"Quanto sei bella"

My Italian-American grandfather, Anthony Lepore, occasionally spoke a few words in Italian. They were usually swear words. But as kids they went over our heads. He often would pinch (my siblings) Dale, Patty and Doug on the cheek, saying "quanto sei bella" ("you are so beautiful)." Then he'd come over and pinch my cheek and say "quanto sei bruto" ("you are so ugly)." Sheesh.

Anthony liked to tell the story of when he took the family to a local college basketball game...they knew a couple of the players on one of the teams. But their team lost because "some big lug" on the other team totally dominated the game, getting all the rebounds, scoring most of the points, all quite effortlessly. Anthony rooted quite aggressively against this guy, who turned out to be his future son-in-law, Swede Masin, playing for Panzer College.