Pave: Stop à la clope !

Le jour 231 de Sarko

Bonne Année !
Arrêtez de fumer. Maintenant. Svp.

Maybe we're a bit stupid with our traditions, but we have the right to be as such and I cannot stand the idea of a hygienic, clean, and sorry to say 'American style' society.

David Droulez,
Président, Amis des plaisirs du goût,
defending the last days of French culture
December 28, 2007 (Bloomberg)

[Hat tip: ¡No Pasarán!]

Here is M. Droulez declaring himself stupid in one breath and decrying "hygienic, clean" America in the next. [Pause.] Yes. Well, put that way, M. Droulez certainly makes it easy to decide between the cultural alternatives.

The Bloomberg article continues:

France has 14 million smokers, or 22 percent of its population. About 72,000 deaths* are linked to smoking annually.

Economist Pierre Kopp at the Sorbonne University in Paris said tobacco-related costs, including absenteeism, fiscal and insurance expenses represent 3.1 percent of France's gross domestic product.

Where the news service writes "linked" the public has been trained to read "attributed", because today a link is as good as a COD (scil., cause of death). [Pause] Except that it isn't. We would bet that old age, poor hygiene, alcoholism, global warming, or whatever you like can all be found to have their tenuous "links", that all contribute their deadly mite. But a COD is the specific thing that does one in. You can have metastasizing lung cancer and be shot dead by your girlfriend, but anti-smoking activists will still count your death as linked to smoking. As for M. Koop's 3.1% of GDP (€40.9B/USD $59.9B), well, we wonder if he hasn't found a desired result.

SMOKING: NOT ILLEGAL, JUST NOT CIVIC
Spot The Nuance. Go On. Look Carefully.
[Photo source: AP]

DERNIÈRES HEURES POUR FUMER
AVANT L'APPLICATION DE LA LOI
[LAST HOURS TO SMOKE BEFORE APPLICATION OF THE LAW]

31 décembre 2007 (20minutes.fr) - Une dernière pour la route. Alors que va s'appliquer l’interdiction de fumer dans les bars et restaurants, et discothèques, la ministre de la Santé Roselyne Bachelot le martèle:

«il n'y aura aucun assouplissement de la loi».

... «Après l'Irlande en 2004 et l'Italie en 2005, c'est au tour de la France et de l'Allemagne de faire comme aux Etats-Unis: no smoking dans tous les lieux publics. C'est la marche du temps, explique le quotidien Le Parisien.

[One for the road. Implementing the smoking prohibition in the bars and restaurants, and discotheques, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot hammered home:

There will be no easing of the law.

... "After Ireland in 2004 and Italy in 2005, it is the turn of France and Germany to do as the United States: No smoking in all public places. It is a sign of the times, comments the daily Le Parisien.]

France to do as the United States. Wait, wait. We must take a seat. [The wooziness passes. A low groan.] A single instance where Pave would have France not follow America's counsels, [Pause.] ah, but of course.

For all the nicotine philosophes of France, we present a little tune for your last puffs.

SMOKE! SMOKE! SMOKE! (THAT CIGARETTE)
Merle Travis & Sollie "Tex" Williams (1947)

Now I'm a fellow with a heart of gold
And the ways of a gentleman I've been told
Kind-of-a-guy that wouldn't even harm a flea

But if me and a certain character met
The guy that invented that cigarette
I'd murder that son-of-a gun in the first degree

It ain't cuz I don't smoke 'em myself
and i don't reckon that it'll hinder your health
I smoked 'em all my life and I ain't dead yet

But nicotine slaves are all the same
at a pettin' party or a poker game
Everything gotta stop while they have a cigarette

CHORUS
Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff until you smoke yourself to death.

Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait,
But you just gotta have another cigarette.

Now the other night I had a date
with the cutest little gal in any state
A high-bred, uptown, fancy little dame

She said she loved me and it seemed to me
That things were sorta like they oughtta be
So hand in hand we strolled down lovers lane

She was a long way from a chunk of ice
And our pettin' party was goin' real nice
And I got an idea I might have been there yet

So I give her a kiss and a little squeeze
Then she said, "Travis, Excuse me Please
But I just gotta have a cigarette."

CHORUS

------------------------------------
* And here we are told it is 66,000 (61K smokers, 5K second-hand smoke). Here it is 71,000 (66K smokers, 5K second-hand smoke).

PFFT (What is this?): The end of French culture ½ | Rayonnement français 0