[Cialug] [OT] Security and the browser

[Morris Dovey]

Ralph Kessel wrote:

> However, despite France's aggressive attempt to maintain linguistic
> purity, an number of loan words from English have intruded into
> French. Non-the-less most Americans attribute French-fries to France.
> How many of you have forgotten "Freedom Fries" as our pathetic
> Franco-phobic reaction to France's opposition to our entry into the
> Iraq war?

Well, yes - some people do seem have a problem with being shown wrong 
"in front of God and everybody." :)

> (Ironically "French Fries" are said to have originated in
> Belgium) and in the poly-synthetic French, French Fries are "Pommes
> de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches" ("Potatoes deep-fried
> while raw, in small cuttings")    Yes languages are flexible.

In a McDonalds in Epinal: "Pommes frites" - it was ten days after 9-11 
and when the gal behind the counter heard my American accent she broke 
into tears and took nearly fifteen minutes to tell me how distressed 
everyone she knew was at what had happened in NY. I found impromptu 
shrines with American flags and tower photos clipped from the newspapers 
in every town I visited. I later wondered if the Franco-phobes even had 
a clue how much those folks care about us.

FWIW, I was assured that the French enjoy hearing their language spoken 
with an American accent in the same way we enjoy theirs - a possibility 
that'd never ocurrred to me.

-- 
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/