A Euro anecdote
Claire Berlinski ·
Jun 7, 2010 at 8:05am
I had a bad feeling about the Euro right from the start, of course. I remember that when it was introduced, in 2002, my father attempted to buy a loaf of bread at a bakery in Paris. He handed the man behind the counter a shiny new one Euro coin. The baker held it up to the light and examined it carefully. A miasma of distrust passed across his cunning face; he handed the coin back to my father with visible disdain and a clear sense of triumph. "I cannot accept this, Monsieur," he said gravely. "This is a Spanish Euro."
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Comments :
May '10
Re: A Euro anecdote
A loaf of bakery bread in Paris was only one (Spanish) Euro? That is cheaper than any non-glue, edible bread in Minnesota.....
I must admit, I think I would enjoy listening to David Berlinski for an evening more than almost anyone around, except for, perhaps, that Ricochet NY dinner with Mark Steyn and Tom Wolfe. You wouldn't know whether to talk philosophy and natural selection, the relationship of particle physics to theology, or integral calculus and why I never could internalize and understand the principle of what "e" is.
Re: A Euro anecdote
A Frenchman in 2002: "I cannot accept this, Monsieur," he said gravely. "This is a Spanish Euro."
A French or German Spanish bondholder, in 2010, might say essentially the same thing.
Re: A Euro anecdote
But a gallon of corn syrup, I bet, is far cheaper in America than it is France. Cheese-eating is the wrong epithet for the French; switch to "cheap yet delicious bread-eating, and, oh yes, wine-guzzling," and you've got a handle worthy of a PR campaign.
Re: A Euro anecdote
I wonder, though, how much a gallon of corn syrup would be if we the taxpayers stopped subsidizing it?
Re: A Euro anecdote
Probably the cost of two fresh baguettes, a wheel of fine cheese, and a bottle of Pinot Noir.
Re: A Euro anecdote
In other words, what I call "lunch."
Wait, just one bottle?
Re: A Euro anecdote
One of those giant vessels that reaches from the floor to your armpit.
Re: A Euro anecdote
James Poulos
One of those giant vessels that reaches from the floor to your armpit. · Jun 7 at 9:43am
You know, a Costco bottle.
Re: A Euro anecdote
Oh, you mean a Melchizedek. Sure, if the bottle's one of those. Or one Nebuchadnezzar stacked on another.