Un bien triste jour

C'est un bien triste jour. It's such a sad day. Watching Bush taking his oath, surrounded by so many policemen. The sky was gray. Some people were shouting at the so-called "new president" in protest. It couldn't possibly have been more dark and gloomy. It was like watching a dictator taking power in a remote thirld world country, when the population is too stunned to react and it's like you can see in the eyes of the dictator himself the pale reflection of his people's suffering. Except that the country is the United States and that the dictator has just been reelected. That's an odd feeling. It's like knowing that something terribly, terribly wrong is going to happen, is already happening, and you can't do anything in the world to stop it. I think about the american Democrats. I think about people in Iran, who will learn soon enough what "liberty" stands for, in contemporary american language.

I kind of have a dream

EXCLUSIVE : The french government was able to get a copy of George W. Bush's next "State of the union" address. Only on The Frog Blog.

"GEORGE W. BUSH State of the Union Address, January 20th 2005

Hi Dad, hi Mum, hi everybody,

I kind of have a dream

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of your difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed : "We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all rich men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Iraq the sons of american CEOs and the sons of iraqi CEOs will be able to sit down together at the table of commerce. I have a dream that one day even Iraq, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of free trade and air-conditionned malls.

I have a dream that one day the state of France, whose government's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little american boys and girls will be able to join hands with little french boys and girls, and walk together, as brothers and sisters - no kidding. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every profit shall be exalted, every loss and tax shall be made low, the democrat places will be made republican, and the gay places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all shareholders shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to you. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of gold. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of... of whatever. With this faith we will be able to golf together, to prey together, to smuggle together, to avoid jail together, to stand up for liberalism together, knowing that our economy will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father didn't die yet, land of the pilgrim's ride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Washington. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Wall Street.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Republican men, Protestants, straight guys, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old WASP spiritual : "Free at last ! Free at last ! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last !" Thank you ! Oh boy, that was close. I can't believe we made it again. But I'm there. Eh,eh. I'm there ! And the dream has just begun.

George W. Bush

An Iceberg Named Mendacity

He cheated in order to avoid the Vietnam war, he cheated in order to be President, he lied about Iraq, he started a bloody war that already killed 1363 american soldiers, allowing his friends and members of his own family or political staff to actually make money out of it... And now, George W. Bush wants to dismantle his country's social security system. "We are heading to an iceberg", he says.

We had the same speech from our government in France, about our retirement system, that it wants so badly to privatize. It must be said that never ever did privatization allowed a former public system to improve itself. Things only get worse : prices are up - you can never know for sure what you're going to pay in the end -, and customer services are down. There are so many examples of privatization actually leading to a formerly non-existing iceberg. So far, we won. Our governement doesn't dare to do anything in that area. So far.

It's hard to understand how a whole nation can decide to freely give so much money - billions of dollars - to companies like Lockheed Martin (and the whole "defense" sector) for "protection", thus ending up with the higher budget deficit ever, and at the same time come to the conclusion that it's unworthy to go on spending so much money on its social security system, because it would aggravate the budget deficit. This doesn't make any sense. Isn't Iraq an iceberg ? Isn't Bush's foreign policy leading to an iceberg ? Even the CIA says so. And you've seen Titanic, right ? You know what happens when the boat starts to sink. If you want to be saved, you need to have a first class ticket.

I was thinking about all that this afternoon when I saw that beautiful movie, A cat on a hot tin roof, starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. As one of the main characters, Big Daddy, puts it, mendacity is indeed the system in which men live.

See you soon ! Goodbye America !

You've got mail

This was going to be one more day in this beautiful democracy of ours. I woke up early. I had a strong coffee and then, I read the paper. At first, I thought that I was still dreaming. I closed my eyes. I reopened them. But there it was.

George W. Bush had written to us, French, to congratulate us, and the rest of the world, for we helped and behaved well after the tsunami catastrophy. "I congratulate the individuals, the states and the international organizations that give money or equipments, that give means of transportation, that provide logisitics support, that provide staff to help those who were on the path of the tsunami, he wrote. People from all the world unite to help these countries. The government of the United States has committed itself to give an initial 350 millions of dollars to help the victims and to help rebuilding the tsunami-wasted areas. I also sent the US army there to help in the rescuing operations. (...) With the approval of its allies and of the United Nations, the United States have launched one of the biggest humanitarian operations in recent history."

We had a new president and we didn't even know it ! Now, we are all Americans ! I can't wait for the tax cuts and the SUVs ! No, George W. Bush isn't a president anymore. It's no longer an appropriate title for him. He's an Emperor. George Bush 2d, Emperor of the United World of America. "I thank you, world, for what you did. You behaved well and I am pleased with you." Next time, for all we know, he will make his horse Vice-President.
Or Barney the dog.

But the most beautiful sentence in the Emperor's speech is : "The main source of America's generosity is the heart of its people". Well, some people - call them sissies - would be shy about it. They would help without bragging about it or congratulate themselves shamelessly in the world's newspapers while the bodies of many victims are still to be recovered. But that's not the Republican's way. We brought our help and, boy, we'll let you know it !

Hail to George Bush 2d ! Hail to our Emperor !

My little town in Normandy

The town is called Bleray. I arrived there at eight o'clock on New Year's eve. I couldn't make it by the road. There was too much traffic. I had to leave my car at mid-course and take the train. It seemed that everybody was going to Normandy to celebrate. It's getting trendy to leave Paris on New Year's Eve, if you can afford a house in the country. Or if, like me, you have friends who have a house in the country.

