Carmine Quotes No.15 : What's it all about?

Hot. With a rainstorm at 5pm that drenched all those in the parco giochi, but seemed to have passed by the gardens of Carmine altogether.

A couple of evenings ago, Mama is in the kitchen and AJ, aged four-and-a-half, is supposedly in bed. Mama is feeling surprised that she still remembers every last word of that immortal Burt Baccarach creation 'Alfie' -- "What's it all about, Alfie...". And, with a glance at YouTube, thinks that Jude Law made a pretty good stab at the closing soliloquy in the 21st-century remake of the movie, but Jude Law doing it in Italian is just weird.

AJ creeps around the kitchen door. Listens quietly, and then creeps further in. Finally :

AJ : Mama, who's Alfie?

Mama : Hello darling, you're supposed to be in bed.

AJ : Yes, I know, but who is Alfie?

Mama : Well, Alfie's a man in a movie who didn't know what love is.

AJ : But we can tell him, can't we Mama.

Mama : Okay - what would you tell him? What is love?

AJ : Love is the most beautiful Mama in the world...


Mama is overcome with icky, fingers-down-the-throat Mama-love and fails to put AJ back to bed for at least another hour, which may perhaps have been the whole point...