Quote Of The Day

"At the time of my visit, the Italians were working their way through their forty-eighth government in forty-five years. The country has the social structure of a banana republic, yet the amazing thing is that it thrives. It is now the fifth-biggest economy in the world, which is a simply staggering achievement in the face of such chronic disorder. If they had the work ethic of the Japanese they would be masters of the planet. Thank goodness they don't. They are too busy expending their considerable energies on the pleasurable minutiae of daily life -- children, good food, arguing in cafes -- which is just how it should be."

This is from pg 125 of Neither Here Nor There: Travels In Europe, by Bill Bryson; copyrighted 1991 to the author, Minerva Paperbacks, London.

Far be it from me to question a world authority on virtually everything, like old Bill, but I would like to suggest an alternate interpretation. Maybe they're doing so well BECAUSE of the chronic disorder. That's just my guess.