Mystery solved. Thanks to some sharp Finger Lakes Times readers.

“Rabbit Redux” was a famous 1971 novel by the late John Updike, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. In memory of him, we’ll call this chapter “Donkey Redux.”

In last week’s “Pub Chat,” I wrote about some phrases, sayings and terms that my late Dad used to utter quite often, one of which was “If we get four Mikes together, we can baptize a donkey.”

I confessed to not knowing where that expression came from, and Dad didn’t really know, either. I had done some research but came up empty. So, I attributed it basically to Dad’s vivid imagination.

Well, lo and behold, it seems there really is something similar to that expression in Italian, a proverb of sorts. Only Dad got it twisted up a bit.

Michelle Shenton, a French teacher at Midlakes, emailed me this note on Monday: “I read your June 15 column and decided to take on the challenge of Googling the story about baptizing a donkey. However, as a French teacher, I often find better answers to cultural mysteries by searching in French. So, I did the ‘donkey search’ in Italian with the help of Google Translate: Persone con lo stesso nome e battezzare un asino (People with the same name and baptizing a donkey).”

The result? Well, as she said, “Voila, I found many Italian websites that explained the saying. Of course, I had to use Google Translate for these, too.”

She sent me links to a couple of sites, as did a friend of mine, Hobart and William Smith Emeritus Professor of Art Elena Ciletti, who titled her email to me: “Found your 4 donkeys!” and said in her note that the search was........

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