Wise women from the East(ie)

Many Italian women believe that they know how to determine the gender of an unborn child, so when the Boston Herald wanted to know whether Bridget Moynahan, Patriot QB Tom Brady's ex-girlfriend, is going to have a boy or girl, the tabloid went to East Boston's Don Orione Rest Home.

The consensus that emerged is that the couple will be having a boy, though the women pointed out that to be sure one has to "take a needle or a ring and put it on a string and hold it over the mother’s open palm. If it goes back and forth, it’s a boy. If it goes round and round, it’s a girl.” I have seen women in Eastie actually do this.

In Woody Allen's hilarious film Broadway Danny Rose, Mia Farrow's character repeatedly goes to see an old Italian woman named Angelina, who is able to see the future, and in another scene a mother whose son has been wronged invokes "the malocchio" or Evil Eye. Growing up I repeatedly heard stories about the Evil Eye, and I knew many people who wore a small piece of jewelry called "the horn" for protection from that curse. And once, I even witnessed the ritual that was supposed to undo the Evil Eye.