Date Shake: Shields v. Hadley

On a recent trip to Palm Springs, we got to compare at least two different date shakes. Dates, as in the sweet fruit from the date palm Phoenix dactylifera. The Coachella Valley, south of Palm Springs, is the primary date-growing region in the United States and you can’t help but notice places like Hadley (Cabazon), Shields Date Garden (Indio), Oasis Date Gardens (Thermal), or Brown Date Garden (Thermal) which are the places we stopped at (the first two) or knew of. Of the two we tried, we thought the Shields’ date shake was richer and a little bit better than the Hadley shake. Also, the Shields retail area had more a selection of different types of dates. We were partial to the Blonde (exclusive to Shields) and Honey cultivars. Most folks will be familiar with the Medjool cultivar that commonly appears in grocery stores.

Dates were introduced to California in the 1800s but not much happened production-wise until the 20th century when the industry started to take off. Dates originated (they think) somewhere in the desert oases of northern Africa and/or Western Asia. What struck us as we learned about the date palm is that they are found in oases (where there is water) because these palms require a lot of water. Associating date palms with desert can lead you to falsely believe that they are okay with little water. Besides requiring a lot of water, at least to get good fruit production, date palms are a labor intensive crop to produce. The other benefit of going to Shields is that you can learn all of this and more when you go into their old-time movie theater just off the main showroom and watch the very interesting short film The Romance and Sex Life of the Date starring Floyd Shields. You can bring your date shake to the movie.


A Date Shake at Hadley

Hadley Fruit Stand - Cabazon

Samples At Shield Date Garden

Cabazon Dinosaurs

 

We were looking forward to seeing the Cabazon dinosaurs, but, anticipation turned to dread after we found out that they are now owned by some Young Earth Creationists (YEC-kys). We were torn. These dinosaurs make a brief appearance in some of the media collateral of our youth: a Tears for Fears video, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, (had to work that in and boy is that video dated) and in the movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and we sort of wanted to see them, but, on the other hand supporting YEC was a hard pill to swallow. 

In the end, curiosity won out and we went with pills in throat. Besides, on the drive from Ontario Airport to Palm Springs you need a break from the barrage of billboards advertising oh-I-remember-them bands coming soon to a casino that you’ve never heard of. The dinosaurs are located here in Cabazon, California. There are two exits for Cabazon, the exit closer to Palm springs (east exit) is where they are located. 

The dinosaurs include a 45 foot high concrete Apatosaurus with a gift shop in its belly (you walk up inside its tail to get there), a T. rex, a bit smaller that was not open, and a robotic dinosaur exhibition or maybe that was the museum – I don’t know because we didn’t go much further because we’d had enough after the Apatosaurus and T. rex and the rest requires some money to enter. 

The dinosaurs were the idea of Claude Bell, a cast-iron sculptor for Knott’s Berry Farm. He built the Apatosaurus and the T. rex from 1964 until his death in 1988. He created the dinosaurs to help attract customers to his Wheel Inn Café located nearby. (Claude most likely supported evolution as does the scientific consensus today.) In the mid 1990s the dinosaurs were acquired by owners whose beliefs are essentially identical to Answers in Genesis (AIG), a YEC group. 

Once you get past the seemingly respectable credentials of the owners (Dr., Neurosurgeon, etc.) and the impressive pseudo-scientific references, listed with some authority I might add, the actual positions are just pure silliness. I find it easier to swallow a toy dinosaur than some of these “freaky facts”:

• Freaky fact 1: The dinosaurs arrived 6,000 years ago with Adam and Eve.
• Freaky fact 2: The dinosaurs were vegetarians in the Garden of Eden until someone (not naming names here) ate an apple, and then they became meat eaters.
• Freaky fact 3: The dinosaurs waited it out on Noah’s Ark like the rest of the animals and in case you were wondering how they actually all fit on the ark (you would think of that wouldn’t you!) the AIG folks have doozy of an explanation for that. It goes something like this: scientists have been confusing us all along giving dinosaurs all sorts of different names when in actuality there are just a few dozen dinosaurs species that could very comfortably get on the ark.
• Freaky fact 4: After the great flood, dinosaurs were probably called dragons because the word dinosaur wasn’t yet invented and then, they just sort of died out. Though some particular hardcore YECs might be looking for them in some remote jungle.

