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Why do fewer Frenchmen die young than Scots, despite the French fondness for saturated fats in the form of cheese and cream and many other forms?
I think it has to do with religion, which is the basis for culture, as much as nutrition, but that's only a guess.
Fried Mars bars and vomiting in Sauchiehall St after too much to drink don't help, but that's Scottish culture and somehow linked to the heresy of Calvinism.
Fried Mars bars and vomiting in Sauchiehall St after too much to drink don't help, but that's Scottish culture and somehow linked to the heresy of Calvinism.
The details need working out but I don't have time.
Ireland is also Catholic but the one great Irish food is the Ulster Fry, as heart attack inducing as anything in Scotland. Ireland is the test case that sabotages many generalisations about Catholic countries.
For those who can get past the paywall, here is an interview with a French cancer doctor who recently wrote a book in favour of drinking wine, eating red meat and pommes frites, and adding salt to them. He points out that we all have to die, something many of us have noticed.
Ireland is also Catholic but the one great Irish food is the Ulster Fry, as heart attack inducing as anything in Scotland. Ireland is the test case that sabotages many generalisations about Catholic countries.
For those who can get past the paywall, here is an interview with a French cancer doctor who recently wrote a book in favour of drinking wine, eating red meat and pommes frites, and adding salt to them. He points out that we all have to die, something many of us have noticed.
During the two nights between the 13th and 15th of July, 673 cars were arsoned in France. That's 28% less than in 2020.
ReplyDeletePolice stations are quite regularly attacked with mortars. Stones are thrown on patrolling police cars. Walls are tagged with nominal death threats targeting the anti-drug squads. Over the current year 16 people were shot openly on the streets of Marseille in drug-dealing gang feuds.
I've never seen a people writing their native tongue so full of errors as the French. The impression is that almost everybody (white collars included) confound the past participe and the infinitive ("fermé" vs "fermer"). Sometimes they go as far as mixing in the second person plural ("fermez") where they should put one of the other forms. (Seen on shop doors: "merci de garder la porte fermer" that would translate to "thank you for keeping the door close" instead of "closed".) It is so common that I have the feeling that it becomes the norm, it is perfectly forgiven and nobody judges or disqualifies such an illiterate. They confound "ça" (that, it) and "sa" (her, hers), "ce" (this, it) and "se" (reflexive pronoun). They miss the agreement in gender and number between nouns and adjectives. It is so widespread that it's difficult to find one complete sentence that is without errors. It starts creeping into respectable media. And yet 61% of candidates had their Baccalaureate this year in the first session. The percent crept to 94% after the "catch-up session". And still it was inferior to last year's success rate that was 97%.