Category: General

I’ve just discovered that yesterday was supposed to be Niceness Day – la Journée de la Gentillesse.  On Monday evening the French president, François Hollande, was awarded the Niceness Prize by political journalists.  Well, he’s never going to get a prize for competence, so let him have something.  I suppose he’s making a nice mess of things, but that doesn’t translate into French to give the correct idea.

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/11/12/peut-on-etre-gentil-et-francais_n_2117930.html

This idea of a world-wide Niceness Day was thought up by a Japanese medic, for reasons best known to himself.  The question asked by the Huffington Post is whether one can be French and nice.  Apparently lots of French people admit to not being gentil behind the wheel of a car, but blame this on the lack of “niceness” of all the other road users.

This is the first I’ve heard of this, but even without that I drove into town yesterday without knocking anyone down, didn’t kick any dogs (though it was a close call when the physiotherapist put her unerring thumb on the painful bit) and generally behaved in a civilised manner.  So do we really need a particular day to emulate Dame Edna?

Husband asks if Nice is the capital of “nice”.  It’s never struck me as such, but I may have another look when we get to France next week.

I realise that many cherished colleagues may be busy watching cricket or may not be interested in James Bond movies, but I have just returned from watching “Skyfall” and can definitely recommend it for good entertainment.  We weren’t terribly impressed by “Quantum of Solace”, but the good reviews of this one persuaded us to give it a go – senior citizens’ afternoon price.

I think the theme music was meant to be something special, but it made little impact on us. The opening sequences on the other hand were OTT and very well done.   Two scenes were somewhat derivative: one from the book  “You only live twice” and the other from the film “The Deerhunter”, but then the action started.  Not just the action but the interaction between M and 007, which was excellent.  There was a very good balance between escapism and credibility throughout.  A Common’s select committee with a Cherie Blair look-alike as chairman, lecturing M, gave Judi Dench the opportunity for some very good dialogue, not forgetting the other committee member who suggested the chairman ought to let M get a word in edgeways “just for variety”.

The finale takes place in the country of my birth, and Bond’s, with grey skies, low cloud and bleak moorland.  Not a CIA agent – sorry, “operative” – in sight.  Yanks – who needs ’em?

Diane Sawyer is a very fine lady
Reading out the newscasts on the ABC.
That ain’t working that’s the way to do it
Read the autocue and get your juice for free.
Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Lemme tell you that blonde ain’t dumb.
Maybe needs a little bit of help though
To stop her falling down on her bum.

Continue reading “Juice (allegedly). November Pome”

Elections, even US elections, bring it all flooding back.

In my youth, I was a political animal, Neither ashamed nor defensive about that. It was just what I was. My first political memory is the 1959 election. Lying on the floor of the lounge in an Army house on the Bulbridge Estate in Wilton filling in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ constituency map of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in either blue or red (other colours were not really necessary) as the results poured in over the radio on the Friday afternoon and evening.
Continue reading “Another Time”

According to Nice Matin today a flock of sheep has been attacked by a pack of wolves on its way back down to winter pastures.

http://www.nicematin.com/grasse/une-meute-de-loups-attaque-un-troupeau-de-brebis-a-caussols-13-betes-tuees.1043130.html

The interesting part is the comments section.   On the one hand there are those who blame the écolos for insisting that wolves be protected and on the other those who blame the shepherd for leaving his flock overnight and having to be told about the attack by third parties.  Then there are those who think it was not a pack of wolves but wild dogs.  The shepherd can claim compensation only if the guilty parties were wolves, so will of course swear they were even if the attackers were a bunch of pink poodles.  Then there are comments about how the state of the corpses will prove whether it was wolves or not, along with the interesting detail that you can tell the difference between wolves and wild dogs by the way they drink. All you need to do is follow the pack to water.  I’m not sure they’ll hang around waiting for someone to follow them.

There are wolves in the area, mainly in the Mercantour, not on the Caussols plateau as far as I know. They wandered over from Italy, where apparently sheep are kept for their milk and are much better protected, rather than for their meat.  This looks set to be another of these disputes that runs and runs but it is noticeable that all attacks are on flocks without a shepherd.  Hire more shepherds – could help lower the unemployment total.

It is now the hunting season in France and it is to be hoped that the hunters will manage to reduce the estimated  two million wild boar population.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/environnement/2012/11/02/01029-20121102ARTFIG00419-la-gaule-2-millions-de-sangliers.php

Attempts to keep the animals away from crops and towns by agrainage – that is providing food for them in the forests – have resulted in a healthy, well fed population.  It is estimated that this population can increase by over 60% each year, since measures were introduced to protect females with young. How you can tell male from female quickly enough to shoot the right sort, I don’t know.  Damage to crops already costs about 50million euros annually, and these have to be paid by hunters, and it is reckoned that 40,000 traffic accidents involve wild boars.  75% of the population is concentrated in relatively few areas – I have never seen any on the Promenade des Anglais or the Croisette.  In fact I have never seen any except hanging outside butchers shops.

Since French hunters managed to eliminate the last European brown bears in the Pyrenees just a few years ago, I’m sure they can make an effort with the wild boars. It’s a pity that the wolf population near the Italian border can’t be introduced to some of them.  That would keep the wolves off local sheep and reduce the boar numbers naturally.

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Not only is the Dark Side the main reason why I post my rants on The Chariot, but now the DT wants money from me to view their grammatically inaccurate and increasingly liberal unfocussed ramblings online.

So, after more than half a century, it’s bye bye DT.    When you pay Boadicea and Bearsy several shedloads of money to run your site as well as this site is then, maybe, just maybe, I’ll put up the occasional post or two.

OZ