An Italian Lesson

In Italian there’s a great expression to use when you’re disgusted by something: mi fa schifo. When you say it dramatically, you kind of spew—what with the "s," the "ch" which sounds like "k," and the "f." Say it loud and it’s almost like swearing. (It’s the origin of the English skeevy.)
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Mi fa schifo is a response to ideas and situations that you find appalling, contemptible, disgusting, foul, noxious, repulsive, repellant, sour, splenetic, vile and vulgar. And that’s without a thesaurus. The phrase came up today because I read a churlish piece by a writer who had some myopic and reactionary things to say about art blogging, and some nasty comments about the bloggers themselves.

Here, read it for yourself.

Want to use my phrase? Here’s how you pronounce it: me-fa-skee-fo. It’s OK if a little bit of spit comes out.

By the way, whatisname's acerbic little post comes at a big time for art blogging, thereby further diminishing what he had to say. There is, for instance, Peter Plagens's front-of-book report from the blogosphere in the November Art in America, "The New Grass Roots," in which he talks to some of our best bloggers: Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof, Regina Hackett, Tyler Green, Jeff Jahn, and Edward Winkleman. And there's The Blogger Show, a four-venue event organized by John Morris of Digging Pitt in Pittsburgh. (Just about everyone mentioned is linked here, either below or on the blogroll at right.)

So, funny thing about whatsisname, he's scratching at the art bloggers at a time when we're all--you'll pardon the word--coagulating. Updated 10.28.07
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Some links responding to the same noxious comments (I'm adding to these as responses appear):
. Pretty Lady's The Egregious Mr. Finch
. Steven LaRose's Pictures
. Heart as Arena's Clearly
. Mary Klein's On Blogging
. Eric Gelber's Finch and the Will to Power
. Two Coats of Paint's Finch Flogs Blogs
. The Tire Shop's Eeenie Weenie is Helping Me
. Edward Winkleman's With Deepest Sympathies
. Grammar Police Pardon the Interruption
. Lightning History Calling the Kettle Black
. Susan Constanse's Oranje Charlie Finch and Google Alerts
. Paddy Johnson's Art Fag City Via The Comments on Edward Winkleman's Blog
Updated 11.09.07