Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Bonjour, et Joyeux Jour de Bastille

For my countless French visitors, I just wanted to say Happy Bastille Day. Upon coming into work this morning, I greeted the first person I saw with "Happy Bastille Day." This person returned: "What the hell did you just say to me?" Les Américains = les gros idiots, non?

In celebration of Bastille Day, I decided that instead of my usual ritual of checking the Washington Post headlines, I'd take a peek at Le Monde online. I gave the homepage a thorough look-over in French, then used the Yahoo! Language tool to translate the page to English. I came across this outstanding Yahoo-translated article's first paragraph:

The leading article of the World
The fault and the challenge
THE WORLD | 14.07.04 | 12h41

THAT is called a bad dream. During quarante-huit hours, everyone believed in the account of Marie L, this young woman who deposited a stolen complaint and to be wildly attacked with her baby on bottom of matter anti-semites. The various ingredients composing this fact were well likely to strike imaginations. A baby violently reversed with his poussette. A young woman in hillock with a band made up of a half-dozen of "wild stocks" indicated like maghrébins and blacks. Blows and estafilades with the face carried with knives. Insults against the Jews and of the swastikas drawn with the felt on the victim. The whole in the oar of the RER of suburbs, in front of inert passengers.

I think I could submit that as a prose poem and get into an MFA program of my choice. "A baby violently reversed with his poussette...Blows and estafilades with the face carried with knives." And holy shit, I'm using the phrase "inert passengers" TODAY!

For les idiots Americains: this site.

And may I suggest: Bastille Day Drink Recipes

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