Sorry. Back on my High Horse.

"...Just last month, in the 31 days of March, police in the United States killed more people than the UK did in the entire 20th century. In fact, it was twice as many; police in the UK only killed 52 people during that 100 year period..."

It's reported that in China, at 4 and a half times the size of the US, police killed 12 people last year, and that the rate at which police in the US kill people is 70 times (!!!) higher than any first world country.

Are people in the US so different from people living in civilized countries that they deserve to die at the hands of those who are supposed to "protect and serve?"  What happened to the ideals of freedom and liberty?  Or are ideals things that only prior generations cared about?

What's happened to America?

Rouen ~ the seat of Norman Kings

Former colleagues and family members sick with cancer are still circling the drain.  That is to say, they remain alive if not well.


Years ago Jude and I went to Vancouver, BC to visit with a Friend From England.  I swore I'd do my best to keep in contact and see folks I'd made friends with over the years.  This, after a different friend died of cancer at a terribly young age.  Both my deceased friend and our Friend From England were and are fellow motorcycle riders, motorheads, intellectual, and wonderful eccentrics.

On the trip to Vancouver a close friend of Jude's had died.  We stayed to see our Friend From England and did the best we could under the circumstances.  Jude's friend was already in the ground after we'd returned home.

So it was with not a little trepidation that we climbed aboard a regional train bound for Rouen.  We were off to see our Friends From England.  I hoped no one passed away while we were out of town.  The odds were stacked against us.

A first thing I noticed when we arrived is that some people are blatantly in-your-face-religious-Catholic.  Such as our taxi driver from la gare a l'hotel. After the staunchly secular Paris (where Catholics tend to be quite reserved, even as some other religious-types stir the waters vigorously), this came as quite a shock.  History is as alive as the people still living it.  Rouen has many hundreds of years of Catholic history.


Things turned instantly for the better at the sight of our Friends From England waiting for us in the bar.  They'd come over from Honfleur to spend the day with Jude and I.  Greetings heartily shared, everyone's well-being inquired after, and luggage safely stowed we set off in search of something to eat.

Jude descends from the Dukes of Normandy.  Rollo the Viking Warrior made Rouen the seat of power.  Like in much earlier times when medieval Provin was an Important Place, so too was medieval Rouen.  The city was at the epicenter of the 100 years war between les anglais et les francais.  It was here that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  More recently the Nazis occupied the place and it, in part, took the English and Americans bombing the cathedral to drive the Germans out.


I don't know about anyone else, but I instantly fell in love with Rouen.  Half timbered buildings everywhere.  Ancient stone cathedrals in three places around town.  The place is lousy with warm, cozy eateries.

The four of us stumbled around a late winter deeply cold and drizzly wet town to check out as much as we could see in a day.  We had a cuppa, and ate two large feasts.  The wine and cidre weren't bad either.  Topped off with a wee-dram of Calvados, the local Fire Water, the day ended in Perfect Harmony and Contentment.

We received word that our Friends From England had successfully negotiated the trip back to Honfleur and were off to do a little Calvados tasting of their own.  Jude and I set off in search of her ancestor's tomb.  We read that that Americans bombed the original 10th century tomb during WWII, but that a copy had been installed somewhere in the cathedral.


Alas, No Joy.  The Catholics had the apse gated and locked, no doubt to prepare for the celebration of Fertility Bunny Day (Easter to normal folks).  We could see where Rollo/Robert I's tomb is likely to be found.  But we'll have to await a future trip to see if we can't get the pere to unlock the place.

In all, the locals have kept Jude's ancestry in decent order.  The old parts of the village are clean and beautiful.  The cathedral is mostly repaired and celebrations of mass take place daily.  The bells that the Americans bombed back to molten metal in WWII have been recast, the bell tower rebuilt, and the bells re-installed.

While listening to the bells of Good Friday, we explained to a local what our Friends From England had told us not 5 minutes before.  The bells tolled for the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.  The Frenchman was surprised to learn this, nodded his head in understanding, and wished us a bonne soiree.


