Kris and Jo go to Paris

No more CPE

You may have heard about the recent student strikes in Paris as well as the general striking throughout France; looks like all the demonstrating was a "success", depending on your perspective.  I took this picture on Friday.  Just days before, this wall near the Rue St Andres des Arts, had merely read : No CPE. 

Now it reads: less cops, more caresses.  The bottom line is a play on words meaning: the government lies, all in one word ( "mentir" means to lie, and is conjugated in the 3rd person singular as: "ment").

Anyway, it seems that Jacques Chirac has announced that the CPE will be repealed.  I guess students will be returning to school and France will need find other ways to fight unemployment.

The same day I took this picture, Kris and I were out on the Boulevard St Germain, where we saw plenty of protesters and lots of police...

Local boy makes good

I just learned that Michael Tomasky, the executive editor of one of my favorite magazines (The American Prospect), is from Morgantown, my home town.

Having ties to both Seattle and Pittsburgh (sorry, I don't have a link for Steven), I have no prediction for the Super Bowl, but based on today's entries in TAPPED, things don't look too good for Seattle. Of course, this is TAPPED, not ESPN, so I wouldn't put much stock in their sports predictions.

Coffee and other morning happenings

Grande latte from Ladro. Disappointingly not good. I've noticed that all of my bad cups of coffee from Ladro all come from the same store (Uptown). I'll have to try some other locations to see what's up.

I also had my standard morning mix: Metamucil, two vitamins, and two fish oil capsules.

When I left the house this morning there was a KING5 News van outside the building. This was initially worrisome, but once I noticed that they were loading stuff into the Queen Anne Books, I realized that it must be for the new Harry Potter book.

I was running late this morning, and would have missed the bus, but it was also late, which was good. However, this meant that I would miss my connecting bus, which was bad, but the connection was also late, which was good, but it wasn't late enough, so I missed it anyway, which was bad. Since I now had some time to kill in Uptown waiting for the next bus, I went to Ladro to grab a latte.

SPOILER ALERT: If you click the 'continue' link, you will find out something about the ending of the new Harry Potter book. If you want it to be a surprise, stop reading.