first draft 28 February 2014, updated 1 February 2024

Out of tune, fig:

Unpleasant discordance or lack of opportunity (Devoto Oli)

On 10 December 2013 in Il Fatto Quotidiano I read a sort of appeal by a certain Januaria Piromallo to Violetta (Family Dynasty. ‘Dear Violetta I write to you’) for a reconciliation with her father.

Not content with the unsolicited intrusion, Mrs Piromallo also had something to say about how we children were.

In fact, she expressed herself as follows:

“…Your father’s entrepreneurial talents are exceptional, your brother’s are still waiting to be expressed…”

“…Violetta do not trade a father’s love for a bank account…”

It can be seen that this lady, besides her mania for the limelight and her lack of familiarity with our affairs, also had a few stones to get off her shoe with regard to Violetta.

And, in the meantime, a tirade against her brother was ‘just right’….

Many had done it, first and foremost Bernardo (see below):

why would Januaria Piromallo deprive himself of it?

silence or the art of keeping silent…

In Chronicle of a defamatory and persecutory press campaign I highlighted how I was portrayed in 2006 as an over-rich, inept, spoilt and thieving individual.

In the year in question, even Mrs. Maria Cristina Elmi Busi Ferruzzi (at the time a bottler of Coca Cola, with Sibeg of Catania) got involved, shouting, through the pages of the Corriere on 4 May…

A firm ‘halt’ to nepotism in general and in Esselunga in particular, and taking Bernardo’s side in opting for ‘managers’ instead of family

‘Nepotism, we promote family values almost as much as we promote family members’

The bold lady also gave a ‘nice’ definition of her and Bernardo Caprotti’s family, adding that:

“You and I…have too many families for decades on our backs not to have the common sense and flair necessary to grow our companies even in difficult times…”

The article solicited at Corriere by Busi sounded like ‘No pasaràn’, the slogan of the Republican troops (under their flag..) against the Francoists, during the Spanish war

Was this sort of cry addressed to the father of an imbecile and perhaps also dishonest?

Of course, as a supplier, she could easily have received a copy of the following letter..

This missive circulated a bit everywhere, as I received it from an Esselunga supermarket employee.

In the Devoto Oli dictionary of the Italian language, the term Banda has these meanings:

banda di partigiani (partisan band), brigata di bontemponi (brigade of good-tempered people), compagnia di suonatori (company of players), compagine atletica (athletic team) , gruppo di persone poco raccomandabili (group of disreputable people) or gruppo di fuorilegge (group of outlaws)..

Since, with the leaders whose names I have whitewashed, we had not fought side by side during the Spanish Civil War (pictured below are Republican fighters)

We did not go out drinking in the evenings, nor did we play sports, nor did we play jazz or classical music together, I leave it up to you to interpret what my father meant by the term Band

Among those ‘mistreated, pushed around, chased away’ was certainly Dr Gianni Lembo, see what he writes, comparing the two managements (Giuseppe’s and Bernardo’s).

Yet Maria Cristina Elmi Busi Ferruzzi should have known who she was dealing with, see in this regard ‘Esselunga v. Coca-Cola ‘ and given that her SIBEG was fully involved in the investigation below

COMPETITION AND MARKET AUTHORITY

Measure No. 7804
Pepsico Foods and Beverages International-IBG Sud/Coca Cola Italia

THE COMPETITION AND MARKET AUTHORITY

AT ITS MEETING OF 7 December 1999;

Hearing the Rapporteur Professor Giuseppe Tesauro;

HAVING REGARD TO Law No. 287 of 10 October 1990

HAVING REGARD TO the notification of 19 November 1997 by PEPSICO FOODS AND BEVERAGES INTERNATIONAL Ltd. – Italian branch (hereinafter Pepsi Italia) and IBG SUD Spa;

Having regard to its resolution of 11 June 1998, by which it opened an inquiry, pursuant to Article 14(1) of Law No. 287/90, against the companies THE COCA-COLA EXPORT CORPORATION- Filiale Italiana (‘TCCEC’), Coca-Cola Italia Srl (‘CCI’), Coca-Cola Bevande Italia Srl (‘CCBI’), SADIB Srl, SOCIB (Società Calabrese Imbottigliamento Bevande) Spa, SOBIB (Società Barese Imbottigliamento Bevande) Srl, SOSIB Industriale e Commerciale (Società Sarda Imbottigliamento Bevande gassate) Srl, SIBEG (Società Imbottigliamento Bevande Gassate ) Srl, SNIBEG (Società Napoletana Imbottigliamento Bevande Gassate) Srl, for alleged infringement of Article 3 of Law No 287/90;

Having regard to the report by ESSELUNGA Spa, received on 24 November 1998; etc….

But perhaps the recent clues against the son described as the leader of a gang of gangsters were far too many and, let’s face it, also so juicy not to be used by a lady who probably needed a favour from Bernardo Caprotti.

and she, being the polite and civilised person that she was, did not deign to not say sorry but at least answer me.

On the other hand, who was in the presence of Giuseppe Tesauro as I was?

… remembers a heartfelt appeal by Mrs Busi in defence of the positions of Coca-Cola and SIBEG (*), so much so that in trying to get up from where she was sitting her skirt broke…

The more malicious say that she lost it completely…!

(*) in spite of the torn skirt of Maria Cristina Elmi Busi Ferruzzi, SIBEG and Coca-Cola were condemned.

In five years, from 2001 to 2006, I had gone from being my father’s brilliant ‘right-hand man’ (see in this regard Dai Supermercati ai Superstore parte 5, Bernardo partly acknowledges Giuseppe’s merits) to becoming a sort of monster.

And there were those who took advantage of that to shoot at me…

However, now that the company, with Bernardo Caprotti’s third family, has become ‘managerial’ Maria Cristina Elmi Busi Ferruzzi can rest assured:

esselunga’s ‘front line’ has fantastic 35-year-olds, with three years’ seniority in the company and strong ties to Germana Chiodi, the €85 million secretary.

I had become a manager after 7 years of training, of which 1.5 in supermarkets as a worker (at Carrefour, Dominick’s and Esselunga), but those were probably other times and other logics.

Those of today escape me.

N.B.: the whole company approach remained the same as when I was CEO.

Below: the flyers and advertisements are still the same as they were when I set them up with Armando Testa.

Conclusion: silence should have been golden for :

–1 Januaria Piromallo, and Marquise Capece Piscinelli di Montebello of the Dukes of Capracotta :

… about her ‘village’ can be said to be a

‘small town in Molise … in 1891 that the 5,000 inhabitants lived in small hovels with their beasts’…,

In the same way I could have been ‘prince’ of Albiate, which counts almost 7,000 souls…!

-2 Maria Cristina Elmi Busi Ferruzzi….

but also for many other people, among them certainly Stefano Lorenzetto (quoted on page 352 of ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti’) who introduces yet another re-edition of Scythe and Cart (launch: 13 February 2024).

The Fatto Quotidiano and the Corriere della Sera, which used to give news comparable to that found on ‘Visto’, didn’t look too good..