Francesca Maggi's Strange But True!

Chalk it up to this September's heat wave, but things these days appear to be veering seriously out of control...After Berlusconi's telephone musings about affairs of the State ("I'm a part time Prime Minister") and just affairs...("I did 8 women in a row!"), or maybe it's because Sept 29th is both Berlusconi's birthday (75) and the leader of the opposition, Bersani's (60), but people seem to be seriously 'losing the plot' (click here for the Berlusca Birthday Quiz by the BBC - or check out The Silvio Show on this blog)


Just slip out the back, Jack
After Rome's city govt put a ban on all advertising which degraded women, citizens were surprised to find a fashion company advertising young hotties in different grades of undress, boasting their preferred profession saying, "I'm Monika, I'm an escort and I don't come cheaply."  Too bad the ads were plastered on the backs of City buses & subway cars...

Make a new plan, Stan 

Next, the gypsy (Rom) community, living on public property and contributing nothing to their sojourn in Italy, while looting, begging and leaving their trash behind, set off protests against the city of Rome because they have no (free) hot water and the electricity keeps getting shut off.

You don't need to be coy, Roy
And of course, there's professional "dancer" (term used here quite loosely) Elisabeth Canalis who got booted off the U.S. program, Dancing with Stars.  Clearly, Americans can't judge a good thing when they see one...


Just hop off the bus, Gus
A Roman bus driver stopped his bus filled with passengers, double-parked it, and stepped out to grab some cash at a cash machine.  He would have gotten away with it if it weren't for someone's handy cellphone immortalizing him on film.  This follows a few other transgressions - like the bus driver caught on film talking on two cellphones so he was handling the steering wheel with his elbows...and another, being filmed by a passenger on his phone, stopped the bus altogether, told them the bus was broken and made everyone get off and the most audacious, the driver who used his bus as a place to do business - selling cocaine.
I love it when you mention to drivers that cellphone use whilst operating a megabus is illegal, they say 'they need their phones for work'.  Bring back the pagers and all will be forgiven.


And get yourself free
Finally, there's Erika, the young woman who, at 14 killed her mother & little brother in Novi Ligure by stabbing, telling a friend that she misses her mom "to death" and wishes she were with her upon her release...'da morire' being the operative word here.