Like I said, we Italians have this bad habit of being among the best at anything we take seriously

This is a passage I have been translating, about a wholly admirable fellow-citizen I had never even heard of, the cavalry instructor Caprilli, who, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, introduced humane and effective ways to train cavalry horses, at great personal expense. He was the horse whisperer of his time, it seems, but tougher.

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Weird meme - who thinks up those things?

Swunked from several friends:

Type "[your name] needs" into a Google search, then turn the results into a poll. The quotation marks are required. I have no idea how to make a poll, so if anyone wants to tell me, feel free. Meanwhile, this is what Google came up with...

- Fabio needs friends
- As the hex file is the same as that used for the MX9 (in the VB software), it might be that Fabio needs a small change to the way that the hex file is used.
- Fabio needs to be in Århus the monday of Mon, 21
- Fabio needs to click on the link "get the script here."
- Fabio NEEDS to know exactly the details of each customer's business
- "Fabio - needs S400 v1.05 upgrade"
- Fabio needs to step up his performances and show that all the past hype in his abilities is justified.
- Fabio needs a good head coach. I'm not putting her down, just saying what needs to happen for her to improve.
- Fabio needs a haircut. Posted by Yano at March 12, 2005 06:00 PM. Never! That's one of the unique quirks that make Fabio so loveable... although it does ...
- Fabio needs to get his eyes checked.

The most surprising bit arising from this is the discovery of a female professional tennis player supposedly called Fabio, whom I have never heard of, and who, apart from a single mention of beating Maleeva some time in 2001, is proving singularly elusive. I am beginning to wonder whether she is a figment of someone's imagination - after all, though I never heard of it, it would not be hard to set up a whole world of imaginary sports on the internet.