MINCE PIE
Caro Speak Up,
Sul numero di dicembre 2018, nell’articolo ‘Festive fun for everyone’, a pagina 13 ... vorrei, se posso, senza offendere nessuno, correggere un dettagliato. Nel glossary dice che un mince pie è una torta ripiena di carne. No, è ripiena di frutta, tipo uvetta, è un dolcetto.
Grazie per l’attenzione,
Vanessa

Salve Vanessa,
grazie per l’osservazione. Hai ragione tu: anche se in origine il mince meat era sempre ripieno di carne (in particolare manzo e montone), ancora presente nei menu tipici britannici, nel contesto natalizio fa riferimento a un dolce preparato con frutta, liquori e spezie varie.
Saluti,
Speak Up

TO GROW OUT
I think you mistakenly gave two different translations of the verb “grow out of” in two successive articles which appeared in the December issue of your magazine. Please tell me whether I’m correct. In the article “Start a Farm”, Joel Salatin says: “The book  grew out of... doing... college campus speaking...”. I believe you correctly translated that with the italian equivalent of “originated from”. What I don’t understand is why in the article “Aussie Pop”  you translate the same verb in a different way, when you write  the following statement: “A local culture has grown out of an inferiority complex”. Doesn’ t the verb in question mean the same in this context, too? Actually the italian translation “superare” you suggest in this case doesn’t make any sense to me. Could you further explain?
Thank-you,
Bruno

Dear Bruno,
You have made a very interesting point! Sometimes this sort of coincidences do occur, and we must admit that they can be misleading. In this case, the verb “to grow out of” is an idiom (‘espressione idiomatica’) with different meanings: as in the first article, it means ‘to originate in’, or ‘develop from (a source)’; but it can also mean ‘to become too large or mature for’ or ‘to outgrow’ in the sense of ‘to stop doing or having (something) because one is older and more mature’.
Best regards,
Speak Up