Needless to say, seeing our Friends From England was the highlight of the trip.  They are doing well.  We plotted and planned a visit for later this summer when Jude and I will head their direction in search of fan-vaulted ceilings, the likes of which are only found in Merry 'Ol.

I'm glad we can experience these kinds of things with friends.  This is life.  If it's not lived now, when will it be?

Well now...

The proverbial shit is hitting the fan.

I was sick with the dreaded flu for three weeks.  Then Jude came down with the very same flu and it's laid her low for the same amount of time.  We've been house-bound for five weeks.  Further, due to various un-related reasons (end-stage cancers in former colleagues and family members) our energies and moods have been pretty low.

Feeling like I've turned the vastly improved corner on my health I wanted to get out and about. A small packet of coupons arrived just the other day.  The coupons were for free entry and a free glass to the Vigneron Independent.  Free is such a good price, right?


The Fall event is held in the vast spaces of the Paris Expo center down at the Porte de Versailles.  The Spring event is held in the smaller yet sufficiently vast spaces at l'espace Champarret.  L'espace was where my Fiction #19 published images (works in collaboration with Etienne Barillier, Arthur Morgon, and Julien Betain) were shown.  So we knew how to get there by metro.

The question before me was this; have my taste buds recovered sufficiently from the Horrid Crud to accurately sample a few wines?  There was only one way to find out.

Regrettably I would leave Jude at home to continue to recover from her own version of the Horrid Crud.  She and I seem to go everywhere together and my going alone felt like I was missing 1/2 the Fun Team.  This meant my taste buds would have to try and remember Jude's preferences.  Red.  Not too much "jam" flavor.  Robust.  Preferably not from regions that grow the Gamay or Pinot Noir grapes.

Thinking about this a moment, I knew it would be best to buy a bottle or two, bring them home, have Jude taste them, then find the vintners at the Fall event to Buy By The Case should we uncover something really tasty.  For this reason I would leave le diable (the handcart) at home.  A small cloth bag was all I would need.  Something sufficient to hold three or four bottles of the Red Stuff.


Loins Girded, small cloth bag pocketed, and coupons in hand, off I went.

I stubbed my toe at the door entering la foire.  The guard reminded me to "mind my step."  I said something (apparently) funny in reply and we both laughed.  I hadn't yet had a drink.  The guard welcomed me to the show.

Once somewhat safely inside I could see that l'espace Champerret was indeed much smaller than the porte de Versailles independent vinters show.  Still, it looked like there might be enough wine here to slake my thirst.  Hundreds of wineries had tables.

My search criteria included the following parameters.  Red.  Cab/Merlot/Malbec/CabFranc.  Blended (the norm around here, none of that silly single varietal stuff for us!). Biologique (very important to avoid bug killing chemicals).  Sans sulfites ajouter (extremely important, as Jude is allergic to sulfites).


The bio and sans sulfites ajouter requirements really narrowed the field.  The Cab/Merlot/Malbec/CabFranc blends narrowed the field even further.  These grapes are found predominantly around la ville de Bordeaux.  Though, as I would quickly learn, these cépages are also to be found in the south-west of France near the Spanish boarder and further east around le pays d'Oc.

As the show was rather smaller than la porte de Versailles I was able to walk the aisles and get a sense of who was there and what they had on offer.  There was plenty on offer.  Champagnes (the real ones).  Cremant (like champagnes, only without the name nor the region of origin).  Cognac (strong stuff, that). White wine.  Rose wine (yuck!).  Red wine.  A little biologique.  Very little bio-dynamique.  But mostly wines with stuffed with sulfites and other wine altering chemistries.  As one show attendant suggested to me, the chemicals are just like what they add to California wines.  Thank you UC Davis.  You're bastards! for the way you've "enhanced" wines with chemicals that the Gods Themselves abhor.

