greener. Perhaps we’ve stumbled on chemistry’s future colour. The two prize-winners are only 53 years old and have perhaps achieved their success so early on in life thanks to catalysts and calculators that their colleagues of the past wouldn’t have even remotely been able to imagine. Measuring instruments change, but we’re certain that a bright light on a night desk will continue (in the shadows!) to be the unnoticed catalyst for discoveries of all kinds, for a long time to come. Name Day St Siricius, Pope

At the start of each academic year at Athena College, Professor Coleman Silk would explain to his students that “All of European literature springs from a fight.” A quarrel over a woman. Then he would pick up his copy of ‘The Iliad’ and read to the class the opening lines: “Divine Muse, sing of the ruinous wrath of Achilles…” We’re quoting from the beginning of Philip Roth’s novel “The Human Stain” because it seems to us to be quite jarring to talk about the violation of a human right (as violence against women is defined by the UN), and to note that it is ratified in the so-called cradle of civilisation. In an entirely different context and miles and miles away, Eugenio Montale used to wonder whether a withered leaf was more genuine than a fresh shoot. We’ll leave that doubt to the poet; for our part, we’re certain of one thing: violence against women leaves an indelible stain and withers the very meaning of life. We hope that a future Homer (male or female) will one day be able to sing to the Muse that this unsightly human stain has been removed, eradicated once and for all. Name Day: St Catherine of Alexandria

Do you remember Elliott, the little boy in “ET”? Towards the end of the story, he and the eponymous extraterrestrial are being chased by the police and take flight… on board a bicycle… That moment became the film poster’s iconic image. The pram depicted above ideally belongs to a baby who was born two years before Spielberg’s masterpiece and who, rather than learn to walk, began embarking on continuous “Pindaric flights”. Certainly ,after forty-one years of such ‘take-offs’, its hair has gone a bit salt-and-pepper, in the same way as these leaves are no longer bright green. But they who fly on the wings of imagination remain children at heart, regardless of their age: time has gone by, but the content hasn’t changed. It’s been a time filled with dreams, because each individual life has its own signature design, and designing is what we do for a living. We consider it a privilege, one that we wish to continue nurturing, so we’re celebrating our birthday by drawing a beautiful rainbow in the sky, as in the final frames of “ET”: it expresses how grateful we are for your affection, and implicitly (and “terrestrially”) is wishing you all a lovely day… Many happy returns, Inarea! Name Day: St Chrysogonus