"Why I'm In a Good Mood"

From left - Greg, James, Ulrich, Dinny, Eva with
'Sally' and Tom.

'City of the Week' - Jersey City!

Paris:- Thursday, 2. May 2002:- There are some readers who do not have true feelings of fandom for weather reports, besides me, but they are not in Paris - or about to be - so can I hardly blame them for not giving a tinker's hoot.

The weather - it's something that happens. There are PhDs with mainframes and they can't figure it out because, as they will freely admit, weather is more random than roulette wheel balls in Lost Vegas.

Then there are other readers, probably a majority, who do care about the weather in Paris even if they are 18,000 kilometres away from here. Knowing the weather today may help them to decide what to wear here on their visit, possibly in late June of 2003.

So then, think of these little weather 'reports' here as being highly appreciated by - most? - readers. They are part of all the other vital and essential services Metropole chooses to offer, if there's time enough to include them.

Today's weather in Paris is partly cloudy - which means partly sunny - with an increasing tendency to be mostly cloudy, which is about the time is it not sunny at all, because it has become nighttime.

Tonight's TV-weather news, as presented by the agile Isabelle, is foreseen as having a triangular window of mostly sunny periods, sometime on Saturday. Before Saturday and after Saturday, mostly cloudy is the forecast. It will not be warm either, not even for April - when it was warmer.

This forecast is a one-time one only once. It does not apply to this time next year, or any year in the future, and has no resemblance to any similar times in the past at the same time of year. Use it once and forget it.

Despite what is written above, the sun is shining on the club's café La Corona at today's meeting time. It must be good all over town because there are not many people in the 'grande salle.'

No sooner have I placed the administrative notes in the members' and reports' booklets and opened today's Le Parisien to read about yesterday's monster street demonstrations in Paris and throughout France - new members present themselves.

Since both James Pinto and Greg Huson are from the Washington, DC area, Jim admits to originally coming from Jersey City, New Jersey. While its name is not original, it is Jersey City's first time to be cited here so it gets the highly sought after 'City of the Week' award.

Greg has never read Metropole Paris in his life, but Jim has and that is why they are here. Jersey City is famous for supplying utilities to Bedlos Island in New York harbor. If the Statue of Liberty's lights go out, you can blame Jersey City.

In short order, member Ulrich Diederich from Houston, Texas makes a reappearance, followed by the multiple-appearing Eva Lee from Tranquility, New Jersey. Before being home in DC, Greg came from Morristown, which is halfway between Jersey City and Tranquility.

The new members want to know about the club's members who are dogs. Greg says there is a bar in Alexandria that has a weekly 'Doggie Happy Hour.' All day is 'Doggie Happy Hour' in Paris cafés.

My notes do not say how the subject has come up, but Jim assures me that 'Hawaiian shirts' are actually made in Hawaii. He says style-conscious Hawaiians wear their new ones inside-out because it the fashion there. This must be handy for people who don't bother undoing their buttons - every other day.

Eva spent yesterday in the mother of all demonstration parades in Paris on May Day. "It took ninety minutes to go one block on the Boulevard Beaumarchais," she says.

My own experience was somewhat different. I failed to find 400,000 people who were marching from République to the Place de la Nation. I'll explain this in Metropole's next edition.

Dinny Moyer has arrived from the north side of the 15th arrondissement. When asked by other members how long she intends to live here she says, "Forever is lasting longer than I thought it would."

So far, everybody is either from New Jersey or from the Washington area, except Ulrich who is from Houston - which is not pronounced like Houston Street in Manhattan either - and he is in a good mood.

"I didn't come with a wife or girlfriend, that's why I'm in a good mood." Ulrich has come straight from the airport to the club without stopping, so he's obviously not responsible for what he says.

Member Tom Yanul, from Chicago, arrives without his wife, who he says is shopping. Tom has the panoramic camera that he leaves 'parked' at the Arts et Métiers, but used a spare one yesterday from a high spot at Bastille, to shoot the place so full of people that Eva couldn't get close to it.

This reminds Eva about an extra-friendly taxi driver she rode with in Sarlat. Some readers of Metropole complain that all bars and cafés in Paris are not 'on the Web,' but Eva's taxi is. If yu need wheels to look around Sarlat, just email Philippe Mouret to book a ride in advance.