the worst Americanisms ("anglicisms") in French today

le leader   (not "le dirigeant")
le look (not "presentation," "apparence")
plus relax (adj.) (not "moins ostentatoire," "decontracte," "reposant," etc.)
plus glamour (adj). (not"sensuel" or "prestigieux")
stopper (not "arreter" ou "faire cesser")
lister (not "enumerer")
le top (not "le comble," "le nec plus ultra,: etc.)
les stars (not "vedettes,"
cool (not "chouette,"
team (not "equipe")


etc.

The memory of the Boston Marathon shattered for a long, long time

The first terrorist attack since 2001 hit one of the most historic cities in the United States yesterday.

As a European commentator said, "On s'y retrouve."  One of the most liberal, cultured cities in North America or anywhere in the world, for that matter.

26,000 runners and thousands of spectators in Back Bay.  An international marathon, the oldest of its kind.

Unimaginable pain and fear.

Who did it and why?  The answer to the second undoubtedly is rage and hatred.

The bombs with shrapnel intended to mutilate the maximum number of human beings were obviously the actions of persons with "axes to grind," an acute sense of being victims of injustice.

Only "I" suffer, or only "my people" suffer.  The "other" does not suffer or does not suffer sufficiently.  A  globalized war of "us" against "them."   :"They" do it to "us" all the time.  "They" are the cause my unhappiness.  "They" do not understand how they make me/us suffer all the time.  "They" do not care.  "They" intentionally hurt or mistreat me/us.

There are no variations (or individuals, within that group of "they"/the 'other", whether the group be racial, political, religious, social/cultural.

Thus, "they" must and deserve to be (collectively) punished (or even destroyed).

"I" ("we") have the sole right to be witness, critic, jury, priest, sheriff, referee, judge, God, and executioner.

The very definition of evil: vengeance wreaked on "other" without regard for the pain inflicted on the "other" or whatever or whoever reminds the victim of or is associated with the "other".   Whatever the motivation, including the desire for justice.



# # # # #



As one who has had chronic physical pain over the years, I feel such sadness and regret for those maimed for life, who will have to undergo surgery, physical therapy, carry scars of, physical disfigurement and impairment, and endure for long periods of time probably excruciating pain, taking a battery of drugs, whose lives have forever been changed, who will have to learn how to continue living..with dreams shattered.

":Au secours du koala": There rest less than a million koalas in Australia

Estimates today of the number of koalas left in Australia vary between 40,000 and 300,000 according to "30 Millions d'amis," the weekly French television program on animals.  Three hundred years ago there were several million.

One of the septuagenarian Australia women interviewed states that the koalas she takes care of--ones who have been  injured in the wild and that she eventually releases back into their natural habitat--states that they "have reveled her own humanity to herself."

http://www.30millionsdamis.fr/lemission/au-sommaire-de-la-semaine/affiche-reportage/reportage/au-secours-des-koalas.html


* * * * *

In fact, the population of kolas has decreased 90% in the past 15 years.  One veterinarian hospital treats 20 injured koalas per week.

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/live/message/516/06b/891/cc6/f06/538/05e/237.html


* * * * *

Two questions remain as to why their numbers have been so drastically reduced and whether or not the koala will even survive at all as a species.

Is it loss of their natural habitat?  Disease?   Poachers?

It would be terrible if the koala were to become extinct, only found in a few zoos around the world.

Maybe Texas SHOULD secede from the United States (and Why)

It is instructive to observe the U.S. from abroad, even if that means watching Swiss television, as I did this morning (tsr.ch), with its report on the battle in the U.S. Senate over firearms.

In Texas, and I believe this is more than anecdotal, in the town of Louisville, the report showed children aged 12 or younger (I think there were kids as young as 8) receive instruction in using guns and rifles (one mother explained it as being so that their children could learn how not to hit things that they did not want to kill) in classrooms.   One father offered it as a gift to his son on his birthday.

One gun store owner explained his opposition to tightening of gun control laws saying that instruction was so purely for self defense, not to kill innocent others.  But one knows already how in this trigger-happy society how easily one elides into the other, intentionally or accidentally.

I believe the state of affairs in the Lonestar State to be deeply immoral.

And I would not be unhappy if Texas left the U.S. with my blessing and with George W. Bush as its new president.

Modestly characterized as "unruly" or "loud" behaviors at 3rd Avenue and Pined

"I am a victim of social oppression:  crime, poverty, racism, family, unemployment and drop-out.  I have no choice.  I am full of anger...at white people, who dominate everything*.  And I'm not doing anything wrong   If I smack someone, like it's 'cause they got it comin' to 'em, y'understand?."

The behaviors and attitudes on exhibit day and nightnear bus-stops at 3rd & Pine and 3rd & Virginia in Seattle, modestly characterized as "unruly" or "loud" are an insult to all the decent, hard-working African-Americans in this country.

The screaming epithets and threats--"You mother-fu----, I'm gonna kick yo' ass jus as soon as ya come ove' here"--are not the result of poverty, racism, or low levels of education so much as a unwillingness of parents and community leaders to curb or proscribe violence as a way of life.

Changing small behaviors would be a start.  Shouting and fighting in public should not be something considered benign by blacks--or whites.

No need to denounce the recent film "Precious" as inimical to the image of black Americans as "The Birth of the Nation" when the reality gives lie to the rhetoric.

All the talk of diversity and emphasizing our similarities, or local productions of Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisins in the Sun" or showings of the film "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Django Unchained" seem only to have led to an ostrich-in-the-sand attitude and a relinquishing of responsibility within African-American communities to distinguish between language that diminishes others, destroys human property, provokes hate...and that which builds bridges and helps others.

"And hey man don't talk to me of what those Indians [South Asians] or Chinese do.  They ain't got anything to do with it.  I'm talkin' of THIS COUNTRY, get it?"

* Even if Caucasians represent up to 70% of the U.S. population and it would not be surprising that demographically speaking it would be statistically reasonable to expect that one would see more white faces than black faces in the cinema, in advertisements, etc.

* * * * *

Kindness and honesty are the birthright of all human beings, no matter what the color of their skin, their religion or political creed, past, present circumstances, or station in life.

Reclaim them for they cannot be taken away by any.

Redirecting aggression among cats; among human beings

"Redirected aggression occurs when a cat is aroused into an aggressive response by one 
person or animal, but then redirects this aggression onto another person or animal. For 
example, if two family cats have a spat, the losing cat, still aroused, may walk up and 
attack the family child."

Human beings are no so different from animals (cats, dogs...) in this respect.

A lesson-in-the-making from the YMCA, clarified by reading an online article from the Humane Society of King County:



 http://www.seattlehumane.org/files/images/Dealing_With_Cat_Aggression_Toward_People.pdf