Monday, 5 May 2003 Metropole Paris 8.18/19 - Monday, 28 April - 5 May</a> <!-- the below lines check to see if 'print' has been called. Then it inserts the correct link into the right of the navbar. Notice the second line of 'echo $_SERVER' code - and notice the '?media=print' after it. When you are in 'screen' version, this is the link that will be displayed - and this is where the 'print' call is sent to this page. If it is already 'print', no '?media=print' is inserted into the URL, telling the php to compile a 'normal page' -->
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<h2 class="c2">Somebody's Swedish Grandmother</h2><img src="club819a.jpg" alt="photo: group, blenda, dinny, stephen, lauren, walter, elena"
align="middle" height="210" width="320" />
<p class="c3">From left, the 'Group Photo of the Week' with
Blenda, Dinny, Stephen, Lauren, Walter and Elena.</p>
<h3 class="c4">Rare Award for Pittsfield,
Massachusetts</h3>
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<p class="noindent"><b>Paris:- Thursday, 8. May 2003:-</b> This week the
forecasters' batting, pitching, throwing and base-running
errors are working out in our favor. Granted that yesterday
was predicted to be a partly cloudy day, but it turned out
to be a good-weather all-sunny day, if a bit breezy.</p> <div style="width:300px;height:250px;float:right;clear:right;margin:1em 0 1em 1em;">
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<p>Today's weather was forecast as rainy and stormy, but it
was like yesterday, with lighter breezes. Instead of having
VE Day in miserably humid rain, everybody got a nice day
off in Paris and Président Chirac and the army, navy
and air force didn't get damp during the ceremonies this
morning.</p>
<p>Not being a workers holiday, all the shops for essential
things like food and drink, were open. This was lucky for
me because I forgot to get my daily bread yesterday, and
got fresh bread from my back-up boulangerie today. Every
time I forget I think I will starve to death, but it never
happens.</p>
<p>Because tomorrow is not a holiday, even though clever
people will have taken the 'pont' of Friday and blown town
for a long weekend, the forecast is not so good.</p>
<p>First, we will be attacked by a humid front coming from
the northwest, from the Channel. If this doesn't
do<img src="club819d.jpg" alt="photo: soup bowl of cafe"
align="left" height="160" width="250" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> its dirt, then we will be attacked by another wet
front from the southeast, and squashed in the middle. Both
Le Parisien and tonight's TV-weather news think the high on
Friday will be 16 - down at least six degrees from
today.</p><i>Today's most photogenic soup bowl of
café.</i>
<p>Then a magic event will happen - a sunny and warmer
weekend, including maybe Monday. Do I believe this? Nah!
This is too good not to be ripe for skepticism. But I
repeat the prediction with 100 percent doubt in firm belief
in the 'law of adverses,' which says whatever is believed,
is wrong.</p>
<p>This means that if my doubt prevails, the weather will
be crummy. But if the 'law of adverses' gets the upper
hand, the weather may be as predicted. I think this covers
all bases and I will be caught in a squeeze-play trying to
steal home.</p>
<p>For non-baseball fans, this can be translated as the
weather being likely to behave like a 'sticky wicket.'</p>
<p>As the métro gets closer to downtown is gets
full. I wonder where everybody except me is going. There
are no strikes or demonstrations or protest marches or
ordinary work planned for today.</p>
<p>Not everybody gets out of the train at Châtelet
which increases my curiosity. The Rue de Rivoli is not
overpopulated with shoppers, and traffic seems light. It is
even lighter in the back alleys I take to get to the
club.</p>
<p>On the way I stop in a cozy café called the Tour
d'Argent to have my morning jolt of café. It's never
too late for this. On the Quai du Louvre all of the
terraces are gaily decked out with happy holiday makers
drinking drinks and eating eats, including at the club's
café, La Corona.</p>
<p>Inside, in the 'grande salle,' the club's tables are
free of civilians and wiped clean of grains of salt and
sugar. It is a fine thing to be able to lay out the club's
booklets and today's Le Parisien, without the grit.</p>
<p>The 'Elf Affair' is the big story. There are 37
defendants, but it is basically about how three guys
skimmed<img src="club819e.jpg" alt="photo: group, walter and elena" align="right" height="160"
width="240" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> zillions of francs,
dollars and euros out of the sleazy oil business into their
own pockets. One of them has the defense that he asked
Président Mitterrand if it was okay to do this, and
Mitterrand blinked.</p><i>Showing somewhat, how today's
meeting was at two ends, joined by tables inbetween.</i>
<p>This is a flimsy defense tactic, because the late
Président is no longer on this planet in spirit, so
it amounts to this one guy's word whether there was a blink
or not, and what it meant. Président Mitterrand's
nickname wasn't 'The Sphinx' for nothing.</p>
<p>My amusement is arrested by the arrival of new member
Stephen Camera- Murray, along with last week's new member,
Laura Camera-Murray. The couple come from Boston, but come
from San Francisco too - where they went to get in on the
tail-end of the Dot-Com bust, so they got out okay because
they had never gotten properly in.</p>
<p>As a reward for themselves, they drove straight back to
Boston by way of Vancouver and Calgary. Stephen says that I
can put down Pittsfield, Massachusetts as the 'City of the
Week.' I am glad to do this.</p>
<p>A few minutes later Elena and Walter Srebnik arrive.
They come from Laguna Beach, California. Walter tackles the
club's questionnaire - not doing it is not a 'rule' - and
gives 'service' in Paris a blackball, while thumbs-upping
everything else.</p>
<p>No matter how much the club's secretary tries to explain
that 'service' in Paris is merely different, Walter sticks
to his perceptions - which are fairly true. He won't buy
the idea that even if true, they are irrelevant because it
is 'Paris rules' here.</p>
<p>The 'Waiter of the Week' sails by and reminds me that
he'll be bringing me my double café at 16:00.</p>
<p>Blenda Femenias is another new<img src="club819c.jpg"
alt="photo: perrier with two lemon slices" align="left"
height="200" width="177" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> member
today, who has come in with old-time member Dinny Moyer.
Dinny's plan is to enroll her entire high school class in
the club. A half-dozen must already be members. There is
'no rule' against doing this. Blenda is even a sister of an
already- member too. Blenda has come from Providence, Rhode
Island.</p><i>Dinny's glass, with the slice of lemon in
it.</i>
<p>The Camera-Murrays have thimble-sized cups of
café, but Blenda and the Srebniks all take soup
bowls full of café. Dinny orders a Perrier and asks
for a slice of lemon in the glass. The 'Waiter of the Week'
says it is five minutes until my own café-time.</p>
<p>Both Elena and Walter want to know about getting tickets
to the opéra. I think the Opéra Bastille
might be a good place to get tickets. Dinny says they can
be purchased at the 'last-minute' ticket kiosks at
Madeleine or Montprnasse, but they've always been sold out
when she's tried.</p><br /><i>Continued on <a href="/2003/818/819clb28.html?page=2" target="_self">page 2...</a></i></td>
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