The well-known inscription in the Vatican Torre dei Venti of the late 1570's, inspired by the anemographia of the Dominican astronomer Ignazio Danti, is a testimony, amongst several, of the not so good reputation of the peoples of the North Wind in the Eternal city, not rarely in the past a victim of their furor nordicus and of their heresies threatening to rock the boat of orthodoxy, quella Santissima navicella.

I like to think that I used my superior skill to come out on top; I don't like the idea that I had to angle-shoot to take home more money than I came with.

What, virtually all women you know are attracted to fat wallets? Virtually all of your single-mom friends are trying to snare daddies, squirt out more babies and get more vaginamoney?

I'm not 100 percent on that question.