Most uneventful event of the week

Seen September 24. Revisionism. Marco Materazzi in a commercial spot for Nike. The reference to France should be obvious to all. Click on picture for YouTube video.

Most sordid event of the week

September 23-24. Poetry. Not only are these people animals, not only are these people racists, but they also can't even draw a nazi cross correctly. Saturday night in Quimper (Britanny) and Carcassonne (South West), 2 mosques were the targets of racist graffiti. The Quimper mosque was also set on fire but fortunately a neighbour alerted firemen very quickly. The Carcassonne one was blessed with remarkable poetry, at the level of astounding Farsi poet Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi: "France for the French, ragheads out, death to Islam". Abib Bamou, the president of the Aude département's Islamic Association said this: "I have lived in Carcassonne since 1969. Here all communities respect each other, Jews, Muslims, Christians. This is the first time that such a thing happens here.

Quote of the week

September 25th. Better late than never or why it's always convenient to wait for there to be fewer veterans around. "Jacques, il faut faire quelque chose"! ("Jacques, we must do something!") Said Bernadette Chirac to her husband, Jacques, while they were watching the movie Indigènes (click for French trailer) Edit: trailer in English, by Franco-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb, about the 230 000 colonial troops who fought the nazi occupation of France in WWII (and were treated as second-class soldiers). Jacques Chirac announced shortly after watching the movie that he would re-index all veteran pensions (so that a veteran in Tunisia who earns 61 euros, will now earn as much as a veteran in France, who currenly earns 600+ euros).

Number of the week

September 22nd. Be a sport, read the news. 47.4% - the percentage of +15 years old French people who read a daily newspaper. Once again l'Equipe, a sports daily, comes out on top as the most read national daily in the country. However, regional dailies skyrocket on top of overall reads. The study (in French)

Picture of the week

Septembre 22-25. Rare European wind thriller. It could have been an unforgettable moment, as extratropical hurricane Helene waltzed high up North and headed East, hesitating between Ireland, the UK or France. It was forecast to arrive here as a tropical storm! However, it apparently got better, it stopped being depressed.