Word: gallicism
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From jazz to Jerry Lewis, American pop culture has often found a welcome audience in France. But nothing could have prepared the French for the latest U.S. export: Les Crados (The Dirty Ones), the Gallic edition of those Stateside sensations, the Garbage Pail Kids. A gruesome gallery of children's bubble-gum cards, Les Crados include such characters as Mathieu Degueu (Matthew Nosepicker), Herve W.C. (Toilet-Face Herve) and Laetitia Pus-de- Bras (Stinky-Pit Letitia...
Americans have never been able to respond to the misguided excesses of idealistic youth with a Gallic shrug. That is why the furor over Dan Quayle's Viet Nam record has become such a polarizing issue. Once again the nation is reminded of all the unresolved passions of the 1960s, a time of both angry and antic generational rebellion, when national leaders were reviled, patriotism was mocked, and drug taking exalted...
...hotel people and the police are all Gallic shrugs. Perhaps Madame has a lover? The American embassy is all bureaucracy. See that line over there, buddy? Well, go stand in it, and then we'll listen to your troubles. Walker, whose characterization Ford balances nicely between exasperation and desperation, is all thumbs. He does not speak the language, he never gets to sleep, eat or change his suit, and he keeps stumbling into situations in which he needs all the coordination and smarts that regular habits help to ensure. Hitch at least used to give Cary Grant and James Stewart...
Some skepticism may be permissible. The Gallic taste for abstractions and literary fun and games is not universally shared. And wordplay, no matter how winsome, does not travel well from one language to another. In any case, English-speaking readers can now examine Perec's most acclaimed book for themselves. At first glance, Life: A User's Manual looks every bit as good as the French have been saying it is for years...
...dress uniforms complete with immaculate stiff shirts and white ties, striding down the middle of the street with beautiful women on their arms. They might have been reclaiming the French Quarter. Later that week we heard the Captain being interviewed on a French language radio station. He sounded sutably Gallic and urbane but slightly bored, the retired imperialist paying his colonial social dues. Indeed, New Orleans is one of the few ports in the world where the French Navy can still feel like conquering heroes. The Captain was in his glory on Bourbon Street...