I found two vendors simply by wandering around and looking carefully at their regions and sign-age, asked a question or two, hauled out my Free Wine Glass, and asked if I could sample a beverage or two.  One vendor was from le pays d'Oc.  The other was from the area south of Bordeaux.  Both, surprisingly enough, offered red wines sans sulfite ajouter.  Both offered blended wines of the right cépages.  Both offered rather healthy pours (my glass was rather filled on each occasion).  Both offered wines that seemed tasty enough to bring home a few bottles for Jude to try.


I had a good laugh with the vintner from le pays d'Oc.  First I apologized for being a foreigner and for my horrid French language skills.  Then I apologized that I was here on a Mission for my wife.  I said I knew this was a wine show, but I myself preferred beer.  At that the two men working the table broke into a deep and hearty laughter.

It turned out that they too, for most things, preferred beer over wine.  I told them this can't, therefore, be France.  Even heartier laughter ensued.  I see now that the French really do love to laugh and have a good time.

When I confessed that I also looking for something to go with sanglier (wild boar) their eyes lit up, they poured me a nice tall glass of something deep red that would likely go with sanglier.  While I sipped that beautiful wine I was regaled with wonderful stories of the two of them trying to hunt sanglier around the fields on their property.  Imagine man avec gun contre les sanglier, all who hid in tall corn.  One trying to find the other in a game of French cache-cache.  There is no way to translate into English what a good time we all seemed to be having.


With a smile on my lips and four bottles in the cloth bag slung over my shoulder, off I went to descend into the metro to make my way back to home and hearth.  

Inequalities...

I suddenly feel the need to climb onto my high horse.  This time the subject is economic inequality.

I started reading Jill Lepore's "Annals of Society - Richer and Poorer" in the March 16, 2015 issue of the New Yorker magazine. The article confirms in numbers (using the Gini coefficient)  what some of us have known intuitively for years.  America has the widest economic inequality of any first world nation.  By comparison England, Sweden, France, and Germany have much much lower rates of income inequality.

One of the "hot button" words in America these days is "socialism."  We've had people tell us that they can't stand President Obama because he is trying to turn America into a "socialist" nation.  But in considering the aforementioned short list of countries only Sweden could fairly be classified as "socialist."  France is anything but a "socialist" state.  According to many people we speak with here (former professors, economist, fonctionaires, engineers) France continues to suffer and lumber on under Napoleonic Law, and nothing could be less "socialist" than Napoleonic Law.  Germany is very similar to the US in that it is a Federalist Republic.  England is clearly more like the US in terms of capitalism and business and banking.  So what is the difference between these European nations and the US?

One area is governmental oversight.  We've had conversations with friends and colleagues where some people feel that it's not the role of the US Government to legislate "morality" or "ethics".  Yet when we look at the data, America's most economically equitable period came with the highest levels of government economic oversight.  Caps on corporate greed (some might call it "profitability") were imposed during the second world war.  Companies were limited to earnings of 10 percent a year (overseen by the Office of Price Administration).  It's no surprise then that as regulations on capitalism dramatically decreased starting in the 1970's income inequality increased equally dramatically.

What are some of the economic effects of disproportionate wealth distribution?  None other the Fortune magazine provides part of the answer.

The gap between the Haves and the Have-nots is so wide now that Jill Lepore says in her article that some economists in America feel that democracy is at risk.  I've come to believe that democracy in America is already dead.  When the Haves can buy access to the system of governance, democracies turn into fascist states.  This is what happened in Italy under Mussolini.  Monied interests became the government.

The AFL-CIO tracks corporate greed on their site Paywatch.  Having worked for several companies in my career where "profitability" was upper-most in the executives mind, I've come to understand the role of executive stock options and quarterly revenue reports as the most significant driving force behind the "rewards" (though some might call it "compensation") corporate leaders in America receive (some might say "steal" from the working classes).  I feel that corporate executive wealth is a good indicator.  With money comes the ability to buy influence and power.  The CEO of the company that laid me off was part of the Tri-Lateral Commission that does more than just lobby the US Government.

