France 24

I enjoyed watching the first broadcast/webcast/blog of France 24 today. It started at 20:29 Paris time which was very convenient for me in California. Apparently France 24 is the brainchild of Jacques Chirac who has been waiting for it for decades. It is a french viewpoint on the world news, in French, English and soon, in Arabic. Simultaneous broadcasts, you choose your language. They have hired a small regiment of bi, tri, quadri linguals. Today the anchor was Andrea Sanke, ex-Cnn who speaks English, German, Spanish, Italian, and apparently very little french but with a charming accent. I love to listen to her saying France 24. And, as my mother-in-law used to say, she "is pretty to look at" to boot. Next time, I'll listen to the french side. They will be on cable and satellite TV very soon.

Their address is http://france24.com/

Almost forgot, Andrea Sanke can also swear like a trooper. She had relinquished the mike to a francophone reporter who was interviewing de Villepin and Douste-Blazy, in french, of course. The interview was supposed to be translated into English but the translator was late arriving/starting, whatever. So our angelic Andrea sounded off:"son of a bitch, what am I supposed to do, where do we go now". I'm glad to report the translator/interpreter showed up and Andrea was not heard from any further.....Ah well, there are always problems on the first time of anything.

"Make Love" in France

I saw a couple days ago on the news on French TV that a new brand of condoms is available in France under the name of "Make Love", at the low low price of 1 Euro for five, which translated into dollars, brings copulation down to a quarter American, a throw. To get that bargain, you have to go to the only places where it is available, the bureau de tabac. For those who have never been in France, know that the french state retains control of all tobacco products, and has done so since time immemorial. To sell cigarettes, cigars, tobaccos, there are the aforementioned bureau de tabac, usually part of a cafe. The owner of the bureau, called the buraliste has a franchise from the government. In my days, the franchises were reserved mostly for veterans, usually amputees of WW I, the Great War, the Last of the Last....

In the village of Northern France were I was born, the buraliste was a Mr. Delepine (I believe his first name was Georges), who had lost half of one of his arms in the trenches and always had a cap on his head and always chewed on a small twig of buis (boxtree). I wonder what Mr. Delepine would think of this new development if he were alive today? I wonder what ALL the Mr. Delepine in all the bureaus of French cities and villages are thinking of it, today?. I well imagine the local priest in a village somewhere, coming to the bureau for his weekly pack of cigarettes, being asked by the buraliste "anything else for you today, Monsieur le Cure?".

Now, I'm not going to speculate under what french name "Make Love" condoms would be sold in the good old USA . There are too many great translations available. I'll let the reader decide. But, I'll have to say, the price is right.

La langue de mes ancetres.

Mon fils, qui habite la France m'a demande si j'allais ecrire en Francais. J'ai fait le changement, mais helas, pas de possibilite d'utiliser les accents, etc., ce qui va m'obliger a ne me servir que de mots sans accents. Au lieu de "la langue de mes ancetres", "Le Language de mes Aieulx" ou encore, "La Jactance de mes Dabs". A nous le dictionnaire de synonymes!.....

On second thought, I decided to revert to English since the "technical"english of Blogger is beginning to become familiar after one day of use, and frankly, I prefer Publish to Valoriser. A chacun son gout.

Coincidences

My pharmacist told me yesterday that his wife had died of Alzheimer's on October 26th. I mentioned that my wife's death, also of Alzheimer's, had taken place also on a 26th., in June. I felt obligated to promise him that I would make sure someone would inform him of the date of my own death so that he would have at a minimum one whole month to get ready. We shook hands on it.