I spent some time reading the AIG site’s information and was put off by how they (un?)intentionally twist and turn facts into strange shapes that they then project for their young earth puppet show. There are many sites that easily debunk AIG, but who better to debunk then, well, some OLD Earth Creationists (Answers in Creation). Too bad they didn’t purchase the dinosaurs.

   

Welcome to Bombay Beach

It’s easy to pick on Bombay Beach, California. It’s had its share of ups and downs on the east side of the Salton Sea. First and foremost, what’s the Salton Sea? The Salton Sea is a very salty lake that was created when the Colorado River overflowed in 1905 into the Salton Sink and continued for approximately two years. It’s almost twice the surface area of Lake Tahoe by comparison and is entirely below sea level. It was hoped that the Salton Sea could somehow become a major tourist attraction, a sort of next-Palm Springs. That never happened due to a range of problems like increasing salinity of the sea, pollution and nutrients pouring into it with no outflows, and the vagaries of weather. For more on Salton Sea facts and myths see this article. For more on the history of the Salton Sea's wet/dry cycles over thousands of years see this timeline.

Now, about Bombay Beach. First, it’s on the edge of the Salton Sea (remember, no outflows, pollution, and increasing salinity?) and was flooded in 1976 and 1977 by Hurricane Kathleen and Doreen, respectively. Next you have smell and fish kills - tilapia that die because of an algae bloom in the water (due to nutrient rich waters) and wash up on shore en masse. (It's kind of a catch 22, nutrient rich waters nourish an underwater forest that the tilapia dine on. Migratory birds, for which the Salton Sea is an important feeding ground, in turn dine on the fish.) Finally, add to this list of challenging conditions, brutally hot summers. It’s a bit of a hard sell but anything can happen in the next thousand years. To learn more about the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach check out Plagues and Pleasures, a documentary about the Salton Sea and surrounding locations.

For years now, the ruins of Bombay Beach seem to have become the main tourist attraction. And, that’s what attracted Travelmarx there besides the fact that ½ of Travelmarx grew up just down the road and there was family to visit :-). We stayed a few days in the Palm Springs area and then left the manicured lawns and neatly trimmed palm trees and headed south for the wilds of the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach. We met a guy who has been visiting Bombay Beach for decades and he said it’s actually been cleaned up quite a bit. Things are looking up.

Giulia non esce la sera

We caught a showing of the Italian film Giulia non esce la sera (2009) at Kane Hall Wednesday night. The movie was sponsored by the Division of French and Italian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. The title translates to “Giulia doesn’t go out at night.” Trailers here. You’ll have to watch the movie to see why Giulia doesn’t go out at night. 

The director Giuseppe Piccioni was on hand to present his film and answer questions. A humble and funny guy that we got to (for some luck on our part) have dinner with the next night at Ray’s Boat House. It sure woke up our rusty Italian synapses. Piccioni was gracious even with our bumbling Italian. He is one of the partners of the Libreria del Cinema in Rome. I hope we get a chance to stop by the next time in Rome. 

We both enjoyed the movie and recommend it. We were recommended to check out more of Piccioni's movies, in particular, Luce dei miei occhi (2001). One aspect of Giulia that caught our attention was the music by Baustelle.

Pike Place Market - Ciao Creminelli

Oh sad salami day. Creminelli in Pike Place Market is closing it’s little booth at the end of April. Yes, Whole Foods will carry Creminelli (and possibly DeLaurenti), but you are at the whim of buyers as to what they carry. We’ve heard that Whole Foods won’t carry wild boar for sure. Since first discovering the booth in 2008, we’ve enjoyed our periodic trips down to the market to get salami. No tears here if a T-Bell or Golden Arches disappeared, but our favorite salami place? In all fairness it sounds like it is a corporate decision to discontinue the presence at Pike Place Market and we'll assume they have a good reason, albeit one that doesn't take our pleasure into consideration.