The very same things that happened in Fascist Italy have already happened in America.  Money runs Government.  In turn, Government responds to the interests of money.  Period.  The will of the people?  No one seems to pay much attention to it.

One example of the influence of money on the formerly democratic nation is the Koch brothers funding of a vast database of voter information.  The goal is to influence elections and it's capabilities exceed the "official" Republican party database.   The system of information helps Republicans identify individuals (yes, I said that right) who's vote might be influenced.  While many are rightly concerned with NSA data collection and it's impacts on freedom and liberty, I have to ask how the Koch brothers database is any better or any different?   I feel in both cases that too much personal information has been concentrated into the hands of those who seek to use it against us.

In an example more directly fascist in nature, corporate monies influences governmental policies on a global scale.  Business writes policy.  Or in the cases where they've not actually taken pen in hand to physically write the words themselves, money provides the required "incentives" and "lubrication" for politicians to craft language of law.  While it could be argued that Democrats do this less often than Republicans, just look at the vast sums of tax-payer money given to insurance companies as part of the Affordable Care Act and you'll understand how little "say" We The People have in anything that passes for governance.

I cast about for a good example of what might happen next in America and, well, I'm stumped.  While the Greeks and Spaniards can rise up and agitate against German austerity measures, Americans sit on their couches seemingly complacently distracted by anything that passes for news, commentary, movies or video-games.  For this reason I can't see anything but continued economic inequality in America.  Where politics has been consumed by banks, business, and money, those who suffer under fascism seem to know their place and fail to raise a hand in their own favor.

Mardi Gras

A couple years ago when Jude and I visited the Edgar Quinet art marche (every Sunday, rain or shine or snow or sleet or hail hail the gang's all here) we met a very nice man by the name of Basil Pashkof.  We were talking with a friend of his, a very kind lady who makes wonderful hats, when she turned and said we needed to be introduced to someone important.

 Our Man Basil leading the defile.

Basil is a kind, soft spoken man.  But it was clear he was passionate about one thing; making sure Paris shed some of it's conservativeness and could kick up it's heels.  To this end, Basil organizes not one but two defile here in the city.  They are the Mardi Gras and the Festival of Woman parades.

I didn't a first realize what a mountainous task this had been.  After reading one of Basil's long missives on the topic, I came to learn the "authorities" in this city don't seem to take to citizen marches very kindly.  Marches by the government (ie: le 14 juilliet)?  Fine.  Marches by the trade-unions (ie: the kind that bottle up the entire circle around la Bastille)?  Great!  Bring it on!  But happy citizens wanting to take over the streets for a little parade of their own?  Good luck trying to get a permit.

After years of working on city hall to take him seriously Basil met a man "on the inside" who offered to blend his Gras de Beouf with Basil's Mardi Gras parade.  The two men made for a strong duo and the rest, as they say, is history.

 Bolivians showing the Parisians how to Party!

I've missed the first two years defiles, so I was happy to be able to attend this year's event.

There is a strong presence of groups from Bolivia and Brazil.  Great music abounded.  Sturdy French men dressed as Knights Templar (or was that Knight Hospitalier?) stood guard around those who rode in automobiles.

This Sunday will be le 7ème Carnaval des Femmes, Fête des Reines des Blanchisseuses de la Mi-Carême!  

The City of Light isn't as conservative I was once believed after all.  Thank you, Basil.

[Photos album from Mardi Gras]

Hah!  Paris has it's very own Cruise Knight!  Who would've guessed?

More fun in France...

We're having fun now! I can tell you that much. This time the fun is with the French press.


First, there is a case of a French couple who own 271 art works of Picasso.

They lived on Picasso's property in the years just prior to the artist's death.  For whatever reason the great artist gave the couple the works they have since possessed.  How the art was acquired is what's fallen under the media microscope.