Bleray is a typical french village. There is one small catholic church, located in a round place at the center of the town, in front of the local City Hall. There are maybe a hundred houses. It's nice. On the day I arrived, it smelled of cows and damped earth, since it has been raining for the past few days. Normandy is in the western part of France. It rains all the time, even inside the people who live there. They are among the heaviest drinkers I ever met, second only to the Russians - nobody can beat the Russians at drinking.

By the way, it must be said that the only good vodka is iced Zubrowka. The other brands don't deserve to be called vodka. At least, according to my uncle André, who was born in Paris from a russian family who had fled from Russia to France in the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution. He is not really the liberal type. Rather conservative, you might say, having been wounded during the french algerian war (1954-1962) and forever bearing the mark of it on his face. But he sure knows a lot about vodka. He's a french conservative, meaning that he hates George W. Bush's guts as much as he hates the "bloody commies".

My friends had made their own Foie Gras, another trendy thing to do in France on New Year's eve. I don't know which recipe they used (and they wouldn't tell), but it was delicious. I buttered the last of it on a bit of "chapon" (capon), cooked "à la broche" (barbecued) in the chimney, an incredible taste. The "chapon" was served together with potatoes, also cooked in the chimney. You just have to cut each potatoe in two and to put a little bit of butter in the middle of it, then to wrap it in aluminium paper and to place it in the middle of the ember, when there are no flames anymore but it's still very hot. Don't peel the potatoes. It should take half an hour before it's done. We had full boxes of belgian chocolates, brought by a belgian friend, and champagne for dessert. A lot of fun. And then it was midnight. We all kissed each other, two times, on the cheeks. On this occasion, I have been offered a wonderful book, who made me think of you, Absalom ! Absalom ! by William Faulkner.

I read and read again these beautiful phrases : "His very body was an empty hall echoing with sonorous defeated names" or : "He was a barracks filled with stubborn back-looking ghosts still recovering, even forty-three years afterward, from the fever which had cured the disease, waking from the fever without even knowing that it had been the fever itself which they had fought against and not the sickness, looking with stubborn recalcitrance backward beyond the fever and into the disease with actual regret, weak from the fever yet free of the disease and not even aware that the freedom was that of impotence."

These words should be carved on the front of each war monument, in France and in the United States.

See you soon ! Goodbye America !

Merry Christmas and a happy new year

On Christmas eve, we were all gathered around the tree, drinking champagne and vodka, since part of my family came from Russia. There were 25 of us, aging from 8 to 70. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins... Each one of us had brought a "10 euros" present. We all wrote our names on little sheets of paper. The papers were then gathered in a hat. And a little girl whose name I can never remember picked them up one by one. When my name came up, I could choose from the pile of "10 euros" presents, all wrapped up in glamorous papers, the one I liked the most. I was lucky enough to end up with a bottle of decent french red wine - a Chenas, which I recommand you buy from L'Hardi vin (121 rue des Dames, Paris), a very good and cheap wine seller.

The dinner was made of russian meals, mostly, starting with blinis and salmon, with their fresh cream and melted butter, malossols (huge pickles), eggplant caviar, culminating with salmon Koulibiacs (a typical russian meal that looks very much like a meat pie, made of salmon and cabbage), and ending with a Criollo (chocolate, meringue, lemon and ginger, a cake that I had made following a recipe by Pierre Hermé) and home-made chantilly cream. Quite nice.

Now, we are on new year's eve and I am heading to the countryside. I guess the name of the town is Bernet or Berlet or Berlé. Anyway, I've got a map and a hundred cell phone numbers I can call for help. I'm invited by a nice couple, although they have the strange habit not to live in Paris. A fact that, like most Parisians, I can never fully understand. They told me that they had done home made Foie gras. "Yummi", as you might put it. I'll tell you how it turned out.

A happy new year to you all !

See you in 2005 ! Goodbye America !

Autumn in Paris

It’s a typical french, or even parisian, experience. It’s called Cook Dating. Take 3 boys and 3 girls and have them cook together, and you may end up with 3 brand new couples. A good love recipe. Cooking with the person you love is certainly one of the most beautiful experiences you can have in life. At least if the most experienced of the two has enough patience to endure the broken eggs, the : « Why do we have to do it by the book ? I mean, can’t we be more creative ? » or : « My mom used to do it the other way. What ? What did you say about my mom ? ».

The recipe I want to give you is a very poetic one. We should call it : Autumn in Paris. For six people, you need : one big chicken, 150 grammes (5,3 ounces) butter, 2 big spoons of olive oil, 150 grammes (5,3 ounces) of pork chest cut in little bits, 12 little onions (the ones we French call « oignons grelots »), 4 garlic cloves, 1 glass of white wine, 1 glass of apple cider vinegar, 100 grammes (3,5 ounces) of hazelnuts, 100 grammes (3,5 ounces) of sweet-almonds, a big spoon of fresh cream (be careful not to put too much of it), a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper.

Put the chicken in a boiler (do not close it), with the olive oil and half of the butter. Use your hands to rub the chicken’s skin with oil and butter. This will keep the chicken’s flesh juicy. Wait until the chicken has taken a golden colour.

Then add the pork chest and the onions. Wait until the onions have taken a golden colour. Then add the garlic cloves, salt, pepper, white wine and the apple cider vinegar.

In the meanwhile, put the hazelnuts and sweet-almonds in a pan, with half ot the butter. Be careful not to let them burn. Then crush them in little bits and add them to the chicken, ten minutes or so before the chicken is done, which should take between 1 hour to 1 and 1/2 hour, depending on the chicken.

When the chicken is done, put the sauce in a separate dish, on the side. Mix the chicken’s sauce with the fresh cream. It's done.

See you soon in Paris ! Goodbye America !