Oh, Possums! Dries Van Noten

I seldom understand high-concept, fashion displays in windows of stores. I don’t find them playful or artistic or informative or really all that interesting. I tend to just walk on by. However, the other day while passing Barneys @ the Pacific Place Center I had to do a double take at the window display shown above by the Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten. It has mannequins doing what looks like housework. It was the yellow Playtex gloves that got me. Later that evening we were watching Dame Edna clips and I was wishing I were witty enough to figure out what she would say about this window display. Maybe something like this: “Oh, Possums! Call me old fashioned, but the last time I was in a window display, I was working it, not cleaning it.”

Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act

On a recommendation we headed over to Seattle Art Museum and caught the Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act exhibition. We were glad we did, because Alexander Calder (1898–1976) was truly an original American artist. The exhibition will please you even if sculpture is not something you know a lot about or appreciate. You can’t help but marvel at the mobiles he created.

Did you know that the word “mobiles” was coined in the 1930s to refer to Calder’s work? Calder invented mobiles; the term was coined by Marcel Duchamp. (Oh to be young and creative and living in Paris in the 1930s.) The Calders on exhibit in this SAM show are from the private collection of Jon and Mary Shirley. Besides mobiles (and there are small and some very large ones), there are stabiles (stable mobiles), lots of photos of Calder by Herbert Matter (1907 – 1984), some works on paper by Calder, some jewelry, and a 15 minute or so movie featuring bits of Calder performing one of his famous Cirque Calder performances from the 1960s. Here are some clips: clip1, clip2 (the best to start with), clip3, and clip4 from the movie which seems to be part of this French DVD release called La Magie Calder. To note from some of the circus clips: his wife playing the records providing the music for the circus (and her expression), her necklace made by Calder, the elephant and lion defecating (peanuts and beans, respectively), and the simultaneous silliness and sublimeness of the circus.

We’ll confess that though we’ve seen the monumental Eagle (1971) in the Olympic Sculpture Park we did not remember that Calder was the artist. Now it makes much more sense. We also spent some time in 2004 at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona ogling Calder’s mercury fountain installed there, but again, did not know much about Calder or remember him as the artist.

Other Info: The Calder Foundation web site has more information and photos of Calder. The show at SAM runs from October 15, 2009 – April 11, 2010.

Path to Italian Dual Citizenship

These are photos of our great grandfathers through whom we obtained Italian citizenship with jure sanguinis. Both were fathers of the fathers of our mothers. They immigrated to the USA from Italy in the early 20th century.

Summary ~ Overview ~ Jure Sanguinis ~ Naturalization ~

Be prepared ~ Resources ~ Update 2011 ~ Update 2021 ~ Update 2022 ~ Update 2025

Summary

Years 2010 - 2011

We both applied for Italian citizenship through jure sanguinis. We're close, but not quite there. Last month, we sent in a few missing pieces of information. At this time, our applications are being processed. That’s all we know.  

Years 2021 and beyond

See the updates for how our story played out and recent changes, especially and unfortunately the 2025 new laws severely restricting paths to citizenship.

You can consider this post as an example of how it use to be before 2025.

Overview

Our initial appointments to review our applications and associated paperwork for Italian citizenship took place two months ago. We had each requested our consulate appointments via email. Submitted within minutes of another, the earliest dates they had available were over a year and a half later and exactly a week apart. Does the consulate process only one application per week? Not all consulates have the same lead time or appointment scheduling. Here’s a list of Italian consulates in the U.S. You must work with the one that serves the area you live in. We opted for “mail-in review” since we don’t live near the consulate office in San Francisco which serves the Northwest.

The idea of dual Italian citizenship came to us in 2007 as we were planning our sabbatical to Italy. Part of the sabbatical then became a quest to gather the necessary paperwork – and there is no shortage of that. For our 2007 trip we decided that Visas were the best strategy and so we got them for that trip.

If your family members live in the same consular jurisdiction as you, and are interested in citizenship, then seriously consider combining efforts and doing the citizenship interview together. For example, if your sister or brother wants to apply for citizenship, the only difference between your paperwork and theirs may be an additional birth certificate. Again, check with the consulate that serves your area.