"Did a former electrician and his wife, who kept 271 works of art by Picasso in their garage for close to 40 years, steal the whole hoard?"

Well, gosh, who wouldn't store important pieces of art in their garage?  What are garages for if not this?

Claude, Picasso's son, has filed a complaint and hauled the couple into court.  He says the art work was never signed and is, therefore, stolen.  Apparently, Pablo signed every single piece he either sold or gave away.  Everything that remained in his possession remained un-signed.  Or so his son claims.

As I write this no verdict has been reached.


In a second story, there is another big trial taking place in Lille.  It involves the former "next French President" Dominique Strauss-Kahn (aka: DSK) and a host of interesting and entertaining characters.  It's a pretty big circus with lots of amusing bits for everyone to digest.

DSK is quoted as saying that "Sex workers were equipment."

I'm curious about something.  What kind of "equipment" could DSK be talking about?  "Equipment" as in car repair?  Hmmm... no... those might be properly called "tools".  Maybe "equipment" refers to things found in a gym?  That must be it.


"Disgraced former political heavyweight Dominique Strauss-Kahn took the stand for the third day in a row in his pimping trial, where he was probed about his Paris bachelor pad..."

It must be asked: Probed, eh?  Were the gloves latex free?

One of the more colorful characters around DSK is a man named "Dodo the Pimp."  As the man's name might suggest, Dodo the Pimp appears to have provided DSK with a steady stream of ladies for him to enjoy.  Dodo even named one of his clubs Dodo's Sex Klub.  The letters spell DSK, which can't be a coincidence, can it?  So one might think this man, Dodo, must have had quite an interesting business relationship with DSK.


The Local ran a headline on their news feed that said "Dodo the Pimp claims to not be a pimp."

The comment has long since moved off the Local's front page, but the memory of it lingers in my mind.  It's easy to see the absurdity of the whole thing.

In fact, the circus has become so entertaining that the media is very happy, giddy dare I say, to report on the protests taking place in front of the courthouse.  News reports of topless women protesting DSK's sexual behaviour are accompanied by photos of the protests.

I doubt I'll ever fully understand the nuances of these kinds of events.  Still, to this simple American things can be pretty entertaining around here.  Never in a million years could I have thought this stuff up.

The real "No Go" zones...

We had to smile.  The Local posted an article about places Parisians really avoid.  The article was in response to Fox "News" story about supposed "No-Go" areas of Paris that are (in some weird American fantasy) completely given over to Muslim terrorists or terraces (choose one).


The real Paris "No-Go" areas (according to the Local) include -

• Arc de Triomphe
• Eiffel Tower on Saturday afternoons
• Cafe terraces
• The Metro
• Gare du Nord after dark
• Public toilets
• Forum des Halles
• Champs Elysees nightclubs
• Les Grands Magasins over the winter holidays
• Bois du Boulogne after dark

While not a bad list, as far as lists typically go, I'm not entirely in agreement with their findings.  Here's why -

My brother and father had come over for a visit and we were on a double-decker tour bus.  We like to do this with guests as it gives them a nice overview of the city.  As we made our way up to the traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe we watched a man walk up the very middle of the street.  He was a One Man Manifestation.  I'm not sure what issues he was protesting, but he held papers high in the air as he marched up the Champs.  He marched straight up the road and across the heavily trafficked circle.  Cars, busses, motorcycles and delivery trucks all stopped for him.  It was like witnessing a Parting of the Waters.  Once he reached the Eternal Flame he turned to face the Champs Elysee and shouted his grievances.  There was a Second Parting of the Waters as he marched back in our direction.  It was then that the police gently levered him to the ground and gently detained him.  He was completely naked.


OK.  So we were playing tourists and maybe normal Parisians never go there.  To the Arc, that is.  Nakedness is always optional in these parts.  Yet, where would we have witnessed a One Naked Man Manifestation had we observed the Local's "No-Go" zone rules?

