Bits
bits of news June 2015
A couple of things have happened in France.
Nutella is in the news again. Some time ago a law had to be amended because it would label Nutella is less than healthy. The public was happy to have foods with large fat contents labelled but include Nutella – no, sacrilege. Now the Minister of the Environment, Royal, has said that it is destroying the environment and people should avoid it. There were sharp words from Italy were it is made, diplomatic hassles and then an apology from Royal. So the palm oil is less important then Italian feelings. Although the chances of the French not feeding their children Nutella is zero.
The English test in the French language Bacc is causing a fuss. There was a question that many students could not answer because -they could not understand the question because -it relied on knowing what ‘coping’ meant. This was said to be unfair because coping was a very, very unusual English word. There were lots of headlines about ‘coping with coping’. There seems to be two things working here. First, there isn’t a word in ordinary French that is a good translation (although a number of near miss phrases). Second, the word is very common in English but this is quite recent. The French English texts are dated and the word cannot be found anywhere in any of them.
No images this month but some insights
I noticed last month that my choice of images for JanetsPlace (and I take it that the trend will continue) is images that have one of two things: they are patterns, even sorts of textures; or, if they depict scenes, they have a personal history. Maybe I know the artist, or the scene, but there is definitely an emotional connection that is not there in the patterns. The patterns are purely a visual appreciation.
I also noticed with my new computer that I loath setting up a new computer. I am also afraid that I will lose things of value. Funny – I usually find more than I lose. My wrist likes the new machine. I can move around to different chairs and tabletops so the wrist gets variety.