Bon-bon, Mon Amour.

Those who know me know that I'm an easygoinglaidbackwestcoastkindofguy. Yup, when I washed up on this shore from elsewhere some few years ago I took to the place quickly and became so laid-back that had I been any moreso I would have been upside-down. I'm still like that. I like this West Coast lifestyle, except that it's kind of not exactly the way I'd like it to be. So this is what I do: I get up in the morning and go around the park and have coffee and listen to the waves lapping on the beach by putting on roller blades and blasting across town with a Camelback hose in my mouth sucking back a pint of last night's brew, my ipod tuned to that damned environmental sound-track rubbish played at fast forward, and then, thanks to the gods, I get it all over with so I can go on to live a little and get things done. Not that I'm jumpy, nervous, excitable, or tense, me being a laidbackguy. Hey!

So there you have it, me being a hep-cat, a cool daddy-o, a mature figure of respect among skateboard kid subculture, and generally seen as unflappable. But I have my limits, like encountering those who denigrate French culture without any grasp of its deep and enduring beauty and importance to our beautiful civilization. Then, when I hear those goofs slagging Racine, dumping on Satie, well, it's the gloves off, buddy, 'cause there's only so much a cool and easy-going guy will put up with. Don't like Durufle or Dore or Dufy? Ha!

But things are looking up, and I don't think I'll be fighting on the sidewalk again over a white Pouilly Fuissé vs. a Bordeaux pinot noir. Nope, it's looking good for things French as we see them.

What impact will Nicholas Sarkozy's election as France's next president have on U.S.-European relations? (2007-05-07)

65.06%	7.23%	21.69%	6.02%
The relations will improve.	The relations will worsen.	His election won't have any significant effect.	Don't know.

http://uspolitics.einnews.com/poll.php

OK, I gotta go look at Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad. Where's that remote? Ho!