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A case of cognitive dissonance

RE: “Ten years after the EU referendum, Britain is more European than ever” (The Economist, March 14th) and “Destination Brussels” (The Economist, March 21st). Apparently, after realising that the hit to Britain’s GDP may be as high as 8%, Britons would vote to rejoin the EU by a margin of 52% to 29% (YouGov poll). […]

A diplomatic agenda

“France Blocks US Ambassador’s access to ministers after he fails to attend meeting” The Guardian, Feb. 24th Letter to M. Charles Kushner, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire des Etats-Unis d’Amérique auprès de la République française et de la Principauté de Monaco: « Excellency, Mister Ambassador, Dear M. Kushner, this could be a blessing in disguise. Your deputies […]

From Moscow with love

KGB, hopeless

According to the Financial Times (October 17th), the Anchorage summit between Vladimer Putin and Donald Trump was cut short (no lunch) by the US President who was furious because Putin spoke only about Russian history. One can imagine the dialogue: Trump: “Vlad, we gone make a huge fortune in the Arctic, Putin: “Prince Rurik, born […]

Like I said…

Neil Young will soon be eighty years old (he was born November 12th 1945, just before the Nuremberg trial of nazis leaders). He is the one who said « Its better to burn out than to fade away » in his 1979 song « Hey Hey, My My » (Album Rust Never Sleeps). Happy birthday, Mister Neil Young, and […]

László Krasznahorkai is awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

Epigraph from « Against the Day » by Thomas Pynchon: « It’s always night, or we wouldn’t need light, Thelonious Monk ». Epigraph from « Seiobo there below » by Lazlo Krasznahorkhai: « Either it’s night, or we don’t need light, Thelonious Monk-Thomas Pynchon ». Next Nobel, Thomas Pynchon?

Plus ça change…

While the French first lady has to prove in a US court that she is not a man, her husband the French President is being asked by his opponents « to be a man and resign ».

Black Hand in the White House

I have just received a letter from the South of Italy that reads: « Caro Houatfeu, for us, Italians, what happens in the USA is a real delight. American and European newspapers are full of comments about the attitude of the US President and his team who are suspected of extortion, like the Italo American mafia […]

Ghosn again!

A rumor on the internet: Carlos Ghosn, a former CEO of Renault-Nissan who had once secretly escaped from Japan to Lebanon by plane hidden in a musical instrument chest, has left Beyrouth hidden in a trunk of opera costums, direction Istambul and Tokyo. He was immediately arrested at the airport by the police and then […]

Lower your expectations (2)

Dear Elon Musk, you should definitively abandon your quest to send US astronauts on Mars, because three of them, Leroy N. Chiao, Jeffrey A. Hoffman and Richard M. Linnehan have already done it, in 2001. Yours, S.H.

Lower your expectations

Dear Elon Musk, if your obsession is to go to Mars, take a plane, a train and a bus, and come to this small village in Ardèche, France. It will cost you much less, it will pollute much less, and there, it is so quite that you won’t need any drugs in order to relax. […]

Czar salad

Vladimir Putin, who considers himself a Czar of Russia (equivalent to a Roman Caesar), demands incredible territorial concessions from Ukraine in exchange for a lasting peace. He should be remembered the world of another Caesar, emperor in his bistrot in Marseille, in Marcel Pagnol’s 1931 film “Marius”. César presents his recipe for a mandarin-lemon-curaçao: CÉSAR: […]