[lit-ideas] Re: Just another day in Paris
- From: "William Ball" <ballnw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 14:15:25 -0500
Ce n'est guere une autre journee, ma vieille branche! C'est un moment
magnifique.
Guillaume Boule
William Ball
Norma Ball=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Chase
> Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 11:29 AM
> To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: ileal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Just another day in Paris
>=20
> Just got back from the library, where I put in a fairly good =
day's=3D20
> work, from opening time to the closing buzzer. Started walking
> home,=3D20
> slightly drunk on fatigue and caffeine, along the rue du pot de fer
> to=3D20=3D
>=20
> the rue Mouffetard, where I stopped outside a bookstore to do a
> little=3D20=3D
>=20
> window-licking, as the French say (leche-vitrine). I was the
perfect=3D20
> victim, so a tall man in African dress sidled up to me and began
his=3D20
> spiel=3DA0: See these streets ?, he began, I'm the one who sweeps =
them.
=3D
> But=3D20
> my wife and I haven't eaten since this morning, so If you could spare
> a=3D20=3D
>=20
> little something until the banks open Monday, I promise I'll pay
you=3D20
> back...one hears the same routine dozens of times in Paris.
>=20
> But something about the guy, perhaps his smile or his soft, =3D
> gentle=3D20
> voice, appealed to me, and I hadn't given to a panhandler in quite
a=3D20
> while, so I reached into my pocket and found two two-euro coins,
> worth=3D20=3D
>=20
> a total of about five dollars US. I handed them to him, but although
> he=3D20=3D
>=20
> didn't change his smile, he was disconcerted : was I nuts? =
Stoned?=3D20
> Perhaps just a dumb tourist? Anyhow, he took one of the two =
2-euro=3D20
> coins and tried to hand the other back to me=3DA0: Et toi, he said, tu =
=3D
> n'as=3D20
> pas besoin? (and you : have you no need?). Ca va, I replied=3DA0: it's
> OK.=3D20=3D
>=20
> And we went our separate ways.
>=20
> Best, Mike.
>=20
>=20
> Michael Chase
> (goya@xxxxxxxxxxx)
> CNRS UPR 76
> 7, rue Guy Moquet
> Villejuif 94801
> France
>=20
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