On my flight from Chicago to Phoenix last Wednesday, I sat next to an early-twentysomething couple who spoke to each other in a language which I tentatively guessed was Italian. Which turned out to be right (I asked the guy at the end of the flight). The guy was an American from Chicago, but he and his wife now live outside of Milan, and she’s Italian. She read an English magazine during the flight, and he helped her with some words.
At one point she stopped reading, turned to him, held up the magazine while pointing to a paragraph of text, and asked, “What does ‘the heebee-jeebies’ mean?” He had an immediate response in Italian. I couldn’t come up with a response in English. The willies? Something that freaks you out?
