Show Me State, Supreme

I suppose I could keep a blog about all the things I never knew, but that's like drawing a speck on the side of Notre Dame, designating it the things I do know, then trying to recreate the building in 3-D with just text, and no cardboard glasses. But if I were to make such an effort, I could start with the quote from Mitt Romney, presidential candidate, Mormon, and former governor that "The [Mormon] Church says that Christ appears and splits the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. … And then, over a thousand years of the millennium, that the world is reigned in two places, Jerusalem and Missouri. … The law will come from Missouri, and the other will be from Jerusalem."

Who knew?

Waiting for Leonardo

So, I was walking down a side street on the way to Canal Bio, when I pass this shabby storefront with an advertisement for accordion lessons (10 euros) in one window and in the other a trombone for sale for 500 E. Next to it was a framed reproduction of the Mona Lisa that had the other chick's face cut out and Segolene Royal's swapped in. There was a striking resemblance. The former candidate for prez has been rather out of the picture lately. She got interviewed a time or two about the transport strike, but had nothing to say that distinguished her from the other Socialist hacks. She might consider the virtues of a slight smile and mysterious silence.

It Must Be the Holidays

I dreamed about my mother last night and woke up feeling depressed.

There was something about the church. And my old room. On the door, she had pasted clippings about something, and attached to the clippings were the heads of living flowers, sweet peas and snapdragons, common orchids with swirls and spots of red.

She'd taken to raising flowers instead of painting, and was winning prizes at shows.

We didn't fight about anything. I don't even remember if we talked. But there it was, all the reproach and guilt and grief and chances lost, and strange beauty hanging from a closed door.

Everybody's A Critic

This afternoon the middle-aged beige-skinned guy at the Laundromat pulling money out of the change machine took a minute to tell me to put all my detergent in the wash compartment, and not in the pre-wash, which he said is a waste of soap.

When he heard my accent, and asked where I'm from he recommended I see "In the Valley of Elah" with Tommy Lee Jones. "Great movie. Really nice," he said. "A shame about the war. Lot of people dead. Lot of people."

He turned out to be North African, from Morocco, but a Jew. "There aren't so many there anymore. All immigrated, many to the last state," he said. I didn't understand. "You know, U.S. foreign policy. U.S. and Israel like that." He twisted two fingers together and smiled. It looked a little forced. "Israel. The 51st American state."

"Ah, yes," I said.

"You should see the movie."

Oooposites Attract

The other day I passed a driveway to a parking garage in the basement of an apartment building where one woman was pulling out, and another pulling in, effectively blocking each other. They sat there glaring daggers at each other, until one woman decided to lay on her horn, which I heard the whole five minutes it took me to walk up rue de Crimee.

If I hadn't had to get somewhere, maybe I would've stayed to watch. They were both white, forty or fiftyish, (can't tell with hets) and to my faulty recollection drove similar makes of cars.

Which gave in first? Did either? Were the cops called? Did the line of traffic behind the woman stuck halfway out (or in) fill with road rage and shoot them both?

I'm only doubtful about the last. I checked for shattered glass and pools of blood on the way home. Nuttin'.

Smoking: U.S. vs France

No wonder we're suffocating in Paris.

The overall smoking prevalence in New York City is 18.4% (down from 21.5% in 2003 when the absolute no-smoking law kicked in). NYC is considered a model on the East Coast. It's even lower in California, Colorado, and such healthier places North and West.

In France it's 33% for all men. And 26% for all women. Almost 80% more than in NYC. (The CDC figure for the US overall in 2004 was "more than 21% of adults" due to France-like stats in places like Tennessee and KY)

Even more shocking :

France:
18-25 yr. olds:
43% men and 38% of the females are smokers.

NY State (including upstaters who smoke more)
all 18-24 olds (male & females together):
19.5%.

That's 120% more smokers in France than in the darkest corners of NY State!

NY State doesn't do that well on the next age group, but it's still way ahead:

France
26-34 yr olds:
45% men and 37% women.

NY State:
24.5% of all 25-44 olds.

The overall racial breakdown of smokers in NY State is 21.4% for whites, 23.2 for blacks, and 18.3 for Hispanics (probably due to the fact that smoking is still frowned upon for females in new immigrant groups). Baltimore authorities found a prevalence of 60% or so among blacks there.

In 1953, 72% (!) of French men and 17% of women smoked. In the 1960's, it was 40% of men, and 10% of females. But by the 1980's, men slightly increased, between. 40-45% and females reached 20%. By 2001, women had hit the 26% mark, while men had dropped overall to 33% (due to a drop in the 45-54 male age group).

So, between the 1960s and 2001, female smoking in France has almost TRIPLED. That's in 2 generations.

Here's hoping the ban in January improves things.

On Kentucky

The NYT's "Bourbon and Bluegrass." I was prepared to puke, though it turned out to be not too snide or too adoring, or insightful, either. But that seems too much to ask.