France, Food, Scooters and More

Lots of Sting, then Jackson Browne, The Verve, Lighthouse Family, Free, Robert Plant, and more...

"Of course people don't know what to make of it," opined famed linguist Noah Lipski. "She spoke in complete sentences. She didn't obfuscate. She didn't patronize. She stated her position clearly and unequivocally. She provided an alternative position. In writing. The encounter was so atypical of modern political discourse that it boggles the mind."

Lipski was referring, of course, to the recent encounter between between Senator Dianne Feinstein and a group of young activists lobbying her in support of the Green New Deal. The following statement was released by Feinstein's office:

"After my friend and colleague Nancy Pelosi demonstrated that it's not wise to take women of a certain age lightly, that you were likely to hear truth spoken, I thought that the youngsters who came to my office would understand the value of hearing from a woman with considerable political experience. I was wrong. Next time, I'll be certain to just pretend that I…

AOC UPDATE
AOC and her staff are pissed. AOC's boyfriend is NOT on staff, not even volunteering. He has a government email address and can access AOC's calendar. That's all.

I have questions. Do any of you have an employer who provides the same perk? The rationale is that it's OK for AOC's boyfriend to have access because all of Congressional spouses have the same privilege. That's how easily power seduces you. Everybody else in power does it. So why not AOC?

Why not? Because it's my dime that's paying for that email address, and the email addresses of all of the other Congressional spouses, and all of the other perks that people in government get that the rest of us don't, that's why.

SWANS AND LOONIES
From The Telegraph: The Queen's Swan Marker David Barber, Member of the Royal Victorian Order, said there is "no good reason" not to feed the swans bread and that many are underweight as a result of the ban.

First of all, I l…

If you are an American living in France, and if your address with Social Security and Medicare is a French address, you may have recently received a letter advising you that you were going to be issued a new Medicare card. It seems they've decided that having our Social Security numbers on the cards was inappropriate, a potential breech of security. So new cards were being mailed.

Except, of course, new cards would not be mailed to addresses outside of the United States.

Never fear. If you have an account at MyMedicare.gov, you can print an official copy of your card and use it until you are in a position to obtain a new one. If you don't have an account, you can create one. There was another workaround, something about calling Medicare from a mobile phone from within the United States. But since we have no plans to go back to the States in the immediate future, my only ready option was to create that account on MyMedicare.gov.

Except, of course, that I wasn't allowed cre…

Three and a half years ago, an early blog post of mine listed American foods that I missed the most after I'd spent about 16 months living permanently here in the rural south of France. Then a week ago, after five years here, I began a post with a rant about the lack of readily available peanut butter. Both posts engendered a great deal of interest, particularly among my Facebook friends.

Within 24 hours of lamenting that the major supermarkets in the area had pulled less expensive, European produced peanut butter from the shelves in favor of more expensive, imported varieties, FB friends had pointed out such alternative possibilities as Super U, Lidl (during the upcoming American Week), and various stores, health food and otherwise. I'd been alerted against palm oil and artificial sweeteners. Folks were engaged. Not exactly viral, but clearly touching a common nerve. So I've decided to update that August, 2015 list with a new one.

What is it that still frustrates us afte…