s.o.s. from the zinc bar

The French institution of the café is in distress, reports the New York Times from Paris. The economic crunch and Anglo-/Americanization of the French lifestyle is eating away at this historical cornerstone of culture. It's an interesting/alarming cue into the changing identity of people and culture today. A clue that "globalization," or whatever you're going to call it, is affecting some of our most sacred and long-standing cultural and social institutions.

God, no! Give me a job, Paris, and I will come over there and try to help make things right on account of the Anglos with dining and alcoholic merriment. I may not bring back the chain-smoking, but it's a start.