The Supreme Tradition of Spelling Bees

I had to look up Han Solo, but that is brilliant.

France to go from the Hoggar to Dunkerque (did he really say that?)

i think he literally used the phrase "from tamanrasset to dunkerque". and yes of course he said it. that was what the algerian independence war was all about.

btw bjd you have 28 years more of france advance on me but i think i have enough grounds for arguing that if i moved to france tomorrow for the rest of my life i would also never come to feel french; on the other hand if i moved to england it would only take a couple of months until i'd adjust perfectly.
i do like your "passive" way of stating things, "there is some nationalities you can become, some you are only born into", but i prefer a personal way; the way i express it is: "i like england, i don't like france".
this experience is probably very much unlike yours, but in postmodern relativism our two views can coexist peacefully i believe. and there surely are many other ways to word it (which implies, the contrary, too).

... and yes, obviously, "francafrique" did not succeed. at least not in its day and not in the way imagined by the political leaders. however, in my eyes it is succeeding right now through the modern day make-up of france's population and whether the present political class likes it or not, this is the current reality. it is easy to argue "don't complain now you guys started it..."

Edited by: mathilda

What De Gaulle said, in 1959 (English translation of excerpts) was that he would let the Algerians choose either independence or integration -- "to become part and parcel of the French people who would then, in effect, spread from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset."

When it became clear that the Algerians wanted independence, he agreed, which is why the OAS (Organisation de l'Armée Secrète, the colonists' terrorist organization) tried to assassinate him at least once.

I just defended the rightwing blogger Matt Drudge over on TT last week, and here I am defending Charles De Gaulle. Maybe I'm turning Tory in my old age. If any of hear me defending GW Bush, you have my permission to shoot me.

Edited by: VinnyD

Relax, Vinny -- you're not defending De Gaulle, just linking to what he said. One of the ways that de Gaulle actually confused the issue was by telling the pieds noirs (the French settlers in Algeria) "je vous ai compris". Of course, telling them he understood them was taken by many to mean that he would oppose Algerian independence. Which all led to them hating him even more when they realized he was going to pull out.

Mathilda, I think various views can coexist peacefully even without "postmodern relativism". Now if someone could explain postmodernism to me, I would be grateful.

My sketchy memory of that line was from an article in a french magazine called "la revue" i was reading about how de gaulle changed his mind about algerian independence gradually. they printed a row of de gaulle's enunciations over that period of time which indicated how he changed his discourse by degrees. it listed in '58 on radio alger "la france de dunkerque à tamanrasset!"

Hello my friends,

Due to a lightning hitting nearby my house last sunday, I've remained computer-less for the past week. Just today I could replace the broken parts and setup everything up.

So what's up here?
Shilgia, Máxima got herself in trouble by saying there's no such thing as Dutchism ?? That's a very common thing to say here, where she was born, as we are an immigration country and many people think we have very little in common among us.

We're an immigrant country too, but it really wouldn't do to say that there was therefore no such thing as Americanism or American values etc. Although . . . (no, I won't get started on that). And yes, I realize Loscar's country is American too but I don't want to get started on that either.

Loscar, did the lightning do anything besides fry your computer connection?

Vinny, you are leaving very few topics to start on... so let's discuss about lightnings... ha ha.
No, it was a very selective metheor (at least at my house), only MY computer (other four PC in the area remained unharmed) suffered and the ADSL Router.

I disconnected the router immediately from the phone cord to take it to where it could be checked up to see what had happened to it. I had to buy a new one which I did today.

The funny thing is that on thursday I found that the router's cord that I left connected to the phone line, was burnt in one of it's terminals and it was producing a short circuit that left us without phone service for some days until I realised that that was the problem and I changed the phone cord by a new one.

The other strange thing is that the TV in my room, since the lightning, when turned on starts up showing the screen all full of numbers and letters for a few seconds before it gets the normal picture.

Hi Loscar, same question as Vinny asked: are you and your house and your neighbors et al. all OK?

Yes, Máxima created quite a stir. It's about a year ago now, but people still make references to it. I read a report about her speech in the newspaper, the day she delivered it (before the storm of criticism) and I remember thinking that it was rather bland, and that "There is no such thing as The Dutchman" was a bit of a truism. Of course everyone is different. I was surprised at what people chose to read into it.