L is for Lion: An Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir -- Contents -- Prologue: The Blue Suitcase -- Part One: Bronx Tomboy -- Eat with Guys You Trust -- Breakfast Is to Coat the Stomach -- The X -- Stoop -- The Return of the Rust -- A Good Eater -- The Tin Ceiling -- Sidewalk -- Licking Batteries -- Teaspoons and Heatpipes -- Kitchen Bird -- Kindergarten, Boot Camp: 1968 -- Sister Rosaria -- Quicksand -- Lasagna Vows -- Ravioli, Homing Pigeons, and Teletype Machines -- Grandpop, the Hook, and the Eyebrow -- Made of Rubber -- Sister Giuseppina -- Sister Ercolina -- Playing War -- Lead Pipe, Montezuma, Icicle -- Hand to Hand -- The Return of the Lasagna -- Street -- How to Catch a Flyball in Oncoming Traffic -- The Names of Horses -- Rook to Queen Four -- Burning Rubber and Penmanship -- Trestles and Love -- Silence, Violence -- The Blue Angel -- Bronx County Family Courthouse -- Parkchester Poseidon Adventure -- The Lady in Black -- Fast Break -- Part Two: Educationa Girl -- The Temporary Apartment -- Permanent Wave -- Useless Expertise -- Hunger Beats Agida -- Sistemazione -- Walk Softly but Carry a Big Pockabook -- Lunch Is to Clean the Blood -- Slow, Loud, and Clear -- Asthma, Green Money, and the Feast -- Brakeman -- Outfield Greens -- My Mother, the Plaintiff -- Aunt Patty's Bullfight -- You're Just Like Your Father -- Junkie Pride -- Mary Perry -- College Entrance -- Strike One -- Fontanelle Aurelius -- The Miracle Worker of 233rd Street -- Part Three: Kimosabe -- The Best Place to Have Cancer -- Room 621 -- Shake 'n Bake -- The Fastigium -- Dope and Demerol -- The Pipeline -- Truckstop Paranoia -- Chemistry -- Amara -- Brazil Upside Down -- Belly Up -- Overheating -- Triple Boiling Point -- Eat 'Til You Sweat -- The Tumor Board -- The Radioactive Man Says, "Don't Give Up the Ship!" -- Thoracotomy -- One Mis-sip-pi -- Magnetic Lace.

Lesbianism, Suicide, or the Nunnery -- How to Wake Up a Marine in a Foxhole -- Red Death -- Interventions -- Falling and Flying -- Civilian Life Sucks -- Deep Bell -- Part Four: How to Cook a Heart -- Wallid Walla Bint -- Equator Crossings -- Bronx Italian Butch Freedom -- Never Come Out in a Lincoln Continental -- A Nightclub Named Devotion "Roma o Morte!" -- Vrrooooom! -- "Cosa Mangia Oggi!" -- My Mother's Aorta -- a'Schapett -- Shave My Head -- Enter Audrey Lauren Kindred -- Rachele's Pocketbook Fritatta -- How to Poke a Guy's Eyes Out -- How to Cook a Heart -- Part Five: Annie's Parts -- Mr. Fixit -- Six Places to Buy Milk -- My Father, Marconi, and Me -- Sciamannin' -- Horizontal People -- Radioactive Feast -- Limoncello and the Black Bra -- Garlic, the Ave Maria, and the Blue Leg -- Cittadinanza -- Assassination Focaccia -- Spearmint Gum Cure -- One Day My Horse Will Come In -- Madeleine and the Magic Biscotti -- How GranmaRose Became a Peach Tree -- Fruttificare -- The Lasagna Stands Alone -- Three Days from Eternity -- Don't Make 'Em Burn -- Pipe Dreams -- The Little Fish and the Big Ocean -- Three Hundred Cream Puffs and the Illusion Veil -- Lingua Madre -- Sì o No? -- A Couple of Teaspoons of Coffee and a Couple of Drops of Milk -- Becoming GranmaRose Peach Tree -- Glossary -- Acknowledgments: Exquisite Pleasure -- Credits -- Author's Page.