The 'Club's City of the Week' Program

Winter sun comes in low to La Corona.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Saturday, 20. November 1999:- Last week your 'Club' took a breather from its meteoric rise to success, to consolidate its position as Paris' number one club for readers of 'Metropole Paris.'

Many 'virtual' and real members, both charter and otherwise, used the occasion of last Thursday's Beaujolais Nouveau day to fail to get to their 'Club' on time or at all.

This is not a cause for alarm. Beaujolais Nouveau day in Paris upsets a lot of carefully thought-out plans and the absence of this or that member was immaterial, even if it was carefully noted in the 'blackball list' booklet - which does not, of course, officially exist.

Last week's 'City of the Week' was Athens, Ohio. I had to look it up to confirm this because, for the life of me, I have no idea how this city came to be named. As 'Ed' of the Café Metropole Club, I do not hesitate to say I have nothing personally against Athens, Ohio.

In fact, this naming of a 'City of the Week' may have left some members and ordinary readers, who are still making up their minds about seeking membership, with the idea that only cities in the United States are eligible for this - admittedly - transitory distinction.

If all of Metropole's readers were to show up at once at the café La Corona where the 'Club' meets, they would not fit in. No, this is not what I meant to write.

But it's true, if everybody came, about 9,500 of you would be left outside on the terrace and the rest would fill the sidewalks and be spilling into the streets.

Less than half of you - inside or out in the street - would claim cities in the USA as your hometowns. More than half of you - the majority, if I have the sense of this word right - would claim to be from cities not located within the United States.

This is because 'Metropole Paris' and the Café Metropole Club are not 'American.' Both the magazine and the 'Club' are Parisian, because the 'Ed' of both lives in Paris.

For this reason, 'Paris' is about the only city in the world ineligible to be the 'Club's City of the Week.' If I proposed it, it would be nepotism. Some alert readers and 'virtual' charter members are watching carefully for signs of nepotism raising its ugly head, so I dare not propose Paris.

No, this is not the reason either. More than half of the readers, and therefore more than half of the potential 'Club' members, live outside the United States.

All other cities where readers and members - 'virtual,' real, charter and otherwise - live, can be put up by their residents as the 'Club's City of the Week.' This includes cities in France.

If the server-lady, Linda Thalman, had proposed Boullay-les-Troux last Thursday, I'm sure it could have beaten out Athens, Ohio for the exalted spot. Luckily it was not proposed.

Come one, come all; and bring your 'Cities of the Week' with you - even if they are really towns and villages. If there are enough of these, we can start new categories for 'Town of the Week' and 'Village of the Week,' and on a really good week, have one of each.

For an account of last Thursday's weekly 'Club' meeting - in case you haven't already read it - hit the hyperlink to see what happened.

Last Thursday, the situation with the 'popular demand' for membership cards - not obligatory! - took another smack in the kisser, when new charter member Lind Thalman - aka 'The Server-Lady' - came to the club with a printed version of the membership card; printed in black and white.