You could have heard a pin drop

[TQA]

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded "Does that include those who are buried here?"




You could have
Heard a pin drop

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:

'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
Emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
They can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have
Heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Royal Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the English, U.S. , Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, the English learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the British Admiral replied,

'Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have
Heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN
WITH THE ABOVE...

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The Englishman said,

'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible. You English always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"

The English senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained,

''Well, when I came ashore at Gold Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

You could have
Heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by TQA

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded "Does that include those who are buried here?"

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have that sort of quick wit? I'm like most of us mere mortals I guess - I might have thought of something like that when I was getting ready for bed after the party.

A Brit I know well once said, "The French are only good at two things - being rude and surrendering". De Gaulle was a megalomaniacal, zenophobic pig - it's too bad the Algerian terrorists were so incompetent.

He pulled a stunt here when we had the FLQ/Quebec separatist issue in full swing - he stood on a hotel balcony in Quebec and shouted "Vive le Quebec libre" to the crowd in the street. He was promptly and publicly asked to leave by the federal government and AFAIK was never here again.

Peter Fonda was once attributed with a great retort to a French culture snob of some sort. The Frenchman was sneering at the States, saying that "America's only contributions to world culture have been hamburgers, Harley Davidsons and Rock & Roll."

Fonda retorted "What else do you need?"

A question I have never had answered is; the French honour Napoleon as one of their greatest historical figures - his tomb is one of their most significant monuments. BUT, other than being French and living more than 100 years earlier, how did he differ from Hitler?

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by TQA

A Royal Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the English, U.S. , Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, the English learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the British Admiral replied,

'Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

I saw a Brit comedian doing a show in Montreal and he was talking about why he wasn't doing the show in French - he said he was speaking English, the natural language of the Human race.

Such a perfect illustration of the British attitude towards language.

A Kiwi woman I worked with had lived in Britain for a while years before. She got to know a fairly U.C. family and got a great story that also demonstrates the attitude. The family had a bit of a black sheep son and they decided he should go live with family friends in Argentina for a while - the remittance man thing - when he got there, obviously he didn't speak a word of Spanish so the family sent him to live on their ranch in the pampas for 6 months. Since no-one there spoke any English, they thought that would be the quickest way for him to learn the language. When they arrived to pick him up 6 months later, he STLL couldn't speak a word of Spanish but all the ranch hands were speaking English.

There'll always be an England.

[killarney_sailor]

A disclaimer to start - I love France and have not found the French that I have met (Paris, south of France, along Belgium border, French Polynesia - excpet Bora Bora where there was rudeness) to be rude or unpleasant. I try out my abominable high school French from the 1960s and they decide it is better to try to converse in their English - generally not good, but better than my French.

Having clarified that, I think it is fair to say that from the time of de Gaulle, the French have been coming to terms with the idea that they are no longer a world power. That is one reason why they are particularly sensitive about the incursion of American culture (but that is common worldwide). I think since France has become part of the EU that their self-image has changed. The new generation of leaders (who were born after WWII and really don't even remember the Algerian conflict) is much more Eurp-centric and realistic about who and what France is.

The current concerns in France and economic and social, for the latter, what to do about the huge population of North Africans who don't seem inclined to become French - and to fair, have been shut out of integration by the French as well.

[JordanH]

I don't usually contribute to non-sailing threads on this sailing forum, but I'll add a little story.

I struck up a conversation with a British couple while sitting in a bar in Vancouver. They told me they had decided to move to Canada and were in Vancouver to find a place to live. I asked them why they were moving [at their retired age], candidly they told me about their dislike for foreigners moving to England and how the immigrants kept their original culture without wanting to absorb British culture. I then asked them how they came to choose Canada... Their serious response was that it was the one place where they could move where they wouldn't need to absorb a new culture and still retain their original culture!

ha! They didn't see the irony but it gave me a good chuckle. (I had a second chuckle when I found out that they were looking to buy a house in Vancouver which is very multi-cultural... exactly what they were trying to escape from.)

...

With regards to the French, this thread reminds me of the scene in Talladega Nights.

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by JordanH

I don't usually contribute to non-sailing threads on this sailing forum, but I'll add a little story.

I struck up a conversation with a British couple while sitting in a bar in Vancouver. They told me they had decided to move to Canada and were in Vancouver to find a place to live. I asked them why they were moving [at their retired age], candidly they told me about their dislike for foreigners moving to England and how the immigrants kept their original culture without wanting to absorb British culture. I then asked them how they came to choose Canada... Their serious response was that it was the one place where they could move where they wouldn't need to absorb a new culture and still retain their original culture!

ha! They didn't see the irony but it gave me a good chuckle. (I had a second chuckle when I found out that they were looking to buy a house in Vancouver which is very multi-cultural... exactly what they were trying to escape from.)

...

With regards to the French, this thread reminds me of the scene in Talladega Nights.

They SHOULD have moved to Victoria - although it has toned down in recent years, there is still a lot of "More British than the British" going on there - Tea at The Empress leading the way.

[PaulinVictoria]

As an Englishman, living in/near Victoria, it's more of a caricature of Britishness than the real thing. There is nowhere near enough fighting in the pubs, and you don't have to queue at the bar.
Also as an Englishman, I delight in every opportunity to put the boot in on the French

[killarney_sailor]

Pissing off the Aussies Warning
If they wanted to English somewhere else, they could have moved to Oz. I was surprised at how English the suburbs around Brisbane were. I don't think England is that English. I thought the Aussies hated the Pommies.

[PBzeer]

I keep looking in, waiting to see what brought on this bit of Francophilia.

[WouldaShoulda]

What's not to Love??

They are SO sophisticated!!