| |
Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Paris, April 30 2007
(Apr 30, 2007)
They said : Who will take care of the kids? They said: She's too pretty to have any brains. They said : How can a woman deal with foreign policy? They said : She's not married to the father of her children. They said : She has a foul temper.
And yet. This week might be a historic turning point in French history (forgive the purple prose) is enough French voters finally decide to vote for a woman.
I can't wait!
B. and I will be counting the votes next Sunday evening in the village.
Click here to discuss this
(5 replies,
Latest reply: Apr 30, 2007)
Paris, October 22, 2005
(Oct 22, 2005)
Hooray, half term is upon us! Full programme starting with two days at the seaside near la Baule for a lot of wind and rain I assume.
Yesterday I got a huge pile of books from amazon and read The History Boys (faber). Rather enjoyable, though less frothy than Forty Years on, more boys' genitals and general bathos, but who am I to complain? I am only a woman.
Perhaps it is the schoolmistress in me but I was shocked by the typos and the lax punctuation and syntax they had allowed in. No proof-readers these days are there?
"A stock vision of an undergraduate then (gleaned from movies like Robert Tatylor in 'A Yank at Oxford') was...". page viii
"Once there had been polished parquet floors the woodwork was of bright chestnut polish, and ..." page xviii
"abandon" (the noun) twice in the introduction (?)
"in the nick of time I began to get grips with it myself" page xxiv
"Ne soit pas timide" (should be "sois"). Other mistakes in French usage but that was the point. page 14 of the play itself.
Still it is very comforting to see misprints...
Click here to discuss this
(4 replies,
Latest reply: Oct 26, 2005)
Paris, October 21, 2005
(Oct 21, 2005)
Windy and rainy today. The little sweet and I had to rush home from the park. She has made huge progress in her eight weeks of nursery school and now masters quite complex syntactic structure, like the difference between "viens" and vienne". She has been told her mother had a little baby in her tummy and takes it in her stride. Her first copy book with drawings and photographs... Bless.
Poor dil is having a hard time at work. One would like to see young women treated fairly. Alas...
Click here to discuss this
(2 replies,
Latest reply: Oct 22, 2005)
Paris, October 20, 2005
(Oct 20, 2005)
Well, autumn has set in at last so it's back to the closet with summer things and roll on the shoe-buying spree. I tried to start a shoe thread but quite unaccountably, noone was interested, apart from Polly, who is not interested in shoes (how can that be?). And now I see it is more foreign travel for her...
We have a two-week holiday now looming and I have been kept busy all morning trying to organise the work I'll take to the country with me, thus spoiling the joy of using the new rotovator in the jungle.
Also had to check the corrections for the pocketbook edition of Port Mungo. Alwasy a sobering experience, alas, to discover you've used "encore" twice in the same sentence and DIDN'T SPOT it at the time.
The only consolation is that I insisted on leaving in New York's SoHo, instead of using Soho for both New York's and London's.
Thursday is cleaning lady day; we usually have a cosy chat over coffee and biscuits but she's fasting (Ramadan) so it's just the gossip and a few giggles.
Back to work. I miss the old boards.
I thought I would say that.
Click here to discuss this
(5 replies,
Latest reply: Oct 22, 2005)
FWT: "nana", "gonzesse", "nŽnette"?
(Oct 20, 2005)
Literal meaning : "nana"= girl/ woman; "gonzesse"= woman/cow; "nŽnette"= young thing, Now this is a serious subject, this business of what you can call girls/women and what you can't.
"Nana" is the most innocuous. I would say (meaning no offence), "The BBC nana is having a hard time coping with the complaints". She might be any age between 25 and 65. Male equivalent: "mec". Could be replaced by "bonne femme" as in "la bonne femme de la BBC m'a envoyŽ promener" (= the BBC cow sent me packing). perhaps not quite "cow" but definitely not complimentary. Male equivalent would be "un bonhomme".
"Gonzesse" is more vulgar and derives from the Spanish "gonzo" ."Cette gonzesse me tape sur les nerfs" (This cow is getting on my nerves). I wouldn't use it but many men would.
"NŽnette" means young and cute and pea-brained. Of course no one could possibly have called me "nŽnette" for a while now, but few did it to my face even when I was young and cute. "Minet" (kitten), cute young guy, and "Minette" (=pussy..., in all meanings of the word) , both slightly passŽ.
Now I bet that will make your day.
Click here to discuss this
(4 replies,
Latest reply: Oct 21, 2005)
Click here to see more Journal Entries
| |
From h2g2
23.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 35 Minutes Ago)
From h2g2
Better than expected
(No Posting)
(Latest post: Yesterday)
From h2g2
22.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: Yesterday)
From h2g2
21.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 2 Days Ago)
From h2g2
20.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 2 Days Ago)
From h2g2
19.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 4 Days Ago)
From h2g2
18.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 5 Days Ago)
From h2g2
Delete me
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 5 Days Ago)
From h2g2
17.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 6 Days Ago)
From h2g2
16.05.13
(No Posting)
(Latest post: 6 Days Ago)
Click here to see more Conversations | |
