Dall-E cartoon of “Frenchman in beret in hammock” You know what would be great? If while all these criminal cases against Trump inch their way forward, and as he stews and fulminates and grunts and grumbles and harangues, he gets arrested red-handed robbing a convenience store and pistol-whipping the clerk. But meanwhile, let’s bash the French.
I'm partial to Larson's phobias, especially "Anatidaephobia," or the fear that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching you and, "Luposlipaphobia," the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
Good Far Sides have been cited, and I agree that they are in the top tier. I submit “Hey, look at me everybody! I’m a cowboy! . . . Howdy, howdy, howdy!”
The question claiming that the French are "better" at a number of things also brought to mind that they are far and away more adept at insults. This was epitomized in the oh-so-French-like invective from John Cleese directed at King Arthur and his knights, as the "Taunting French Guard" in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail:"
Taunting French Guard: "I unplug my nose in your general direction, sons-of-a-window dresser! So, you think you could outclever us French folk with your silly knees bent running about and dancing behavior. I'll wave my private parts at your aunties! You cheesy load of secondhand electric donkey bottom biters!"
I think this unique and often fraught historical relationship between the English ("Les Rosbifs") and French ("The Frogs") can probably be summed up in the Battle of Crécy, during the Hundred Years’ War, when several hundred Norman soldiers exposed their butts in derision to English longbowmen — no doubt to ill effect. This was the first and only recorded English moon shot.
My Lovely Wife agrees with Gene that "Cat Fud" is the best Gary Larson cartoon. We have been owned by cats for our entire relationship. One of the habits we have developed is putting "Cat Fud" on the grocery list. If we are about to run out and the need is urgent, "Cat Fud" will be followed by "Oh, please! Oh, please!"
Having spent a good deal of time in France, both Paris and the rest of the country, what became clear early on was that most negative French stereotypes can usually be traced to Paris and the Parisians --- viewed much like say, Berliners or New Yorkers, by not only foreigners, but their own countrymen as well. In my experience --- and I would assume that of others who have also traveled extensively in France --- these oversimplified characteristics dissipate quickly once you leave Paris.
The French do share a certain appropriate (IMHO) snobbishness about such things as cuisine, art/design and, of course, their language, but also, controversially, about who is "French" and accepted as such. They also share a unique relationship with time --- how it is spent and how it generally figures in daily life --- unique, I suggest, when compared with the popular notions about Italians or the Spanish, for example. In any event, as for "la langue française," I assume the commenter who called it inefficient was at least half-joking. It is hardly as efficient when it comes to space as German, which manages to fit an entire sentence into one word but, it is nevertheless extremely efficient and precise, with an on point word or expression for absolutely everything.
After all, it was Flaubert, widely considered to be the father of the modern novel, who coined the phrase, "le mot juste," or, the right or appropriate word. In fact, there's even a word for when you can't come up with one. "Machin" is a catchall for something (or someone) you can't remember the name of --- more or less like "whatchamacallit " or "whosits" in English. Of course, a word as formally used may have nothing to do with how it is used in slang or jargon. Take one of my favorites: "yaouter," literally "to yogurt." Nothing to do with the dairy product, at least not directly. It's used to describe singing or speaking in a language one either doesn't know very well or, has decided to fake. Much like English-speaking tourists attempting to make themselves understood by speaking English loudly in a Pepe Le Pew accent or worse, speaking what sound like actual words in the accent, accompanied by French mannerisms learned from Monty Python. Like many, many other words and phrases --- nothing quite as expressively precise in English.
This cartoon is the best Far Side one. Cat fud is second best. My daughter’s fifth grade GT program teacher had a mug with it on her desk. And every time one of us pushes on a door that says “ pull” or visa versa we quote it.
Gene: You said “I went back in time and assassinated Hitler as an infant.” You must have been the world’s most precocious infant! This reminds me of the Groucho Marx joke about “killing an elephant in my pajamas”.
On deciding about a second child: Parents of just one child seem to assume that a second will be another like the first. I've never seen that to be the case. This is not a twin born later. The two may be alike in some ways, but in others they'll be quite different, even the opposite. That's fascinating to see and adds to all of your understanding of them and yourselves. Plus, you get another crack at handling situations you invariably fumbled the first time.
That fellow Montgomery was fired for reasons other than the odious DeSantis knee-capping. Someone in the Axios legal dept said “ okay, now you can finally fire him. We’re covered.” In business school case studies, the question of what to do with a talented maverick is always “ fire ‘em.”
I was in the U.S. Army for 21 years, and had the privilege to work with a French officer in a NATO assignment. As a rule of thumb, most of the Americans I had served with often made fun of the French military (surrender jokes, etc.). But both the competence and self-deprecating sense of humor possessed by this particular French major in the Gendarmerie Nationale completely changed all our attitudes. It goes back to one of my favorite quotes: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain
I can attest to the lack of bennies for the $100 subscribers, except for echoes of Gene and Pat laughing all the way to the bank.
