Another week, another Quebec language issue. The princess must be doing a mad merengue in Mexico at the thought of yet another embarrassing news story on CNN. Or she’s smacking a pinata with all her might hoping that french candies will fall out.
This time a teenager working a summer job in a supermarket was told to speak only in French at all times. That meant during her lunch break and when interacting with other employees. She was allowed to speak English to customers. Whahoo!!! Go crazy!!! The manager of the store denied the allegations. As well, it should be noted that this girl has an English parent and a French parent so she is totally bilingual.
Zut alors, this bright young woman was quick on her feet. When hauled into the manager’s office for a ‘meeting’, she deftly turned on her phone and recorded the entire conversation. For all to hear, the manager stated that it is ‘the law’ to speak French when at work. Hello? It ain’t the law. You can speak English if you want to. The young women quit on the spot and contacted the proper missives as well as going very public with this story.
The manager has since taken a leave of absence and the head office of said supermarket issued a statement distancing themselves from the store involved. Blanche – da damage is done. Stay tuned for next week’s language gefufelment.
And then there’s Paula Deen. This is a somewhat sensitive topic and we will not use the language nor the letter associated with the word in question that got her into some serious hot water. Suffice it to say the deep south of the United States of America obviously has its own culture, language, innuendos and sense of right and wrong. She may have lost her cooking show and most of her endorsements, but her cookbooks have skyrocketed on Amazon. On Monday her books were down in the 1500’s. By Wednesday her cholesterol killing cookbooks were at number 8. Obviously the land to the south of us is still very divided on the subject that she raised.
Get this: She was featured in a high-end cruise in January for a week. They had to add another week because of the demand. We can assure you that those going on said cruise are not from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rather from Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky etc.
We know you won’t believe this, but it’s true. Fifty thousand bumble bees will be honored in a memorial this weekend at the Wilsonville Target where they met their untimely end due to trees that had been sprayed with an insecticide called Safari. Wait!! It gets better! The event will “memorialize these fallen lifeforms and talk about the plight of the bees and their importance to life on Earth.” In case you want to attend the memorial, you’ll have to make your way to Wilsonville Oregon (hence the name of the Target).
Did you notice Obama’s unusual silence re l’affaire Snowden? Just an observation. It is also interesting to note that the only source of information on this story is coming out of the Guardian in London. As of tonight, the asylum request to Ecuador had not been processed because Snowden, who is believed to be at Moscow airport, was neither in Ecuador nor at an Ecuadorean embassy or consulate as required by their law. Because Snowdon’s US passport has been invalidated, he is a citizen of no country in the world. It also seems that the government of Ecuador is divided on Snowden. The leftists have embraced him as an anti-imperialist symbol and centrists who fear diplomatic and economic damage.
One thing we can say with certainty. Snowden’s in a heap’a trouble and it ain’t ending anytime soon.
In case you were wondering, Princess Kate has not yet given birth to the next heir to the throne. That should happen in the next couple of weeks. Remember – doesn’t matter if it’s a girl or boy – that child is next in line to the throne.
On June 27, 1976 an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked, by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells, and flown to Entebbe the capital of Uganda. Shortly after landing, all non-Israeli passengers, except one French citizen, were released.
With the hijackers threatening to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met, the rescue operation was planned 100 Israeli commandos flew over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) to Uganda for the rescue operation. The operation (on July 4, 1976), which took a week of planning lasted 90 minutes and 102 hostages were rescued. The Israeli commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed.
Good Shabbos
We’ll talk…
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