Italian food is something everybody loves or so it would seem after a recent dinner at Villa Margherita where we met Vivian and Jerry Manuta with their children Marlene Barnett, her husband David and son Matt, Lou and Jan Manuta and their children Jesse and Kayla and Vivian and Jerry's niece and nephew from Queens and Lou's in-laws Phyllis and Len Kasnett. They were celebrating Lou's 41st birthday. The Manutas write The Golden Age news for the MA and are active in Temple Beth Sholom Chabad. At another table we met Nick and Gertrude Passarella who were with their son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Colleen from Connecticut and at another table we encountered Tom and Diane Messmer and children Thomas and Caroline from East Williston and at yet another table were Nick and Susan Pennacchio and sons Michael and Matthew. Michael is a NYC policeman.

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Grace and I paid a Christmas visit to our neighbor of over 50 years, Blanche Paris. Blanche is 99 years old.

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Sorry to hear that Julia O'Brien is ill. Julia is one of the cooks at the Corpus Christi rectory.

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The Andrews Road Holiday party was hosted by the LiBrandi and Durham families. Donna and George Durham welcomed neighbors in one of the first houses built on Andrews Road in 1910. All present shared in the joy of a great Christmas present, the announcement by Maryanne and David Phillips that their son, Jaime, stationed in Kuwait with the Air Force, had come home for the holidays. It was a great Christmas present.

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Longtime Mineola resident Marcella Slattery now lives at the St. Joseph's Guest House in Huntington. Marcella lived on DeMott Street for 18 years with Doris Flynn and had to move when Mrs. Flynn died last year and the house was sold.

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The Davenport restaurant has suffered flooding conditions for many years. When there is a heavy rain, the water in front of the restaurant rises about a foot. When the owner Dennis Liberatos complains to the village they say it's a county road; when he complains to the county, they say Main Street is a state road. At any rate he has been trying for the past 20 years to get some relief but nothing ever seems to change.

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Dom Foresto enjoyed lunch at the Jericho Diner.

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The New York Times had a funny error. The article was supposed to say that 132 million people were undernourished. It came out in the paper 13.2 people suffered that condition. See we aren't the only ones who make mistakes.

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On Christmas morning the first people I had a chance to exchange greetings with were Gavin Duffy, Chris and Mike Taylor, Bill DeLuca, Julia and Pat McCrave, Carl and Carol Marchese and Arlindo Cunha.

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A couple of people I'm always glad to see are Bill Kaiser walking his pooch and former seminarian Russ Miller of Horton Highway.

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Having breakfast, you know where, were Lou Lofrese with his daughter and son-in-law Donna and Jim Doran. Lou was born in the village 75 years ago.

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Nancy and John Curry live on Pershing Parkway with their three sons, John, James and Tommy. They are friends of our neighbors Karen and Peter Smith.

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Brigit Wilson often stops into the Jericho for morning coffee. She lives in Williston Park and has three successful children, all of whom hold executive positions.

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Can anything be done to help Dan Flynn and his son Tom and other handicapped people trying to cross the new Mineola Boulevard bridge? As was recently shown by Dan Flynn of Kenilworth Road, the incline is so steep that it is impossible to push a wheelchair.

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My computer on several occasions tells me, "You have performed an illegal operation," whatever that means. At any rate I haven't been arrested yet.

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Frank DiPrima is up from Florida visiting his parents Frank Sr. and Josephine of Foch Boulevard.

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