Mimi Torchia Boothby

Category: portrait

  • Not Nonno – Becoming American

    So here’s the question that my cousins and I all fruitlessly discussed: Why did we call our Italian grandmothers “Nonnie” which is very close to “Nonna” or “Nonnina” – the Italian word for grandmother; but none of us called our Italian grandfathers “nonno”? We called them Grandpa and Pop. I had been thinking about this…

  • Love, love, love

    So what did it take? Was there a characteristic of your mate or spouse that just went DING DING DING THIS IS THE ONE? There certainly was for me. On one of my very first dates with my future husband, I noticed how much he loved playing with little children, in fact, he ignored me…

  • Iriomote Cat – Critically Endangered

    For the letter “I” I would like to introduce you to one of the rarest cats in the world. They live on a tiny Japanese Island which has been overrun with tourism, and the Iriomote cat is one of the attractions. A fatal attraction, unfortunately. It seems that most of the cats that die are…

  • F is for Fishing Cat

    The Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. They are twice the size of a domestic cat. Their claws do not retract all the way like most cats, and they love water. Not only do they swim and fish, but they swim underwater for long distances. Fishing cat…

  • Esteemed by Elephants

    Most humans love elephants, but wild African elephants generally only love elephants. I want to bring to your attention an exception. I would introduce you to Lawrence Anthony, born in 1950 in South Africa, the very man who rushed into Baghdad to rescue the surviving zoo animals after the US Invasion and the terrible bombing…