R: Re: R: Re: T shirt Price Info

John Cowan wrote:

> Mangiat wrote:
>
> > We generally
> > prefer cheques (another invention of Italian late Middle Ages, after
> > Universities and banks!).
>
> The trouble with cheques (which in American English are spelled "checks",
> homonymity notwithstanding) in the U.S. is that they work well for
existing
> business relationships:  I pay my rent, electric bill, etc. by cheque.
> But they don't work well for casual business purposes, because the
retailer
> feels the risk of insufficient funds is too high.
>
 I once read in a book by the Italian (comic)journalist Beppe Severgnini*
(great expert of  Anglosaxon culture) that in America, if you are a
foreigner, to get a credit card you have to have had debts, to demonstrate
you've been able to estinguish it. But, being Italian people the greatest
money-savers of Europe (really, more than Switzerland!), many of them hadn't
had debts. So those of us without a credit card (here it's not so much used,
as I said) couldn't get one !!!

A very much used thing is _bancomat_, dunnoif you use it.

Luca

* well, he's comic when he's to speak abouth Anglosaxon (mainly English and
American) way of life. He's also correspond of some important American
newspapers (Wall Street Journal? Is that possible?). BTW, the book was 'Un
Italiano in America'.