Jure Sanguinis

We engaged the Italian Consulate in San Francisco under whose jurisdiction Seattle comes. If you look at the forms section of the site, you’ll see a form called Application for Italian citizenship “Jure Sanguinis” (link as of today). What’s jure sanguinis? I’ll quote from a story of someone who did gain dual-citizenship:

Jure sanguinis - the Latin phrase meaning “continuity of blood” or “by the right of blood” - is the right of citizenship under Italian Nationality Law by virtue of one’s ancestry. As with many aspects of Italian and Italian-American life and culture, the rules surrounding Italian citizenship jure sanguinis are complex and, in some cases, counterintuitive. [source: article by Michael Votto]

Now back to the Jure Sanguinis form. To find it, go to the San Francisco Consulate web site; go to the part of the web site dealing with citizenship. There is a form called Jure Sanguinis. There are a number of ways to claim Jure Sanguinis. To illustrate by way of example, we’ll focus on what was relevant for us. For Travelmarx (both of us) option #5 applies which is:

Your paternal or maternal grandfather was born in the United States, your paternal or maternal great grandfather was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your paternal or maternal grandfather’s birth, neither you nor your father/mother nor your grandfather/grandmother ever renounced your right to Italian citizenship.

In each of our cases, our Italian bloodlines are most easily proven via our paternal great grandfathers (pictured above). So one reads down to the section applying to option 5 and finds this list of required documents:

1. Your paternal/maternal GREAT GRANDFATHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
2. Your paternal/maternal GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
3. Your paternal/maternal GREAT GRANDPARENTS’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
4. Your paternal/maternal GREAT GRANDFATHER’S CERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION
5. Your paternal/maternal GRANDFATHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
6. Your paternal/maternal GRANDMOTHER’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
7. Your paternal/maternal GRANDPARENTS’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
8. Your father’s BIRTH CERTIFICATE
9. Your mother’s BIRTH CERTIFICATE
10. Your parents’ MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
11. Your BIRTH CERTIFICATE
12. Your APPLICATION AND YOUR DECLARATION THAT YOU AND YOUR ASCENDANTS NEVER RENOUNCED ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP BEFORE ANY ITALIAN AUTHORITY (Attachments: 2A - 2B)
13. DEATH CERTIFICATE/S RELATING TO THE ITALIAN BORN ASCENDANTS ONLY.
14. ORIGINAL AND COPY OF YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE

Documents 1 -3 were obtained directly from Italian sources. We actually got these documents in person (for example in Palermo and Piemonte). (It goes without saying, but you should get multiple copies of these documents.) Documents 4 – 13 are all U.S. documents. Some documents such as your birth certificate will need to have an apostille attached. An apostille is a legalization provided by the Office of the Secretary of State of the state in which the document is issued. The path to getting an apostille for any given document will depend on the state in which the document was issued. For example, to get a New York birth certificate apostilled you first have to get a letter of exemplification before the apostille. (See this informative post.) The place you apply to get your records will be different than the place you have them apostilled so there’s lots of researching of government agencies on the Internet, calling, mailing and otherwise running around. It’s part of the experience.

Naturalization

Document #4 in the required documents list, the certificate of naturalization, proved to be a bit tricky. In our original applications, we sent copies of our great-grandfather's naturalization certificates. (One of our great grandfather’s certificate copy came from family records the other came from Homeland Security records, a C-File.) However, these copies turned out to not be sufficient even though we thought we were following the instructions closely. Here’s the email response we received back from the consulate indicating specifically what they required:

Either the original of your ancestor’s naturalization certificate or a certified copy of what the National Archives has on file concerning his acquiring US citizenship. They will not certify the certificate, but they will certify all the rest, including the oath, which is what we need. It will have a red ribbon on it. If you send the original, you will need to enclose a pre-paid self-addressed USPS envelope for the return of the document to you. We do not accept any other form of pre-paid mail.

