Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

I'd nominate Catherine Deneuve, but that's just me.

De Gaulle or Piaf, but no Napoleon: poll for French greatest underway

PARIS (AFP) - Charles de Gaulle was the only political leader to feature on a shortlist of ten personalities from whom television viewers are to select the greatest ever French man or woman in history.

Possumblog readers are asked to refrain from jocular references to such things as "the world's shortest giant."

The wartime hero's rivals for the billing were two scientists, two comedians, a singer, an underwater explorer and a campaigning monk. [...]

The 10 names were unveiled in a live broadcast from the upper house of parliament, the Senate, on state-owned France 2 Television. Over the next two weeks the station will broadcast half-hour documentaries in which famous modern-day figures will act as advocates to plead their cause. [...]

Apart from de Gaulle, the candidates are: Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur, comics Coluche and Bourvil; writers Victor Hugo and Moliere; singer Edith Piaf; underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau; and -- the only living contender -- 92 year-old Abbe Pierre, who has spent half a century working for the homeless. [...]

It's interesting, too, that there's no Lafayette--arguably the most popular Frenchman in the US, if you go by the number of towns named for him.

Anyway, of the list given, I have to laugh that de Gaulle is listed and not Charlemagne or Joan of Arc. Of the rest, I think Curie and Pasteur should be tied for first, then maybe Hugo, then Cousteau.

posted by Terry at 8:38:00 AM

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