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.

Sarkozy and Merkel in Paris

Scenario 1
Nicolas: Angela, you should have seen this carp my people caught me off the coast of Brittany. I saw it with my own eyes from the deck. I almost had to put down my Beaujolais Grand Cru and go down and have a look. My chef prepared it in a beurre blanc....
Angela: But you wouldn't beleive this trout I caught in Bayern; it was at least this big... I had a hard time wrestling it in and I lost it before I could knock it out.

Scenario 2
Nicolas: We need so much money to get ourselves out of this foutu bordel. Maybe even this much.
Angela: Ach, no, it's more like this much. We're screwed.

Scenario 3
Nicolas: Don't even try and say you didn't kiss Bush's ass all the way into this mess.
Angela: Like you didn't bring him a wheel of Beaufort this big when you visited him at Kennebunkport. Don't start with me, Sarkozy.