You’ve heard me talk about this before (Merde 101). But the world has gotten more dangerous since I wrote that piece. We need to be on the lookout. We need to be vigilant. We need to speak English. No, this is not an anti-immigrant piece. This is a potential-worldwide-calamity-caused-by-incomprehensible-grammar piece.
Yes, it’s true. I’m saying that all roads to terrorism are sign-posted in FRENCH. Believe me. I lived there. I know. Well, I don’t know the language, but I know those signposts. And what they say. More or less.
Why would I make such an accusation? Because French is stupid.
Well, actually, it’s really French possessives. French possessives are stupid, illogical, dangerous.
You see, in French, objects get the gender of the object/noun, not the owner. And that, is of course, the problem.
Imagine that there is a man and a woman in a train station. Between them is a suitcase.
Google Image (or KGB?)
In it is a nuclear bomb. Desperate to foil the bad guys, you cannot just shout out “It’s HIS!” pointing to the man who can be arrested and the bomb diffused.
Google Images are everywhere
Why not?
Because the word for suitcase in French is “valise” which is feminine. Therefore, you can only say “It’s HERS” (“Est la valise!”) — regardless of who owns the suitcase/nuclear bomb. The bomb would go off and everyone would die.
The terrorists would succeed because French is stupid.
Not speaking French is the way to protect the world.
*****
One of my blogging buddies, Paprika of Good Humored felt stupid recently. She wrote about it here: At Least We Can See France From Our Toilet. And it’s not her fault. You see, Paprika and her husband Oregano found themselves in French-speaking Switzerland, just down the road from where I used to live. They came back feeling stupid. They shouldn’t have. Instead, they should have come back relieved that they had survived a nuclear attack.
[Note to folks who actually know French: Before you get on my case, I do know that there are other was to say “It’s HIS.” But they are not short, sweet and to the point. They are long and involved and the bomb would explode by the time anyone could get the sentence out. The Terrorists would still win.]
FiftyFourandAHalf 