Comments on: bristling

By: ste cecile

ste cecile — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:14:53 +0000

Jim in Rennes I suspect you’re right ……his english reads like my french(souvent)… I’ve just learned to accept the bills and the waiting… there is a track worn between chez moi and the Marie, I suspect that the receptionist detests me and tells the Prefecture nasty things about me which is why every thing I require takes about 3 months… at least France Telecom is quick (if they know they’re going to make money)
But there are some great advantages to living here also, especially in Summer..

By: Lucy-Jane in Rennes

Lucy-Jane in Rennes — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 12:09:24 +0000

Hee-hee! Hurrah for smutty jokes! (Suppresses self with difficulty from continuing smutty line of Parkin Pig…)

By: Parkin Pig

Parkin Pig — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:09:15 +0000

Jim, stop feeling yourself!

By: Jim in Rennes

Jim in Rennes — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:20:33 +0000

Blimey, didn’t feel quite myself for a moment there…

By: Jim in Rennes

Jim in Rennes — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:02:38 +0000

I suspect that dear Roger M. has been availing himself of an online translation service…

My hovercraft is full of eels.

By: Parkin Pig

Parkin Pig — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 09:39:49 +0000

Is this Roger Christian a spoof? If so, it’s too subtle for me. If it’s not, and I suspect it’s not, irony not being a typically American strongpoint, then he’s a disgrace to Cornell and to his once, or maybe still, wonderful country. He doesn’t know how to write and his ideas expressed with great difficultly are definitely not too Ivy League.
So butt out buddy, you’re getting Americans a bad name.

By: zayezzift

zayezzift — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:53:28 +0000

The sad fact is that FT behaves in a way which has hardly anything to do with bureaucracy. Ever since its debt crisis a few years back, its policy has been to pressure customers or potential customers as much as they could, bordering on vente forcée and all kinds of more than litigious procedures, so as to keep them captive. And it works. So I wonder whether fees would have been taken from people who could justify of concubinage, but now, I am not afraid that they should charge you.
The question of the fees for keeping the line open borders on a tough political question. Those lines were, for most of them, set up since the 1970s plan to bring the phone to every home in France (prior to that, domestic phones were still seen as a luxury in France, remember the sketch of the 22 in Asnières by Fernand Reynaud). So the State paid for them with taxpayers’ money, and though there was an individual fee to keep the line open, it was not as high as now. When the State decided to privatise FT, in keeping with EU regulations, what was to become of the lines? Were they a national property and asset, or be sold, as it were, “avec l’argenterie”? The lines were sold along with its overall administration, which could be considered public goods or services, as opposed to FT’s commercial activities. That means that FT is here to stay, if only because no other company can allow it to breakdown (including internet providers). So watch your bills…
A good read, really.

By: petite

petite — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 16:01:31 +0000

D – I was only in Leighton Buzzard up to the age of 9 so I only know Clipstone Brook Lower School, I’m afraid…

By: Mancunian Lass

Mancunian Lass — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 21:16:13 +0000

Hear hear, nardac.
I also think the idea that “there is evidence that several Parisian males are on the hunt for rich Americans for marriage” is utterly laughable.
Come on Roger Christian, what century are you living in ?

By: D

Sat, 30 Jul 2005 19:38:33 +0000

Hello Petite Anglaise

I have just taken a peek at your 32 things. I see that you spent some time in Leighton Buzzard. Did you go to Cedars or Vandyke… you and I are the same age – we may have been at school together!