Playing Hardball

Brave sun for brave terracians.

Return of New, Better Pataphysics

Paris:– Monday, 8. May 2006:– You should see the weather map in today's Aujourd'hui en France which is being a holiday substitute for Le Parisien. If it wasn't in color all the clouds would be in black. From some of the darker clouds there are bolts of red lightning. Shazam! attacks France, from Corsica to Lille, from Brest to Grenoble.

But actually, in real France where I am located, it has been fairly sunny today and warmer than predicted. Can you believe what you read in newspapers? But judging from tonight's TV–weather news, its forecast pretty well matched the newspaper's. The differences are not more serious than several hundred kilometres, north mixed with south, so I'll skip them.

A raft of predictions has warned about low temperatures, and tomorrow is no exception. Snow is expected in the Alps but they are not near here, so don't worry. Here, it might be part sunny in the morning and only partly sunny in the afternoon, and very sunny down south if you go far enough.

Then on Wednesday the country is split in two, north to south, with us on the semi–sunny side and local muck on the east side, beyond the 20th arrondissement somewhere. The high for the day was forecast to be 18 degrees.

Due to an anticyclone on Thursday it will be maybe a bit better than semi–sunny here in the top half of the country and very sunny in the south half. Meanwhile this may result in a high temperature of 22 degrees, maybe more maybe less, but above 20 if you believe it. If true sunrise should be about 06:15 – when the birds will have been peeping madly for a hour – and sundown will be about 21:20, making candlelight dining only a remote likelihood outside of caves.

Fleet In the Sky With Barbaro

Météo Jim, Metropole's weather eye under the skies of the Tri–State area sent his forecast for this week on Saturday. Here is, absolutely fresh, Météo Jim's timely and accurate forecast:–

Barbaro – not to be confused with Rappelle–toi, Barbara. Parce qu'il n'y avait pas de pluie, il n'y avait pas de raison que l'on devrait rappeller Barbara. See above paragraph* for weather and why we shouldn't remember Barbara, not to be confused with Barbaro. See start of paragraph – ...raced to the finish and undying glory. If he wins the next two races, his glory will die even less. But this is a weather report. Glory and horse races are fleeting and weather forecasts are even more fleeting.

The dry spell in Pommeland continues and Barbara will be remembered less and less – or forgotten more and more. There was a chance of a Nor'easter on Tuesday, but the storm may have bet the ranch on "Did He Win Yet Boobie?" and has lost all respectability and no one will take it seriously.

A river at the centre of it all.

Tuesday will warm up to around 70 a–grad but there is a chance of showers towards the end of the week, with temperatures in the mid–60's. Sunday, May 14, la Fête des Mères, will be partly cloudy and temperatures will also in the mid–60's. But this can change. See disclaimers from previous forecasts.

*If this makes slight sense you haven't been readingParis Turf carefully. Obviously 'Barbara' refers to NASCAR racing, aside from the disclaimers in previous issues.

Café Life

Playing Dirty Hardball

However, at this moment it appears to be raining. It is night and the cars on the street below are swishing past like wet canoes, under the glistening umbrella of fresh leaves, slightly blacker in the dark than the damp night sky.

France kind of resolved its problems with students on strike several weeks ago and they went back to schools to study for their exams, and a lot of folks marched a week ago on May Day, and you would think that was the end of that, al least until the students get angry again.

Flying water under high sky.

But there is never a dull moment allowed around here. From the past, waiting in the wings for the students to clear off the stage, was some kind of major snafu that was immediately trotted out and now this occupies the top levels of government, the opposition, the press, civilian gossip and the TV–news, day and night.

This one is called the Clearstream Affair. In polls the French think it is grave, but not so bad that the prime minister should resign, and hardly a reason to advance next spring's presidential election. Of course there is a minority opinion, succinctly put by the Socialist leader François Hollande – "The government should go."

As far as I can make out this new shambles mainly concerns only a few of the leaders of the majority. It started a couple of years ago when a general met with an executive of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. But it started before that as 'Part One,' which was investigated for years and then filed in a dead–letter box.

Two years ago a snitch sent a list of names, a list of account transactions, supposedly from Clearstream, a clearing bank in Luxembourg. This technical bank – it clears huge transactions between banks – has been accused of laundering cash for the Mafia, drug cartels and acting as a transit for invisible political campaign funds.

Ivy's artshow in ancient chapelle.

On the TV–news the list is shown and it is a list of names of banks. TV–news does not point out, highlight, enlarge or magnify, any particular's name. How, I wonder, is Nicolas Sarkozy's name attached? How is Michèle Alliot–Marie's name connected? And the other names, including some major Socialists? Well, everybody concerned has gone to the police to press charges against 'X' for defamatory lies.

Apparently some investigators think the list itself is a fake, a forgery. But this doesn't stop speculation from asking who knew what, when? And of course the prime minister Dominque de Villepin is supposed to know something – after Jacques Chirac he is the head of the government spooks after all. They must know something! Oh, it is very juicy, but to me it smells like smoke and I have yet to see any sign of fire. It's more like smoke and mirrors.