I agree with the comment about the Eiffel Tower.  It's madness.  But... friends of ours were over on vacation and stayed near the tower.  On the 14th of July they joined a Mass Migration of Party-Goers.  Everyone headed for l'herbe (lawn) that runs from the tower down to l'ecole Militaire.  Our friends told us that a huge crowd of people sat peacefully as fireworks lit the Paris night sky.  They couldn't believe how so many people going to such a large event could be so well behaved.  It was one of the highlights of their trip.

I'm not sure how to apply the Local's "No-Go" zone rules to the Eiffel Tower.  Perhaps an astrologer could clear things up for us and let us know what would be the best time to avoid the place?

Cafe terraces.  Um.  Yes.  Except for... [bringing out a rather complex algorithm for calculating what's a "good" terrace and what's a "radicalized" terrace] ... er... it's too mind boggling.  Yes.  Some places should be avoided because of the massive-throngs-of-arrogant-gawking-loud-mouthed-tourists.  Other places can be just wonderful for spending a warm lazy sunny summer afternoon over a few beers.  Choosing Wisely can lead to one of those Magic Paris Experiences.  Such as on the night I ate dinner, talked to a rare book-buyer from the University of Chicago and his mistress, and watched the martins whirl and twirl high up in the twilight-lit sky.


The metro.  No.  I don't agree.  The smell of urine is part of the Paris Experience.  It simply has to be tolerated.  There's no avoiding it.  Besides, the city of Paris has cleaned things up a bit since the aristocracy dumped their sewage into open troughs down in the Marais where they lived before heading out west to follow the Sun [King] to Versailles.  Nothing could be as bad as that Marais smell, could it?  Well, except for the carnal grounds of the old cemetery of the innocents.  But that's another long story.  So suck it up and dive into the Metro like the rest of us do.

Dum-de-dum-dum... ah!  Public toilets.  Now there's a fine subject and one that I'm well versed in.  You see, I'm like a Big Old Dog.  I like to leave my mark everywhere I go.  Actually, I have little choice in the matter.  My bladder feels older than I am and it needs regular voiding.  So, I make normal use of the Public Facilities.  In fact, I hold a Mental Map of all the Public Pissoirs of Paris.  I'll agree that they're at times Horrid Hovels of Hell.  But... what was I just saying about the Old Marais and the filthy aristocracy?  Things have improved just a bit.  When you Have to Go, well, you Have to Go.


Oh!  Which reminds me.  If you're a Connoisseur of Fine Urinals, head north to la bassine de la villette.  There sits one of the Finest Examples of Human Ingenuity.  It's a multi-stall (Multi-Stall!!! - no waiting - take your choice) urinal that stands proudly next to la bassine.  Its al fresco experience must not be missed (by men, at least)... and before I forget, for yet another Wonderful Al Fresco Experience, do try the urinals next to les bulles pits in les jardins de Luxemburg.  Smelly?  Yes.  But please do try and remember how the aristocrats lived before the city cleaned up the Marais, OK?

Forum des Halles... agreed.  Vile place.  Stay away.  Nothing to see there.  Move along, please... to hear the  tout les demanches 17h30 organ concert in Saint Eustache.  Now there's a Grand Experience and one worth passing through the Belly of Paris for.

Champs Elysees nightclubs... um... we have no experience.  Can't comment, really.

Les Grands Magasins over the winter holidays... er... well... actually... it's not all that bad.  If you don't mind feeling like you're being pushed into a train in Tokyo, that is.  Other than that, the lights can be all twinkly and pretty.  If you've had a little to drink or if you're very easily entertained it can be a nice experience.

The Bois du Boulogne after dark.  Huh.  We have no idea.  We hear stories about the gypsies driving vans into the Bois and setting up business.  What business? you might ask.  From what we gather it has to do with men and women and the aforementioned vans.  And we're not inclined to ask for further clarification.

There you have it.  Our response to the "real" Paris non-Fox-Snooze-approved "No-Go" zones.