Carlotta Zinaida Zampieri

This is Carlotta Zinaida Zampieri last descendent from an ancient Venetian family, as I met her the other day at Ossington Station. Her great-great-great-great grandmother was born in Venice in 1791 and was one of the most famous beauties and courtesans of the city. We had coffee and she told me her story. In 1819, the fabulously wealthy count Ostrovski, offered one million gold ducats for the courtesans exclusivity but she, free spirit (she fucked for fun), stabbed him in the eye with her ivory umbrella killing him instantly. Carlotta (all Zampieri women carried the name "Carlotta") had to flee Venice and went to live in Clichy, just outside of Paris. She married and had one daughter, who married and had one daughter, who married and had one daughter. In 1940, when France was overrun by the Hun, Carlotta and her daughter moved to Philadelphia. The daughter married and had one daughter, who married and had one daughter who moved to Toronto where she teaches Spanish Literature, Modern Dance and Portuguese language (that is the daughter I met).

Emil Gelb

This is Emil Gelb, professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna as, to my great surprise, I saw him recently on the East-bound train between Greenwood and Coxwell.  We had met a few years ago during my stay in Bologna at the Caffé Terzi, not too far from Piazza Santo Stefano. I walked up to him and said "Ciao, didn't know you were in Toronto" he looked up trying to place me eventually he said in his perfect but heavily accented English "Hello friend who's name I deliberately choose not to remember as you seemed of little importance and/or use to me" I was taken aback and could not immediately find a correspondingly acerbic comeback ... not that any/many of Gelb's one-liners ever have had a successful come-back. I decided to play it cool (the alternative would have been to hit him in the head with my foot) so I went back and sat down to where I got up from just a few moments ago looking around to see if anybody observed the exchange (and my complete and utter pulverization). He went back to reading his newspaper and I got off at Victoria Park to take the 24 bus North.