It’s a real curse, isn’t it. Family, I mean. Harry and Meghan have my deepest sympathy because I know exactly how they feel. Here’s a royal saga that I can easily relate to. Only for me, it was the other way around. Instead of leaving my family, it’s my family who left me! You just […]
Society
Claude Lévi-Strauss – Father Christmas Burned as a Heretic
On December 24th 1951, a group of Catholic clergymen hanged and set on fire a Father Christmas effigy in front of at least 250 children in Dijon, France. Following the incident, the late French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss wrote an article entitled “Le Père Noël supplicié” (“The tortured Father Christmas”) in the literary journal “Les Temps […]
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Peleton Loses $1.5bn Because Feminists Hate Exercise Bikes
Here I go again, trying to find trouble where trouble is to be found. In the same way I will continue to defend Sint Nikolaas and Zwarte Piet as if my life depended on it, I’m going to defend the right of beautiful women to exercise in their own living room. Come on, have you […]
FRANCE: Violences Conjugales – Un Mal Gaulois?
Certains records nationaux sont enviables, d’autres honteux. Les chiffres officiels concernant les violences conjugales en France font froid dans le dos: une femme est tuée par son partenaire ou son ex-partenaire tous les trois jours. Ce qui est encore plus inquiétant, c’est que les chiffres officiels ne reflètent peut-être que la partie visible de l’iceberg […]
Prince Andrew – Forgetting The Bar, Remembering The Pizza!
Do you remember what you were doing on 10 March 2001? I certainly don’t, but then again, I’m an expert at forgetting things when it suits me. And if Prince Andrew’s BBC interview is anything to go by, so is he. It’s one thing not remembering if there was a bar at Tramp’s, but not […]
ITALIE: Le Décès De Venise
Beaucoup d’entre vous, comme moi, sont coupables. Nous sommes coupables d’avoir visité une ville malade mais belle. Nous avons été au chevet d’une patiente mourante et n’avons rien fait pour la guérir de sa maladie. Elle s’éloigne lentement, sans bruit, acceptant que son destin soit scellé. Elle répond au nom de Venise et reste, malgré […]
Dutch “Zwarte Piet” – An Insult To Global Warming
Having reaped the success of my last two posts on this more than delicate subject, this could be the final instalment of a rather tedious trilogy. Why tedious, I hear you scream. The answer is quite simple – to coin a famous phrase, it’s much ado about nothing. But the news is that this time […]
Why Supermarkets Are Getting Into Your Heads
There are two things missing in supermarkets – a giant clock that tells how much time we have wasted and an escape route. It must be old age creeping in before it’s due, but I’m finding more and more reasons to moan about things. And I’m not just referring to all the […]
Vins Au Féminin – Que Les Hommes Aillent Se Faire Boire!
Ne vous méprenez pas. J’aime et respecte les femmes et il ne pourrait en être autrement, ma propre mère est une femme. Mais je dois admettre que mon épouse a un penchant pour les vins blancs doux ou les rosés, et cela m’agace. Cela aurait pu être bien pire pour Colombelle, notre petit […]
Sexism And Wine – When Colombelle Meets Adam
It could have been much worse for Colombelle, our sweet little white wine tasting of exotic fruit and wild flowers. Instead of meeting up with Adam, a respectable red, she could have suffered the displeasure of having to pass the best part of the evening with an Arrogant Frog. Discrimination starts in the vineyards, […]