Our Club's Man of 2000

M. Ferrat in a blur, shows why espresso café is fast.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Friday, 24. December 1999:- There was no response whatsoever to my little 'floater' last week, suggesting this column should be suppressed, and that Thursday's 'nearly live' report of the club's meeting should appear here instead.

From this I can surmise two possibilities. Either nobody reads this column, knowing it to be a 'puffer' - unadulterated PR - or you simply like to have twice as much club to read about, even if half of it is 'puffer.'

While reporting about one-tenth of what actually goes on at club meetings is fairly easy to do - after all, I am at them - doing this PR page requires real inventiveness. Writing 'filler' is not as easy as you may think.

Of course, there is always the possibility that you skip the tedious 'club report' and get its summary here instead. You may be tired of reading about the 'City of the Week' or looking at pictures of the 'Food of the Week.'

Well, I've got news for you. Last Thursday, yesterday, there was no 'City of the Week' and there was no 'Food of the Week.'

What there was, was ten new 'Members of the Week.' With the three members of the Maginniss family the club got its first 'Village of the Week.' This was so, even if one-third of the Maginniss family were from Los Angeles.

With seven other new club members on hand, there was simply no time to have a 'Food of the Week' and I don't recall anybody eating anything, except maybe some sugar lumps left over from all the cafés we had.

Person of the Year 2000

Jan and Dana Shaw were not at yesterday's club meeting because they returned home after many weeks in Paris. They were missed yesterday, and they missed the club because Dana wrote to complain about the reference to Savannah, because I wrote that it 'was close enough to Florida.'

Since Savannah didn't make it as 'City of the Week' and no state is going to make it as 'State of the Week' unless it is very tiny - like Andorra - there is really no reason for Dana to worry about Florida.

Dana Shaw is not only a 'Charter Club Member' but he would be a 'Charter Metropole Paris Reader' if the magazine had such a title.

A very long time ago, Dana wrote to suggest that I take a look at the Rue de la Huchette. He did this because he went to high school in Paris for a couple of years a long time ago, and the Rue de la Huchette was one of his favorite streets.

In fact, what he wrote on Saturday, 13. April 1996 was in Metropole's 9th issue. Dana has been writing pretty regularly since then - which must be some sort of record for 'letters to Ed.'

While he was here, we had a plan to retrace his old route from where he lived in Montparnasse to where he went to school near the Porte d'Auteuil, and I hoped to make a feature article from it.

But Paris being Paris, we never quite got around to it. I am sorry about this, because it would have been a good chance of getting a bit of Paris as it was 'then.' As the Irish say, 'there's time.' If Jan and Dana return soon, it'll be the first thing to do.

It being the end of the year, end of the century - and nearly the end of the millennium - a lot of French magazines have something about this on their covers.

This week the newsmagazine L'Express has something like this, but with a twist. Instead of 'Man of the Year' it has the 'Man of the Year 2000,' and instead of a photo, it has a rectangle of reflective paper. If you look at it, it gives a very rippled view of yourself.

I looked at this and decided that Dana Shaw should be this man. 'C'est Vous,' as the magazine's cover says.

I say 'thank you' L'Express for this idea, and I say thank you to Dana Shaw for being Metropole's longest-lasting and most regular correspondent.

It may seem like a 'PS' but I want to add that Jan and Dana Shaw are also the Café Metropole Club's most regular 'live' Charter members too.

Man, what wonderful members you all are! I have no idea of how many 'virtual' Charter members the club may have - signing the 'virtual' member's-present notebook is not obligatory! - but you 'live' counterparts now number two dozen - on the metric system - which is about 20.

With no more back-slapping, let's have our last meeting - the 12th - in this century, next Thursday. Then, refreshed, we'll go after new records at our first meeting in the coming century.

If you want to know how a 'Village of the Week' actually got registered as a club 'official' name, you should read the unauthorized and unofficial account of last Thursday's weekly Club meeting - in case you haven't already read it. Hit the hyperlink to see what happened.

For those of you reading this page for the dozenth time, let me point out that the possession of the membership card is not at all obligatory. For those of you who have yet to read this page, do not accept substitutes.