Sunday, May 6, 2012

L’État, ce n’est pas moi



You win some; you lose some.

Today, May 6, 2012, that guy up there, whose name is Nicolas Sarkozy, lost an election in France to another guy named François Hollande.

Today some people in France might be saying, “The 23rd President of the French Republic is figuratively dead; long live the 24th President of the French Republic!”

And others might be saying, “Aux armes, citoyens!”

I mean, after all, it is France.

You just never know.

Ever heard of Jeanne d’Arc? Looey Quatorze? Robespierre?

The really important news this weekend, though, happened in Louisville, Kentucky, where a horse named I’ll Have Another came from behind to win the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs (2:18).

Now that was a horse race.

7 comments:

  1. Typically French. Just when we Brits have managed to get the pronunciation of their leader's name right, they go and change him. (Was is Sar-cozee, Sarco-zee or Sarcoze-ee?)

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  2. Francois Hollande lived in the United States in the summer of 1974 while he was a university student. It was there that he learnt to flip burgers, chew gum and say "I'm just saying" in French - "Je dis tout simplement".

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  3. M. Parrots, at least it wasn't Sharl de Goal.

    Pudding d'Yorkshire, at the moment my favorite U.S.-educated leader of another country is Benjamin Netanyahu. Je dis tout simplement.

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  4. Cool!
    Sarkozy was a little disturbing to some people in France I guess lol
    Vive la France Libre!

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  5. Lady in B.C., that little word Libre makes all the difference.

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  6. Tres drole, mon ami...

    And it was indeed an exciting run for the roses, but I was rooting for Bodemeister... Ah well. C'est la vie, oui?

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  7. Mme. L'Expectations, I was pulling for Union Rags, not because I know anything about horses but because of the story the announcers told about his owner Phyllis Wyeth, who happens to be the wife of artist Jamie Wyeth, who is the son of artist Andrew Wyeth, whose Helga exhibition I once saw in person at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. How's that for a tenuous connection? But he was never in the race.

    It was too bad that Bodemeister faded at the end. That last furlong has had its effect on many a horse in days gone by.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...