good things

Baseball's tribute to Jackie Robinson:

Hundreds of players will wear Robinson’s No. 42 retired by baseball 10 years ago in ballparks across the country on Sunday, the anniversary of Robinson’s first appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/sports/baseball/13jackie.html]

Jean-Jacques Goldman. The man can't lip-sync to save his life, but I dig the flying toasters anyway.

Cheesy French rock is an excellent stimulant at 2:30 a.m., especially when the thought of yet another cup of coffee -- eurgh.

A Dictionary of Colorful French Slanguage and Colloquialisms by Etienne and Simone Deak (1961), which turns out to be stellar bathroom reading. I'm going to start posting words and phrases from it here, because really, I'm boring myself with my incessant laments about all I have to do and how much of it I haven't gotten done. (Note to self: just write the sainted essay already!) And also because French is fun, even though I have never quite managed to keep its pronouns and prepositions sorted in my head.

Today's phrases:

quand les poules auront des dents - "When the cows give beer, hence: never."

punaise de sacristie - "Disparaging term for an exceedingly devout woman."

dégobiller - "To vomit; to 'shoot the cat'."

(No theme here - just three that caught my eye.)