The House of Re–Runs

Oodles of Blah Blah

Paris:– Monday, 24. October 2005:– I am sitting in front of the TV's big dusty screen with the paper's maps on my knees, pen in hand and uncapped, when Isabelle says, pointing at some trash blotting out Ireland, she says, "This is where the cold front is coming from."

I get ready to write some single–digit numbers. She is standing in front when Tuesday's map comes onscreen, but I can see to her left – out in the Atlantic – that there are red numbers like 60 with arrows pointing from the southwest, meaning winds. She shifts slightly and I see another at Orléans, pointing north and it says 70 kph.

When I get a clear look, the map area for here is very confused, with mixed–up clouds, possibly showers and heaven knows what else. Then she says it will be a bit warmer, with a high of 19 degrees foreseen. What happened to that cold front?

No matter how fast Isabelle talks they aren't overly generous with weather time on TV so she skips on to Wednesday, which looks like a layer cake with the icing on top representing clouds full of rain so thick you would wish it were chocolate. Under this, most likely over Paris, there's semi–dense sponge, with sunshine in the southern half of France which doesn't concern us.

Offshore the winds are still batting along at 60 kph, but here the high temperature is supposed to be 21. What happened to that cold front? Then something amazing – on Thursday the whole mess at the top of the country moves to the bottom, and the sun comes out here and the temperature hikes up to an unseasonable 22 degrees. To hell with her cold front. Right or wrong, it's a cute forecast.

Metropole's out–of–house literary and weather scribbler, Météo Jim, over there in a wretched November in Pommeland, provides us today with a forecast for now, then and the near future, outre–Atlantique.

Golden October has been replaced by Herman Melville's 'damp, drizzly November.' Rain and temperatures around 55 anglograd – 12 €grad – are predicted for greater Pommeland until Tuesday. At that point, chariots of fire are expected to roll through the Pommeland skies accompanied by strips of clouds but they are not expected to turn into furnaces of heat. The high temperatures will be in the upper 50's anglograd – about 14 –15 €grad – and descend into the mid 40's anglograd – 5–6 €grad – at night. The harvest moon, now a memory and only a remnant of its former glory, rises later and later each night. As usual, add about 5 degrees to get the real temperatures.*

*Tardy Disclaimer:– Then again, Wilma could reject both the offerings of la vida loca of Cancun and red Cuba and make a mad dash for southern Florida. Right now in Key West, the annual Halloween festivities are on hold, which is costing the city $5 million a day. After visiting Florida, there is a possibility that Wilma will sail up the East Coast and visit Pommeland.

Disclaimer 2:– All – or part – of the disclaimer could turn out to be wrong. Don't say you saw it here.

Café Life

Here is the situation. I didn't know that Arte–TV would have a Sicilian Mafia movie in Italian on tonight and I just found myself watching it and reading the subtitles, which has kind of left me with less time than usual to write another 1000 words right here and now.

Also I discovered a tiny mistake in last week's home page so I fixed it, but when I went to put it online – so I wouldn't forget – I found that Metropole was unavailable, completely dead in the water. Ah, this might happen once in a year or less, but it is happening in Paris on a Monday night.

By the time you are reading this it won't be happening of course, and you will hardly care that I was worried about hitting my elastic deadline. But for me it is disturbing. Then I looked at the rest of this page, at last week's three items, and decided to let them run again, good causes all.

This means, if you want, that you can skip down to the ever–popular 'Metropole One Year Ago' to read what you already read one year ago, or if that doesn't seem to be appealing, jump even further down to the usual collection of odd dates, all related as ever to today, but from the deep dark past of true history.

For the club's second meeting of its 7th year, mystery writer Cara Black is expected to be on hand to talk about how she came to write her first book, 'Murder in the Marais.' According to Cara it was based on the experiences of a friend's mother during the Occupation.

As many readers probably know Cara is responsible for a considerable crime wave in Paris, having set her private eye Aimée Leduc to catch murderers in the Marais, Sentier, Bastille, Belleville, Montmartre and most recently, in Clichy. Mark your calendars or agendas with this date – Thursday, 27. October and set your watches to 15:00, €times.

Metropole partner Philippe of Petanque America wrote last week to let us know that he is organizing the 'first ever' International Petanque Tournament in Miami. This will be Petanque America's second tournament, open this time to all comers. It could be pretty interesting because it will take place on South Beach where folks casually wear next–to–nothing for the climate, which has fewer blizzards than Minnesota or Helsinki.

Tune in to Petanque America Open International for tournament details. To take place in Miami on Saturday and Sunday, 12 and 13. November. And if you haven't got your French boules yet, get a set of Obut pétanque balls from Petanque America today and start practicing.

You may have bought your dream château in France, or at least a cute little Louis XIV barn, and now you feel you would rather a simple centrally–heatedapartment by the seaside instead. But your dream has turned to a nightmare as buyers ignore your treasure.Is this your story?