Fairly obvious: There are a lot of scammers out there whose first language is not English. Very obvious: Scam ads posted by these people invariably contain some horrendous bastardization of the English language, usually comprised of several obvious errors in basic English grammar. Not so obvious (at least not to native English-speakers like us): There are translation programs available that these nefarious thieves sometimes use, and they do not always handle the language conversion flawlessly. Fairly obvious: The English language is rather difficult to master, not only for those whose first language it is not, but also for american-born people who must study it year-after-year (in, guess what … GRAMMAR school), and still often get it wrong after that!

Well, the web page did not make that last “fairly obvious” point about american-born people. I made that observation myself. And, owing to the fact that those grammar-school studies are obviously not always effectual, we therefore cannot conclude with all certainty that every poorly composed bit of writing out there was written by a foreign-born scammer.

Case-in-point: Run-on sentences, over-use of the word “obvious”, no verb in this “sentence”.

The past few years, I’ve developed a tradition of a Minestrone di Castagne – minestrone with chestnuts. White beans, onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, a bit of hot pepper, a bit of ham, a lot of bay leaves – and fresh chestnuts. Simmer for at least 2.5 hours (or all day). It ends up about the consistency and color of wallpaper paste – but it tastes amazing.

I cheat, now, though. The first couple times I did this, I bought 2 pounds of fresh whole chestnuts, and cooked and shelled them – and just about cut my hands to ribbons on the shells, both times. And then I discovered whole roasted chestnuts in jars…so I cheat. So far, though, Santa doesn’t seem to mind – no coal in my stocking.