Winter Before Autumn

Not the first day of autumn, but the last day of summer
on Saturday.

It's Okay to be Furry Again

Paris:- Monday, 23. September 2002:- I thought autumn began two days ago but tonight's TV-weather news set me straight by saying that its exact date can be any time within a 48-hour period, and this year it is at the tail end of it. TV-news said it was 'two days late.'

This heaves a big load off my mind. I was wondering on Saturday why it was bright and sunny but a bit cool for summer - or a bit warm for autumn. I should have waited for today because the wind is chilly and it is more than just cool.

But for people who like their seasons to be seasons, I have good news. Tomorrow brings a wind from the northeast and the temperature is going to fall off a steep cliff.

That's exactly right for all you fresh-air fans! Tomorrow's blazing high will be 16 at best - Le Parisien says 15 - but both the paper and the TV-weather people agree that there will be snow above the 1000 metre level in the Vosges and maybe some more a bit higher in the Alps.

For Wednesday, the paper says we can expect a high of 17, but TV-weather predicted 15 tonight, and maybe fairly sunny. For Thursday, a slight temperature rise, but more cloudy.

TV's forecast didn't go beyond Thursday, but I can tell you what is going to happen. We are going to have some winter first, to substitute for fall.

For people who are already cold, the fashion shows are coming to your rescue by showing furs for the first time in years. This reverses the trend of 'better naked that furry' that captured the funky western world's attention about 15 years ago.

While the videos of the runway parades showed the usual starving models, on tonight's TV they were 'dressed' in what looked like old rags and tatters of what the announcer said were furs.

Even though there were more holes than fur and what could be seen through the holes wasn't in any way suggestive, it was still easy to ignore the absolutely necessary audio part of the report - which said that a fur coat formerly weighing a couple of kilos, now weighs a thrifty 700 grams.

Ha! How remarkable! Take a perfectly good fur coat made from the finest sable in the world, dye it green and red, shrinkwrap it, and cut whacking great holes out of it - and then show it off on a walking stick-person - and what you have then is virtual 'fashion' that is of the essence - of total TV-foolishness.

But after all my sneering, they got me to watch it, didn't they?

But behind the hype - fashion on TV in Paris is only hype - the message to all those who have had their furs in storage for 15 years is - out with it! It may need remodeling, it may need some holes cut in it, it may need to be dyed to look like cheap plastic, but it is no longer a lost cause. The best news of all is that it may be possible to save a bundle on fur storage fees.

But before you get out your scissors, remember that this is an addendum to today's weather report. There may be a very good reason why furs are being allowed to come back into fashion - and it might be called - 'General Winter.'

Café Life

The city's magazine for residents - formerly 'Paris - Le Journal,' is now named 'àParis.' It has made a late reappearance after its summer pause, and it has shown up with a new layout and changed editorial emphasis.

In its former version it was allowed to be a bit snazzy, but some taxpayers might have confused this with expense - and it now looks a bit like the Dentist's Gazette that you see lying around desolate waiting rooms, while being unable to read because you are sweating in total fear.

Never mind that a cartoon page by Cabu has been added - in this issue, 'The Stress of Wednesday' - and it still has the familiar weird Paris photo of the month.

The events for the month, arrondissement by arrondissement, once a source of rare nuggets, has been suppressed in favor of all sorts of ernest public information - like the advice to avoid getting killed on your motor scooter.

The article says that if you get into a traffic accident with one you have a five percent chance of not surviving it. This is alarming when you learn that motorized two-wheelers are involved in half of Paris' traffic accidents.

But nowhere does it say anything about pedestrians on sidewalks who are harassed by 'motards' taking urgent shortcuts, nor are there any fatality figures for this type of accident. Maybe there are none, and 'motards' politely shift all of their accidents to the roadways in the nick of time.

At sundown on Saturday, 5. October, Paris is going to open its cultural doors and keep them open all night. Christophe Girard, Paris' cultural czar, says he has travelled a lot and noticed that a lot of other cities - and particularly Paris - positively modify their natural daytime impulses in a socially acceptable manner at night.

The actual verb he is quoted as using is the reflexive 'se sublimer.' I can't figure out exactly what this means, but it seems to be positive, because everything that's kept open will be free - as well as the shuttle buses that are to be available to truck the night people around town.

The RATP seems to be cool to the idea of running métro trains all night long, but may come up with a couple. The main idea is for the public to have access to sites that aren't usually open at night, as well as all the places like bars, cafés and clubs that are.

Since this will be the first time this is going to happen, exactly what one may experience isn't a known factor. Given the normal state of Saturday night TV, it is just possible that Parisians will turn out in mass, for a bit of collective sublimation, or to sublimate together.

Maybe a better way to put it would be to think of it as an all-night pub-crawl through the city's churches, art galleries, museums, libraries, with occasional stops for refreshments, all of it subliminal or not.

If you read this magazine in order, page by page, you might not yet kno that this issue contains no 'Au Bistro' news column, for historical reasons.