Kiss Mama
by George Panetta

In the Italian part of town, it is still the Sunday ritual for the Carapata family - Mama, Papa, and married children - to assemble at the old homestead for some of Mama's cooking, some chattering among th womenfolk and, for the men, some poker with Papa, who always wins because he cheats - quite openly.

Things might go on nicely this way but for the fact that Mama keeps insisting that the son who married a Jewish girl in a civil ceremony (she thought he was Jewish; he thought she was Italian) should marry in the church, and even before they have a child, Mama has it baptized.

The wife rebels, her son backs her up, and it takes a fake death scene by Mama ("I no lie!

I made it up!") to restore matters to their former state of boisterous disharmony.