Eet Teks Ze Baguette

First--Let me say that my lack of communication at this point is not due to willful inactivity. My computer is in the shop and I am slowly dying inside without being able to blog at all. Hopefully it'll be back tomorrow. Really hopefully.

Now back to our show. Everyone around me is getting sick. I live in Southern California, where the weather is mostly nice and people spend enough time out of doors for germ spreading not to be as much of an issue as it is in the winter in other areas--HOWEVER--because I'm in a metropolis with business and tourist commuters lighting on our town just long enough to infect us with their wordly illnesses, people everywhere in this town are hacking and sneezing. Tis the season, oh yes. And that is why I'm SO glad to be French.

You see, we Frenchies are not scared of bacteria, or germs, or mold of many different kinds. My grandparents, who lived in the Loire Valley for most of their lives, would find a bit of fuzz on the top of jams, bread or fromage, and promptly scrape it off and go to town. Okay, yes, that's a little gross, but did they get sick very often? Not much. And I doubt that it was from the penicillin-like properties of the spores that sprouted from their cupboard-housed delicacies.

Yes, one of the stereotypes about the French is that they smell bad, that they don't keep up with their hygeine as often as they should. While anyone who has been on the Metro in Paris for any length of time can attest to some truth to that stereotype, what they can't deny is the French constitution. There's no question that they are one of the top 5 healthiest countries in the world. Maybe some of that could be attributed to the lack of obsessive hand-washing, anti-bacterial gels and wipes everywhere, and the pseudo security that Americans have about being "clean."

Maybe I'm jumping the gun here, and perhaps my wild swings from one outrageous conclusion to the next could be construed as...well, just cultural pride, but, so far, I've shown no sign of a sniffle...and I can't say the same for many of those around me. Coincidence? J'en pense que non.

Rocking Out

I just wanted to infect your brain with this song. You can thank me at 5 p.m., when you're in your car and you find yourself singing it, not knowing from whence it came.

Paranoia and Politics: Two Ps in a Pod

They're not campaign advertisements, they're psycho-storms, hypnotic cyclones of doubt, descending on the flat, calm plains of underinformed, undecided, or unconvinced voters in an attempt to shake enough of us, to make enough of us believe the worst, and, sometimes, the downright ridiculous.

If we can suspend reality enough to believe that the Dems are going to send sick and elderly people to death panels, or that the Repubs are going to turn back the clock for gays, women and other minority groups, we are right in the thick of the harsh political paranoia that engenders U.S. politics right now.

These days, it's chic to look over your shoulder, and not just within standard "politics as usual." Anti-establishment groups, such as the Zeitgeist Movement, have decided that the money and power hungry leaders in this country have cooked up one brilliantly executed scheme after another to gain mastery and complete control of the people of the world. Globalization is part of this elaborate plan, as well as were the 9-11 attacks. The whole argument, the movie (there are two) are well-thought-out and very convincing. But, I also note that some of the craziest people in the world can be very convincing (think cult leaders: Jones, Manson, etc). If you are willing to be led, and just suspicious enough of what's going on around you, you can suspend your own reality enough to believe that the boogie man is in the shadows, waiting.

So, when you go to the polls (or not), make sure that you close the curtain tightly behind you. You never know who's watching...