Lamb on the Run: If you’re an Italian Gypsy, prepare to have fingerprints taken

Reading while you run…checking the license plates of life (or something) …“DOOODL” on a Volkswagen Beetle, or bug … “RUN AZ” …

… and a couple more from the state Motor Vehicle Division’s catalog of special plates … “LOONEY” … “MOMYBUS” … “MILLION” … “SOUSAY” … “SOSUME1” … “SOTRUE”…

Big doings in Italy…Italian authorities have started taking fingerprints from thousands of Gypsies…Many living as nomads in about 700 camps mostly around Rome, Milan and Naples…

…Human rights groups protested it was racist, saying no other part of the Italian population has to be fingerprinted as part of a census…

…The government relented and all citizens have to be fingerprinted before they can vote…

…The government wanted to find out how many Gypsies are living in Italy…

…Gypsies are also known as Roma, and some people blame them, like they blame other minorities, for rising crime in Italy’s larger cities…

…But so far, no one is trying to get them to put license plates of those handsome horse-drawn caravans, known as Romany Vardos…

…Actually, only about one percent of the Gypsies now live in Romany Vardos…

Last week’s column recalled some of the events that have occurred during the 1904 Olympic Games…One was about Felix Carvajal, an Havana postman, who endured all kinds of turmoil to go to the Olympics in St. Louis…

…Felix lost his money to gamblers after arriving in the United States and set off to run 700 miles to St. Louis, begging food, water and occasional rides along the way…

…He arrived in time and was prepared to run in his street clothes, but another athlete suggested he cut off his pant legs and sleeves…

…Felix finished fourth…and years later early-day TV ran a special on him and his unusual trip…

…Tubac resident Dennis Kizerian called to report he remembered the long-ago TV episode…

…“We all called him Felix the Fourth,” Dennis remembered…“The show was exceptionally well done and captured the story of Felix the Fourth”…

…And Marathon & Beyond, the Web site for marathoners and ultrarunners, has a story on its Web page about the 1904 “Marathon from Hell”…

…Heat and humidity of a St. Louis summer wiped out many of the runners…Only 14 of the 32 starters finished…The first man to the finish line was disqualified…He rode in a car part of the way…

…Eileen P. Duggan wrote that Carvajal ran a casual race, stopping to talk, running backward at times to chat and even stopping to eat…After overcoming stomach cramps, he resumed the race in time to finish fourth and garner a special spot in Olympic history…

And if you’re ever encouraged to sing the national anthem of Barbados, its closing words are “We have no doubts or fears, upward and onward we shall go, inspired, exulting free, and greater will our nation grow in strength and unity”…

…And I can also give you words from the Russian Federation’s national anthem…if you’re interested…

Jim Lamb’s a reporter for the Green Valley News and sometimes we think we leave him untended at the computer for too long.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749