So we both went to the National Archives site and ordered up red ribbon copies. One of our great grandfathers was naturalized in a federal court (in New York) so the National Archives had all the supporting documentation including his oath of allegiance. The other great grandfather was eventually naturalized in Riverside County Superior court (California) and so the National Archives red ribbon copies provided some supporting documentation (his first applications via federal courts which were denied). And Riverside County Superior court archives delivered the essential documents attesting to his naturalization there. Confusing? Kind of. You just have to go with the process and find out what works.

Be prepared

The short ½ of Travelmarx had to provide, in addition to the items above, a copy of a US passport and a statement (in email) that he was never married. It’s odd because the taller ½ of Travelmarx did not have to provide that information. The other items that the shorter ½ of Travelmarx had to provide were copies of the marriage certificate and divorce decree for a first marriage of his mother. Point of the this: be prepared.

Resources

The article by Michael Votto [link] enumerates a few pros and cons of dual (Italian) citizenship. The pros: a passport from a country that is a member of the European Union (E.U.) means you live, travel, and work more freely in any E.U. country. Other possible benefits include healthcare, the ability to purchase property, and the right to pass on citizenship to heirs. The cons: tax liabilities (generally equitable, but filing will be more complex if you have foreign income), possible military responsibilities, and more trouble getting a U.S. security clearance. To tell you the truth, we don’t know which of these pros or cons will be a joy or pain because it’s still early in the process.
The United States government’s position on dual citizenship: they recognize it but don’t encourage it stating that:

The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. Claims of other countries on dual national U.S. citizens may conflict with U.S. law, and dual nationality may limit U.S. Government efforts to assist citizens abroad. The country where a dual national is located generally has a stronger claim to that person's allegiance. [U.S. Department of State Web site]

Finally, a great resource for Italian info and citizenship is Expat Talk, and this guy has a nice and recent story about his successful dual citizenship quest.

A Word About Services That Claim to Assist You

Be careful! If you search for “Italian citizenship” on the Internet you’ll find lots of services offering to gather the documents for you and perhaps shepherd them through the process. We initially tried one and it was a waste of time and money. We recommend that you don’t use them. It’s better to manage the paperwork yourself. It may be challenging at times but can be made easier by getting support from the forums or folks that have already done it.

Update January 2011

We now both have our citizenship confirmed with a letter from the consulate. Hooray! One notice came months ago and the other came recently. We are attaching the redacted notice (2 pages) below to show what it looks like. Here's post on getting passports.

Update 2021

It's 2021 and it's hard to believe it's been 10 years since this post was written. Since then, we moved to Italy, established residency, and obtained our national identity cards and health cards. All of this comes with expected and unexpected consequences that we discovered along the way. For example, how taxes work. (We pay taxes in both countries and it's complicated. In the future, we'll write more on this subject.) 

Despite the times we were ready to throw in the towel and call it quits, we persevered and now live in Italy. We like to think our great grandfathers pictured at the beginning of this post would be proud. But then again, they left Italy for a reason and maybe they would find it bizarre that we returned?

Friends joke with us and say we are living a "postcard-life" and that we are "living the dream". That makes us chuckle. Whose dream? What dream? We just followed our instincts and curiosity, and that led us here. 

Update 2022

CNN article Want to become Italian? The 007 of lost Italian documents may be able to help

Update 2025

The Tajani Decree (Decree-Law 36/2025) introduces significant changes to Italian citizenship laws, particularly affecting those seeking citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis). This change went into effect in March 2025. We'll try to write more about it, but if we were applying today, we would not have been able to get citizenship.

The most important parts are

• Stricter Eligibility: Citizenship by descent is now limited to two generations—meaning only children and grandchildren of Italian citizens born abroad qualify.
• Residency Requirement: If a child is born abroad, their Italian parent must have lived in Italy for two consecutive years before their birth and still held Italian citizenship at that time.

Reason for the change? According to the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale: a flood of applications that were overwhelming the system where applicants are more interested in the value of the passport rather than citizenship. This seems to be the case especially with Argentina and Brazil. Quoting from the link above: "For example, Argentina increased from approximately 20,000 recognitions in 2023 to 30,000 the following year. Brazil rose from over 14,000 recognitions in 2022 to 20,000 last year.".