I'm partial to Larson's phobias, especially "Anatidaephobia," or the fear that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching you and, "Luposlipaphobia," the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
I nominate two more cartoons to the Far Side Hall of Fame:
Butterflies from the wrong side of the meadow.
Daddy long-leg jerks.
Good Far Sides have been cited, and I agree that they are in the top tier. I submit “Hey, look at me everybody! I’m a cowboy! . . . Howdy, howdy, howdy!”
The question claiming that the French are "better" at a number of things also brought to mind that they are far and away more adept at insults. This was epitomized in the oh-so-French-like invective from John Cleese directed at King Arthur and his knights, as the "Taunting French Guard" in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail:"
Taunting French Guard: "I unplug my nose in your general direction, sons-of-a-window dresser! So, you think you could outclever us French folk with your silly knees bent running about and dancing behavior. I'll wave my private parts at your aunties! You cheesy load of secondhand electric donkey bottom biters!"
I think this unique and often fraught historical relationship between the English ("Les Rosbifs") and French ("The Frogs") can probably be summed up in the Battle of Crécy, during the Hundred Years’ War, when several hundred Norman soldiers exposed their butts in derision to English longbowmen — no doubt to ill effect. This was the first and only recorded English moon shot.
I always thought the best Far Side comic was "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings." 2nd place to "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."
My Lovely Wife agrees with Gene that "Cat Fud" is the best Gary Larson cartoon. We have been owned by cats for our entire relationship. One of the habits we have developed is putting "Cat Fud" on the grocery list. If we are about to run out and the need is urgent, "Cat Fud" will be followed by "Oh, please! Oh, please!"
Oops tried to post a photo. Nope.
Cat Fud still makes me LOL.
Also, buy American. These are made in Brooklyn by World Confections, Inc., and have no beef tallow.
Having spent a good deal of time in France, both Paris and the rest of the country, what became clear early on was that most negative French stereotypes can usually be traced to Paris and the Parisians --- viewed much like say, Berliners or New Yorkers, by not only foreigners, but their own countrymen as well. In my experience --- and I would assume that of others who have also traveled extensively in France --- these oversimplified characteristics dissipate quickly once you leave Paris.
The French do share a certain appropriate (IMHO) snobbishness about such things as cuisine, art/design and, of course, their language, but also, controversially, about who is "French" and accepted as such. They also share a unique relationship with time --- how it is spent and how it generally figures in daily life --- unique, I suggest, when compared with the popular notions about Italians or the Spanish, for example. In any event, as for "la langue française," I assume the commenter who called it inefficient was at least half-joking. It is hardly as efficient when it comes to space as German, which manages to fit an entire sentence into one word but, it is nevertheless extremely efficient and precise, with an on point word or expression for absolutely everything.
After all, it was Flaubert, widely considered to be the father of the modern novel, who coined the phrase, "le mot juste," or, the right or appropriate word. In fact, there's even a word for when you can't come up with one. "Machin" is a catchall for something (or someone) you can't remember the name of --- more or less like "whatchamacallit " or "whosits" in English. Of course, a word as formally used may have nothing to do with how it is used in slang or jargon. Take one of my favorites: "yaouter," literally "to yogurt." Nothing to do with the dairy product, at least not directly. It's used to describe singing or speaking in a language one either doesn't know very well or, has decided to fake. Much like English-speaking tourists attempting to make themselves understood by speaking English loudly in a Pepe Le Pew accent or worse, speaking what sound like actual words in the accent, accompanied by French mannerisms learned from Monty Python. Like many, many other words and phrases --- nothing quite as expressively precise in English.
https://fifetli.blog/2019/01/15/midvale-school-for-the-gifted/comment-page-1/
This cartoon is the best Far Side one. Cat fud is second best. My daughter’s fifth grade GT program teacher had a mug with it on her desk. And every time one of us pushes on a door that says “ pull” or visa versa we quote it.
Gene: You said “I went back in time and assassinated Hitler as an infant.” You must have been the world’s most precocious infant! This reminds me of the Groucho Marx joke about “killing an elephant in my pajamas”.
On deciding about a second child: Parents of just one child seem to assume that a second will be another like the first. I've never seen that to be the case. This is not a twin born later. The two may be alike in some ways, but in others they'll be quite different, even the opposite. That's fascinating to see and adds to all of your understanding of them and yourselves. Plus, you get another crack at handling situations you invariably fumbled the first time.
That fellow Montgomery was fired for reasons other than the odious DeSantis knee-capping. Someone in the Axios legal dept said “ okay, now you can finally fire him. We’re covered.” In business school case studies, the question of what to do with a talented maverick is always “ fire ‘em.”
I must respectfully dissent on the matter of greatest Far Side cartoon ever. It's this one: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/438678819954933952/
I was in the U.S. Army for 21 years, and had the privilege to work with a French officer in a NATO assignment. As a rule of thumb, most of the Americans I had served with often made fun of the French military (surrender jokes, etc.). But both the competence and self-deprecating sense of humor possessed by this particular French major in the Gendarmerie Nationale completely changed all our attitudes. It goes back to one of my favorite quotes: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain