Possible good electoral news: According to my Next Door feed, early voting in heavily Republican western NC areas is very heavy.
Re: Ben Shapiro take down.
The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way nor, more than likely, will it prompt him to do some basic research on the situation in the Middle East / Gaza, etc.
Unfortunately, and not good news for our country, many young people just believe whatever they are fed. They are too lazy or too stupid or too dumb to turn on their brains; they do not even question.
They just believe.
I have some relations that are in their early / mid 20s.
They have no idea what they are looking at when shown a map; frankly, if you point out the “N” direction, and ask them to point, say, “E,” they cannot do it.
And if you tell them that town “X” is 10 miles east of their home, when in reality it’s “W” of their home, they have no idea which compass direction is the correct one.
One of these days, the entire internet will “crash” for several hours or even days. A large percentage of the population will be totally lost. People will be forced to pay in cash for stuff.
@JohnTyler :The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way….
Quite possibly. However, another possibility to consider is that people rarely change their minds upon losing one argument, or even realizing they lost the argument.
Nonetheless, change is usually more of a gradually, then suddenly process. Shapiro may have started a crack in his interlocuter’s wall. Many more such blows later may bring the wall down.
I was once an adamant leftist and eventually my wall came down.
Speaking of leftists….
This afternoon I met a charming pair of American expats in a Montpellier café, just like in the movies. We hit it off and now I have an invitation to meet them next week with their other friends at Café de la Mer. Fun!
However, my point here is that they informed me that the two manifestations (demonstrations) earlier this week were just the appetizers. The real event is this Sunday. It could get rough.
The café life out here is something special.
Yesterday I mentioned that many Dem candidates are pledging to pursue Medicare for all, in spite of the fact that they tried to do it Vermont and failed.
Prop 40 in California, if enacted, will create a “billionaire tax” for CA citizens. Who helped engineer the text of Prop 40? Thomas Piketty and at least one other Frenchman (or of French ethnicity). So French socialists are promoting this, in spite of the fact that they implemented a similar tax in France years ago, only to discover that it was a complete failure, with Pres. Macron repealing it.
Copilot
The quote “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” is a common paraphrase of George Santayana’s original 1905 line: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Also Churchill: Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.
Imagine what he would have thought about California propositions.
Re: French socialists
TommyJay:
Yes, socialism is everywhere here. I was in a literary bookstore yesterday and in the political section that’s all I saw. If there were any French conservatives on the shelves I missed them.
I’m staying with a French couple in their lovely, funky house. The husband is a bright accomplished designer who extols the benefits his family received that enabled them to raise three children and get the medical care they needed. Of course he worked in some comments of how bestial Trump and capitalism are.
However, France is running a serious deficit. That bill will eventually come due, sooner rather than later. Their good life now will be paid by their children later.
The husband tells me that his design business dropped to zero with the advent of AI. He is now scrambling to find his Plan B. It could be tough. He is 67.
huxley,
My oldest friend has been going to the 24 Hours at Le Mans every year. Tremendous hospitality, according to him. Even gave him a little job at the track utilizing his English capabilities, then put him up with lodging, gratis. Maybe influenced by them all being motorheads, but I think it is more about the way French people are.
The last time I was in NYC, 2017, my bro took us to a modern art museum in south Manhattan. It was OK, then we reached the point where the artists were getting more and more political. To the point where some artist was extolling the greatness of the Jacobins. Sigh. The other noteworthy thing about the museum visit was that half of the many patrons were French. Wow! Maybe the exchange rate was favorable then.
Re the video: Do people still write out anything by hand anymore? I’m in front of screens and keyboards all day, and even my shopping list goes on the Notes app in my phone. I used to have good handwriting — but now when I do need to write something out, it looks like my something my grandmother wrote. I think the tiny muscles in my hand have gotten weaker from disuse.
I’ll occasionally still take handwritten notes in a notebook if I’m in a meeting where my laptop wouldn’t be convenient — and that actually helps me focus on what’s going on. But as I’m sure the kids are doing right now, I could just as easily use the AI in my phone to make a written transcript of the entire proceedings, then send me the highlights and a list of follow-up points.
It is interesting that a century and a half after the original “qwerty” keyboard system was invented — and long since typewriters fell by the wayside — we’re still using it with today’s high-tech computers. People have proposed more efficient alternatives over the years, but none of them caught on. I guess soon it won’t matter, as people increasingly operate devices by voice (and, eventually, their minds).
TommyJay:
My experience of the French has been positive. They are a friendly, polite, even helpful people. I think their bad rap is based on Paris.
Paris is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. I can understand the locals getting weary of that yearly onslaught and getting testy about it. Especially if you don’t say bonjour!
Of course, I am making the effort to speak the language, however imperfectly, while being polite and undemanding.
Right now I’m eating lasagne and listening to Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” sung by a woman in French on the sound system.
Say hey honaayy! Take a walk on the wild side.
@TR: Do people still write out anything by hand anymore?
I do. Of course, I was born in 1952.
I handwrite all my notes. Although a computer guy going back to the 70s, I’ve tried typing my notes into files, but it ain’t the same and gives me no pleasure.
There is even research that writing notes by hand is better than typing for the memory.
I’m almost finished with my 19th moleskine notebook of French notes. I can now read French at a high intermediate level. I must be doing something right.
My son is up from LA to help me with some stuff. He showed me his AI art projects. Um wow! I seldom write on paper. Everything is on computer.
Edit: I have over 100 hard disks, 13 of them 8T. No idea how many SD cards and micro SD cards.
huxley, I missed why you are in France. Would like to know.
I was just in France myself. Eastern France, started in Nice and up to Strasbourg. Followed the US Army in WWII.
Been to France many time. Almost always a good experience. Just be polite and things work out.
I was in Paris last Oct. Did a bit of walking around the Hotel neighborhood. Looking for a Restaurant for Dinner. Found a good one, walked back the couple of blocks in the dark. Never felt in danger, but then this was a “good” part of Paris.
huxley — I spent a week plus in Nice not many years ago and fell in love with la belle Provence. The relaxed and cultured legacy of the old Kingdom from the 19th C lives on there. So like SoCal but with real history.
I wanted to take the train North through Italy and Switzerland to see the Alps giving up winter’s snows.
But in late May, I couldn’t book a thing! Then I realized it was Monte Carlo race weekend. When the local population swells for a quarter million! I had to take a plane to Munich instead.
Re JohnTyler — I just chanced a report from The Washington Strand, with dire and depressing survey data on GenZ from Rasmussen:
“American Academia Is Stoking Support for Sharia Law among Young People, Experts Say” Washington Stand ^ | 10/15/2026 | Dan Hart
“A stunning new poll has revealed that American young people are expressing positive views toward Sharia law at higher rates than ever as the midterm elections approach in three weeks. Experts say much of the support can be attributed to the lack of balanced formation being provided by American universities and fear of being labeled racist, leading to young people being ill-informed about the oppression inherent in Islamic legal code.
“Earlier this month, Rasmussen Reports published the results of a survey that found a full 43% of voters aged 18-24 saying they have positive views of Sharia law. Strikingly, the poll also found that 27% of voters under 30 said they would support a community adopting Sharia law.”
Experts like author, columnist, and podcaster Larry Taunton say that Sharia law is incompatible with the constitutional freedoms inherent in America’s legal system.
“We need to recognize that it doesn’t deserve the respectability and protection as a religion,” he contended during “Washington Watch” Monday. “That’s because Sharia does not accept … freedom of religion, assembly, press, petition, speech — none of what is in the Bill of Rights. They do not accept our view of women. They do not accept our views regarding freedom. They do not accept the foundational principles of this particular country.”
Nonetheless, Taunton went on to observe that sympathy for Sharia law is gaining traction among young people due to ideological doctrines on perceived racism that are being propagated in higher education. “[A friend from] the University of Oregon texted me a copy of a book that a professor is requiring of his students that deals with immigration and basically says that Americans who oppose open borders are ‘xenophobic,’ that they are racist,” he related. “Now, of course, we know this is sheer nonsense, but we’re talking about students and classes who are being barraged with this kind of thing, who are being taught to feel rather than think.”
Taunton further detailed an experience at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. “[S]ome years ago, … I was speaking to students there who are on the ministerial track, specifically apologetics. And what I discovered was that their professor, who was himself woke … was not preparing future ministers of the gospel. He was preparing social justice warriors [and] was radicalizing his students. Now this is happening in evangelical institutions. Imagine what is happening in our state institutions. Imagine what’s happening in places like the Ivy League. … [S]tudents begin to … lick their finger [to] feel which way the social and political winds are going.”
@SHIREHOME: huxley, I missed why you are in France. Would like to know.
I’m talking an immersion French course at the ILA – Institut Linguistique Adenet. I’m strong at reading French, but near useless when it comes to hearing or speaking. I hope to jumpstart those abilities.
Plus I am doing some recon for a later more serious sightseeing trip to France.
Montpellier is mostly a “good” part of France. I got lost for several hours in the dark on my first night. I asked for help from several groups of young men. They weren’t much help — Montpellier really is that hard to navigate — but they didn’t beat this old guy up and take his stuff.
@JohnTyler:
The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way
They never do, Mr. President. The speaker is really talking to the audience.
Here is a story about how just two apparently clueless (or couldn’t care less) Christian organizations raked in $62 million dollars (and probably a lot more) in making it possible for a reported 10,000 Somalis to settle in Minnesota.*
Money or not–if you had a grasp of the history of Islam’s interactions with Western civilization, and all of us “unbelievers” over these last 1,400 years and, consequently, recognized that Islam was a direct threat to Western civilization, to democracy–and especially to Christianity–and you held strong, fundamental Christian beliefs, would you really get within several miles of any actions designed to import these Muslims?
Besides just raking in the cash, what is this called? Is it “suicidal empathy.”
Tommy Jay laments the mass ignorance of socialism’s failures, and huxley mentions his French hosts trashing the evil beast of capitalism.
John Early, a mathematical economist who was Assistant Director of the BLS, concisely refutes the claim by Thomas Piketty and others of growing American income inequality. SEE bar graphs comparing income distributions from 1967 to 2017, at 24-28m in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzLykjB6dyc
The Truth is exactly the opposite of the economic smears and entrepreneurial haters.
They werenot told the consequences of sharia law so of course they said yes
A note to huxley, thanks for the reminder about your trip!
“I’m strong at reading French, but near useless when it comes to hearing or speaking. I hope to jumpstart those abilities.” Good on ya, our NM friend! you’re on a noble mission. We’re envying you.
My sole introduction to Montpellier was Truffaut’s film from the 1970s, “The Man Who Loved Women” (I cannot recall the French), which was shot there. The lead played by French star Charles Denier (?) was his last?
Hollywood turned this autobiographical tinged tragedy into a comedy with Ted Danson. The original is much more memorable, as is often the case.
Truffaut made Montpellier into a seductive and lovely town, so far away from Paris.
huxley, my experiences in France, even Paris, were that when I tried to speak French, people were very kind. By making the effort, I was showing them respect, not being the “ugly American,” and they reciprocated. French people were especially nice the two weeks we were last there, in September 2001. We saw the planes hitting the towers on CNN in our hotel in Lyon. As we journeyed farther south, people continued to say kind things, and Catholics went out of their way to say they’d been to Mass to pray for Americans.
It’s not so much for the moron, at that, as for the bystanders.
huxley
I’m talking an immersion French course at the ILA – Institut Linguistique Adenet. I’m strong at reading French, but near useless when it comes to hearing or speaking. I hope to jumpstart those abilities.
When I read a book in Spanish, I usually put my Fire HD tablet on text-to-speech, so I am hearing the book while I am reading it. The text-to-speech Spanish accent is pretty good. I have no complaints. You might try text-to-speech while reading when you are back in the States, to improve your listening comprehension. It turns out that the regular speed of the text-to-speech voice, about 200 wpm, is about what my reading speed is in Spanish. I suspect that your reading speed in French is faster. You can speed it up, if you like.
More recent Fire tablet editions have text-to-speech only for books you have purchased from Amazon. No sideloaded books. But my Fire HD is ancient and will apply text-to-speech to sideloaded books.
My listening comprehension is much better for face-to-face contact than for sound or video. Lyrics are more comprehensible when reading lyrics while listening to music. There is something about nonverbal cues, I think. (Though Hugo Chavez on video is very easy to comprehend! Good thing he wasn’t born and raised in Maracaibo. 🙂 Having lived in Maracaibo, I have enough practice to understand the accent when face-to-face. But in a video—impossible.).
A musician neighbor lived in France for a year after college. She ate cheaply and well on cheese and that marvelous French bread. Much better than Wonder Bread and that rubbery yellow cheese.
You might be interested in this book: L’Autre Joseph , by Kéthévane Davrichewy.
THE OTHER JOSEPH. “Joseph Djougachvili, known as Stalin, nicknamed Sosso in his early years, was born in Gori, Georgia, in 1878. A few years later, a few streets away, another Joseph, Davrichachvili, or Davrichewy, was born.” From the very first lines of her new book, Kéthévane Davrichewy warns her reader: family memory will be the subject matter. But when her great-grandfather grew up with Stalin, the intimate story quickly takes on a dizzying dimension.
I downloaded a translation app so I could read it in English.
Speaking of accents and second languages, I am reading Herman the German, by Gerhard Neumann. (David Foster of ChicagoBoyz recommended.) He was a German aeronautical engineer (also Jewish) who went to work in China before WW2 started to avoid being drafted. Worked for the Flying Tigers. In China he wrote up some technical instructions in English. The feedback was to request that he write them in German, as his English was incomprehensible.
After many adventures, Herman the German ended up working for GE’s jet engines division. I told this to my sister, as the stepfather of her late husband was a German aeronautical
engineer who also ended up at GE after WW2. I described Herman the German to my sister, who told me that her late husband had visited him at his house in Swampscott MA. Bingo. But he died the year my sister married, so she never met Herman the German.
An interesting French contribution to American pop music: Three Bells by the Browns? came out in the late 1950s. Turned out it is a French song, sung by Edith Piaff.
For those lamenting the disappearance of handwriting, it is really going strong in some circles. E-ink tablets are selling well. I own an ancient Sony DPT-S1 that I use for reading and writing on large format A4, I.e a standard journal article page, documents. It is a lot easier to take notes on an article than printing it out on paper. I can save the comments and article PDF on my computer and access it along with my notes years later. Modern tablets have software to transcribe cursive text to searchable ascii text.
I can also use my e-ink tablet to write a journal that I can save as a PDF.
Here is a review of the technology
“E-ink tablets (also known as eNotes and ePaper) are electronic tablets that can be used for writing and sketching using stylus-based input. They can be perhaps be thought of as an infinite stack of paper, and are often used as a replacement for traditional notepads and sketchbooks.
“They differ from LCD and OLED devices such as Apple’s iPad because they use an E-ink display. This is the same technology used on Amazon Kindle screens, and it looks and feels like real paper (well, as close as you can get from a digital device).
“Moreover, they don’t emit light, so they can be more comfortable for the eyes and can be viewed clearly outside, even on sunny days. And they usually consume very little power, so can last for several days (and even weeks) without needing a recharge.
“The main drawback is that they have a low refresh rate, which means that although they are ideal for reading
, writing, and sketching, they are not ideal for things that are constantly moving, such as games or videos (although some manufacturers have developed proprietary refresh technology that is closing this divide).
“You can get a good overview of the advantages and disadvantages of e-ink tablets in my Beginner’s Guide and Buyer’s Guide.
My language app is LingQ which allows me to read a book sentence by sentence with options to hear the whole sentence or parts of it, repeat at will, as well as click on words for pronunciation and definitions.
It will also play the audio for a whole page, while underlining the current sentence in the text with variable speed control. However, at the end of the page I do have to press the Next Page button.
It’s a pretty cool app except the team keeps adding features I don’t need or want and using its customers for QA.
I did a lot of listen/repeat/shadow at the beginning so I would have some idea of proper pronunciation and practice. I’ll be getting back to that.
Computer voices are good, but I find they didn’t prepare me for full-speed native French in person or in movies.
A month ago I ran into a young French guy at my café, who studies and teaches at UNM. He’s now tutoring me and part of each session is devoted to listening comprehension. We get on well and I’m lucky to have met him.
Re: Self-learning French
Since I learned to read, I’ve been a self-learner all my life. Classroom learning has never been a good fit for me. I’ve learned to trust my instincts.
So my read-first French learning strategy seems eccentric to many people. But I enjoy reading so much that it makes sense to me.
Maybe my way is less efficient than learning to read and converse at the same time. Or maybe it all balances out in the long run. Swings and roundabouts as the Brits say.
There is some linguistic justification for my strategy. Studies show that those who reach the level of pleasure reading in their target language are more likely to continue than those who don’t.
Learning a language is a long, somewhat tedious process. The greatest danger IMO is burning out and dropping it.
The game is staying in the game.
It’s one o’clock. I’m sitting at a good corner table at Café Paume (Café Palm) where I’m in the shade. I’ve had a good bacon and eggs breakfast. I’m lingering over a glass of white wine so I won’t feel guilty about my long stay.
The participants for today’s demonstration at two o’clock are starting to trickle in. The police vans also come and go with those European WHOO-AH-WHOO-AH sirens.
In a few minutes I’ll use la toillette, then go wander about, steering clear of the demo, shooting some photos, peering in the shop windows, looking for books and French shirts.
I’ve been en cavale (on the run) for the past week struggling with jet lag, overwhelmed by the newness of everything and the demands of school and my rather controlling host.
But heck, the café is only half-full, I guess for the demo. Maybe I’ll stay longer. My feet are still sore after all the walking I’ve done.
Un autre vin blanc, s’il vous plait!
Un autre vin blanc, s’il vous plait!
I see you have mastered the essentials!
I try.
I have miscalculated. The demo is coming right by the café. At least I see some French flags, as well as the occasional beastly Pali flag.
I also see people wearing the gilets jaunes — fluorescent safety vests — worn by the working class who were protesting fuel taxes and cost-of-living pressures, then broadened into a much larger anti-establishment movement, before Covid shut those weekly mobilizations down.
ChatGPT tells me a big point of today’s protest is the inclusion of the gilets jaunes. Which means this movement is continuing to grow and won’t be over soon. It won’t bring Macron down but it will be pressure making it harder for him to govern on his own terms.
It’s definitely not the astroturf we see in the States. All the signs are hand-drawn on cardboard.
So far it’s been a safe way to witness a bit of history.
Stay safe! — Have an exit route planned.
huxley Computer voices are good, but I find they didn’t prepare me for full-speed native French in person or in movies.
IOW, the best way to learn second language conversation skill is by face-to-face practice. Apples to apples. Nonverbal cues are important. I learned Spanish decades before computer voices arrived. I still find movies or videos in Spanish more difficult than face-to-face—though some accents are easier than others.
Come to think of it, using text-to-speech while reading is for me, primarily forcing me to keep going instead of stopping to figure out a word. After all, you can usually figure it out from context.
Regarding your deciding to initially concentrate on reading instead of conversation, that’s your choice. It is certainly easier to find a French-language book or article in the US than to find a French speaker. (Though for Spanish, I have always had nearby condo neighbors who spoke Spanish. Or go to the Mexican grocery. Ditto in NM.) Which also means reading skill is more readily maintained.
Have fun experiencing history. Compare your experience with what the media says. I found that what I learned in Latin America from conversations about left wing guerrillas was not the same as what I read about them.
Gringo:
I did say I was starting to work with a native French tutor.
The ILA school I’m attending is a good place with good people, but rushing to school in the morning, sitting for 3+ hours in class, watching the clock and waiting for lunch isn’t my scene or cost-effective. As excellent and amusing the teacher is.
The next $1000 I spend on French will be with my tutor.
French pronunciation is so tricky that the ILA teaches the International Phonetic Alphabetic to complete beginners.
huxley I did say I was starting to work with a native French tutor.
Yes, you did. I was summing up why you did.
French pronunciation is so tricky that the ILA teaches the International Phonetic Alphabetic to complete beginners.
On my backpacking trip through South America, I spent time with some French tourists. We communicated in Spanish. My French was nonexistent. While I imagine that most of them spoke English, speaking Spanish was advantageous for both sides. The French POV: speaking English would have been cultural surrender. My POV: I’d rather communicate in Spanish than be irritated by a bad English accent. (By contrast, it was a pleasure to listen to Germans speaking English.)
On evening they tried to get me to correctly pronounce the French equivalent of “incredible.” Definitely a cognate. They laughingly gave up after 30+ minutes of my unsuccessful attempts at pronouncing it. I’ll keep my French confined to Edith Piaf. 🙂
Kudos to you to learning a new language at our advanced age.
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Ben Shapiro takes down a “goofy” student.
Three minute watch (embedded). “Goofy” is Scott’s word, I’d have gone with “retarded”.
Possible good electoral news: According to my Next Door feed, early voting in heavily Republican western NC areas is very heavy.
Re: Ben Shapiro take down.
The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way nor, more than likely, will it prompt him to do some basic research on the situation in the Middle East / Gaza, etc.
Unfortunately, and not good news for our country, many young people just believe whatever they are fed. They are too lazy or too stupid or too dumb to turn on their brains; they do not even question.
They just believe.
I have some relations that are in their early / mid 20s.
They have no idea what they are looking at when shown a map; frankly, if you point out the “N” direction, and ask them to point, say, “E,” they cannot do it.
And if you tell them that town “X” is 10 miles east of their home, when in reality it’s “W” of their home, they have no idea which compass direction is the correct one.
One of these days, the entire internet will “crash” for several hours or even days. A large percentage of the population will be totally lost. People will be forced to pay in cash for stuff.
@JohnTyler :The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way….
Quite possibly. However, another possibility to consider is that people rarely change their minds upon losing one argument, or even realizing they lost the argument.
Nonetheless, change is usually more of a gradually, then suddenly process. Shapiro may have started a crack in his interlocuter’s wall. Many more such blows later may bring the wall down.
I was once an adamant leftist and eventually my wall came down.
Speaking of leftists….
This afternoon I met a charming pair of American expats in a Montpellier café, just like in the movies. We hit it off and now I have an invitation to meet them next week with their other friends at Café de la Mer. Fun!
However, my point here is that they informed me that the two manifestations (demonstrations) earlier this week were just the appetizers. The real event is this Sunday. It could get rough.
The café life out here is something special.
Yesterday I mentioned that many Dem candidates are pledging to pursue Medicare for all, in spite of the fact that they tried to do it Vermont and failed.
Prop 40 in California, if enacted, will create a “billionaire tax” for CA citizens. Who helped engineer the text of Prop 40? Thomas Piketty and at least one other Frenchman (or of French ethnicity). So French socialists are promoting this, in spite of the fact that they implemented a similar tax in France years ago, only to discover that it was a complete failure, with Pres. Macron repealing it.
Also Churchill: Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.
Imagine what he would have thought about California propositions.
Re: French socialists
TommyJay:
Yes, socialism is everywhere here. I was in a literary bookstore yesterday and in the political section that’s all I saw. If there were any French conservatives on the shelves I missed them.
I’m staying with a French couple in their lovely, funky house. The husband is a bright accomplished designer who extols the benefits his family received that enabled them to raise three children and get the medical care they needed. Of course he worked in some comments of how bestial Trump and capitalism are.
However, France is running a serious deficit. That bill will eventually come due, sooner rather than later. Their good life now will be paid by their children later.
The husband tells me that his design business dropped to zero with the advent of AI. He is now scrambling to find his Plan B. It could be tough. He is 67.
huxley,
My oldest friend has been going to the 24 Hours at Le Mans every year. Tremendous hospitality, according to him. Even gave him a little job at the track utilizing his English capabilities, then put him up with lodging, gratis. Maybe influenced by them all being motorheads, but I think it is more about the way French people are.
The last time I was in NYC, 2017, my bro took us to a modern art museum in south Manhattan. It was OK, then we reached the point where the artists were getting more and more political. To the point where some artist was extolling the greatness of the Jacobins. Sigh. The other noteworthy thing about the museum visit was that half of the many patrons were French. Wow! Maybe the exchange rate was favorable then.
Re the video: Do people still write out anything by hand anymore? I’m in front of screens and keyboards all day, and even my shopping list goes on the Notes app in my phone. I used to have good handwriting — but now when I do need to write something out, it looks like my something my grandmother wrote. I think the tiny muscles in my hand have gotten weaker from disuse.
I’ll occasionally still take handwritten notes in a notebook if I’m in a meeting where my laptop wouldn’t be convenient — and that actually helps me focus on what’s going on. But as I’m sure the kids are doing right now, I could just as easily use the AI in my phone to make a written transcript of the entire proceedings, then send me the highlights and a list of follow-up points.
It is interesting that a century and a half after the original “qwerty” keyboard system was invented — and long since typewriters fell by the wayside — we’re still using it with today’s high-tech computers. People have proposed more efficient alternatives over the years, but none of them caught on. I guess soon it won’t matter, as people increasingly operate devices by voice (and, eventually, their minds).
TommyJay:
My experience of the French has been positive. They are a friendly, polite, even helpful people. I think their bad rap is based on Paris.
Paris is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. I can understand the locals getting weary of that yearly onslaught and getting testy about it. Especially if you don’t say bonjour!
Of course, I am making the effort to speak the language, however imperfectly, while being polite and undemanding.
Right now I’m eating lasagne and listening to Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” sung by a woman in French on the sound system.
Say hey honaayy! Take a walk on the wild side.
@TR: Do people still write out anything by hand anymore?
I do. Of course, I was born in 1952.
I handwrite all my notes. Although a computer guy going back to the 70s, I’ve tried typing my notes into files, but it ain’t the same and gives me no pleasure.
There is even research that writing notes by hand is better than typing for the memory.
I’m almost finished with my 19th moleskine notebook of French notes. I can now read French at a high intermediate level. I must be doing something right.
My son is up from LA to help me with some stuff. He showed me his AI art projects. Um wow! I seldom write on paper. Everything is on computer.
Edit: I have over 100 hard disks, 13 of them 8T. No idea how many SD cards and micro SD cards.
huxley, I missed why you are in France. Would like to know.
I was just in France myself. Eastern France, started in Nice and up to Strasbourg. Followed the US Army in WWII.
Been to France many time. Almost always a good experience. Just be polite and things work out.
I was in Paris last Oct. Did a bit of walking around the Hotel neighborhood. Looking for a Restaurant for Dinner. Found a good one, walked back the couple of blocks in the dark. Never felt in danger, but then this was a “good” part of Paris.
huxley — I spent a week plus in Nice not many years ago and fell in love with la belle Provence. The relaxed and cultured legacy of the old Kingdom from the 19th C lives on there. So like SoCal but with real history.
I wanted to take the train North through Italy and Switzerland to see the Alps giving up winter’s snows.
But in late May, I couldn’t book a thing! Then I realized it was Monte Carlo race weekend. When the local population swells for a quarter million! I had to take a plane to Munich instead.
Re JohnTyler — I just chanced a report from The Washington Strand, with dire and depressing survey data on GenZ from Rasmussen:
“American Academia Is Stoking Support for Sharia Law among Young People, Experts Say” Washington Stand ^ | 10/15/2026 | Dan Hart
“A stunning new poll has revealed that American young people are expressing positive views toward Sharia law at higher rates than ever as the midterm elections approach in three weeks. Experts say much of the support can be attributed to the lack of balanced formation being provided by American universities and fear of being labeled racist, leading to young people being ill-informed about the oppression inherent in Islamic legal code.
“Earlier this month, Rasmussen Reports published the results of a survey that found a full 43% of voters aged 18-24 saying they have positive views of Sharia law. Strikingly, the poll also found that 27% of voters under 30 said they would support a community adopting Sharia law.”
It’s evil spreading. In real time. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4399336/posts
In part, the piece goes on:
Experts like author, columnist, and podcaster Larry Taunton say that Sharia law is incompatible with the constitutional freedoms inherent in America’s legal system.
“We need to recognize that it doesn’t deserve the respectability and protection as a religion,” he contended during “Washington Watch” Monday. “That’s because Sharia does not accept … freedom of religion, assembly, press, petition, speech — none of what is in the Bill of Rights. They do not accept our view of women. They do not accept our views regarding freedom. They do not accept the foundational principles of this particular country.”
Nonetheless, Taunton went on to observe that sympathy for Sharia law is gaining traction among young people due to ideological doctrines on perceived racism that are being propagated in higher education. “[A friend from] the University of Oregon texted me a copy of a book that a professor is requiring of his students that deals with immigration and basically says that Americans who oppose open borders are ‘xenophobic,’ that they are racist,” he related. “Now, of course, we know this is sheer nonsense, but we’re talking about students and classes who are being barraged with this kind of thing, who are being taught to feel rather than think.”
Taunton further detailed an experience at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. “[S]ome years ago, … I was speaking to students there who are on the ministerial track, specifically apologetics. And what I discovered was that their professor, who was himself woke … was not preparing future ministers of the gospel. He was preparing social justice warriors [and] was radicalizing his students. Now this is happening in evangelical institutions. Imagine what is happening in our state institutions. Imagine what’s happening in places like the Ivy League. … [S]tudents begin to … lick their finger [to] feel which way the social and political winds are going.”
@SHIREHOME: huxley, I missed why you are in France. Would like to know.
I’m talking an immersion French course at the ILA – Institut Linguistique Adenet. I’m strong at reading French, but near useless when it comes to hearing or speaking. I hope to jumpstart those abilities.
Plus I am doing some recon for a later more serious sightseeing trip to France.
Montpellier is mostly a “good” part of France. I got lost for several hours in the dark on my first night. I asked for help from several groups of young men. They weren’t much help — Montpellier really is that hard to navigate — but they didn’t beat this old guy up and take his stuff.
@JohnTyler:
The moron that asked the question that prompted Ben’s response, assuredly, did not change his mind in any way
They never do, Mr. President. The speaker is really talking to the audience.
Here is a story about how just two apparently clueless (or couldn’t care less) Christian organizations raked in $62 million dollars (and probably a lot more) in making it possible for a reported 10,000 Somalis to settle in Minnesota.*
Money or not–if you had a grasp of the history of Islam’s interactions with Western civilization, and all of us “unbelievers” over these last 1,400 years and, consequently, recognized that Islam was a direct threat to Western civilization, to democracy–and especially to Christianity–and you held strong, fundamental Christian beliefs, would you really get within several miles of any actions designed to import these Muslims?
Besides just raking in the cash, what is this called? Is it “suicidal empathy.”
• See https://nypost.com/2026/10/16/us-news/two-christian-groups-were-paid-62m-to-resettle-tens-of-thousands-of-somalis-in-minnesota/
Tommy Jay laments the mass ignorance of socialism’s failures, and huxley mentions his French hosts trashing the evil beast of capitalism.
John Early, a mathematical economist who was Assistant Director of the BLS, concisely refutes the claim by Thomas Piketty and others of growing American income inequality. SEE bar graphs comparing income distributions from 1967 to 2017, at 24-28m in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzLykjB6dyc
The Truth is exactly the opposite of the economic smears and entrepreneurial haters.
They werenot told the consequences of sharia law so of course they said yes
A note to huxley, thanks for the reminder about your trip!
“I’m strong at reading French, but near useless when it comes to hearing or speaking. I hope to jumpstart those abilities.” Good on ya, our NM friend! you’re on a noble mission. We’re envying you.
My sole introduction to Montpellier was Truffaut’s film from the 1970s, “The Man Who Loved Women” (I cannot recall the French), which was shot there. The lead played by French star Charles Denier (?) was his last?
Hollywood turned this autobiographical tinged tragedy into a comedy with Ted Danson. The original is much more memorable, as is often the case.
Truffaut made Montpellier into a seductive and lovely town, so far away from Paris.
huxley, my experiences in France, even Paris, were that when I tried to speak French, people were very kind. By making the effort, I was showing them respect, not being the “ugly American,” and they reciprocated. French people were especially nice the two weeks we were last there, in September 2001. We saw the planes hitting the towers on CNN in our hotel in Lyon. As we journeyed farther south, people continued to say kind things, and Catholics went out of their way to say they’d been to Mass to pray for Americans.
It’s not so much for the moron, at that, as for the bystanders.
huxley
When I read a book in Spanish, I usually put my Fire HD tablet on text-to-speech, so I am hearing the book while I am reading it. The text-to-speech Spanish accent is pretty good. I have no complaints. You might try text-to-speech while reading when you are back in the States, to improve your listening comprehension. It turns out that the regular speed of the text-to-speech voice, about 200 wpm, is about what my reading speed is in Spanish. I suspect that your reading speed in French is faster. You can speed it up, if you like.
More recent Fire tablet editions have text-to-speech only for books you have purchased from Amazon. No sideloaded books. But my Fire HD is ancient and will apply text-to-speech to sideloaded books.
My listening comprehension is much better for face-to-face contact than for sound or video. Lyrics are more comprehensible when reading lyrics while listening to music. There is something about nonverbal cues, I think. (Though Hugo Chavez on video is very easy to comprehend! Good thing he wasn’t born and raised in Maracaibo. 🙂 Having lived in Maracaibo, I have enough practice to understand the accent when face-to-face. But in a video—impossible.).
A musician neighbor lived in France for a year after college. She ate cheaply and well on cheese and that marvelous French bread. Much better than Wonder Bread and that rubbery yellow cheese.
You might be interested in this book: L’Autre Joseph , by Kéthévane Davrichewy.
I downloaded a translation app so I could read it in English.
Speaking of accents and second languages, I am reading Herman the German, by Gerhard Neumann. (David Foster of ChicagoBoyz recommended.) He was a German aeronautical engineer (also Jewish) who went to work in China before WW2 started to avoid being drafted. Worked for the Flying Tigers. In China he wrote up some technical instructions in English. The feedback was to request that he write them in German, as his English was incomprehensible.
After many adventures, Herman the German ended up working for GE’s jet engines division. I told this to my sister, as the stepfather of her late husband was a German aeronautical
engineer who also ended up at GE after WW2. I described Herman the German to my sister, who told me that her late husband had visited him at his house in Swampscott MA. Bingo. But he died the year my sister married, so she never met Herman the German.
An interesting French contribution to American pop music: Three Bells by the Browns? came out in the late 1950s. Turned out it is a French song, sung by Edith Piaff.
For those lamenting the disappearance of handwriting, it is really going strong in some circles. E-ink tablets are selling well. I own an ancient Sony DPT-S1 that I use for reading and writing on large format A4, I.e a standard journal article page, documents. It is a lot easier to take notes on an article than printing it out on paper. I can save the comments and article PDF on my computer and access it along with my notes years later. Modern tablets have software to transcribe cursive text to searchable ascii text.
I can also use my e-ink tablet to write a journal that I can save as a PDF.
Here is a review of the technology
“E-ink tablets (also known as eNotes and ePaper) are electronic tablets that can be used for writing and sketching using stylus-based input. They can be perhaps be thought of as an infinite stack of paper, and are often used as a replacement for traditional notepads and sketchbooks.
“They differ from LCD and OLED devices such as Apple’s iPad because they use an E-ink display. This is the same technology used on Amazon Kindle screens, and it looks and feels like real paper (well, as close as you can get from a digital device).
“Moreover, they don’t emit light, so they can be more comfortable for the eyes and can be viewed clearly outside, even on sunny days. And they usually consume very little power, so can last for several days (and even weeks) without needing a recharge.
“The main drawback is that they have a low refresh rate, which means that although they are ideal for reading
, writing, and sketching, they are not ideal for things that are constantly moving, such as games or videos (although some manufacturers have developed proprietary refresh technology that is closing this divide).
“You can get a good overview of the advantages and disadvantages of e-ink tablets in my Beginner’s Guide and Buyer’s Guide.
https://ewritable.net/guides/beginners-guide/
https://ewritable.net/guides/buyers-guide
Gringo:
My language app is LingQ which allows me to read a book sentence by sentence with options to hear the whole sentence or parts of it, repeat at will, as well as click on words for pronunciation and definitions.
It will also play the audio for a whole page, while underlining the current sentence in the text with variable speed control. However, at the end of the page I do have to press the Next Page button.
It’s a pretty cool app except the team keeps adding features I don’t need or want and using its customers for QA.
I did a lot of listen/repeat/shadow at the beginning so I would have some idea of proper pronunciation and practice. I’ll be getting back to that.
Computer voices are good, but I find they didn’t prepare me for full-speed native French in person or in movies.
A month ago I ran into a young French guy at my café, who studies and teaches at UNM. He’s now tutoring me and part of each session is devoted to listening comprehension. We get on well and I’m lucky to have met him.
Re: Self-learning French
Since I learned to read, I’ve been a self-learner all my life. Classroom learning has never been a good fit for me. I’ve learned to trust my instincts.
So my read-first French learning strategy seems eccentric to many people. But I enjoy reading so much that it makes sense to me.
Maybe my way is less efficient than learning to read and converse at the same time. Or maybe it all balances out in the long run. Swings and roundabouts as the Brits say.
There is some linguistic justification for my strategy. Studies show that those who reach the level of pleasure reading in their target language are more likely to continue than those who don’t.
Learning a language is a long, somewhat tedious process. The greatest danger IMO is burning out and dropping it.
The game is staying in the game.
It’s one o’clock. I’m sitting at a good corner table at Café Paume (Café Palm) where I’m in the shade. I’ve had a good bacon and eggs breakfast. I’m lingering over a glass of white wine so I won’t feel guilty about my long stay.
The participants for today’s demonstration at two o’clock are starting to trickle in. The police vans also come and go with those European WHOO-AH-WHOO-AH sirens.
In a few minutes I’ll use la toillette, then go wander about, steering clear of the demo, shooting some photos, peering in the shop windows, looking for books and French shirts.
I’ve been en cavale (on the run) for the past week struggling with jet lag, overwhelmed by the newness of everything and the demands of school and my rather controlling host.
But heck, the café is only half-full, I guess for the demo. Maybe I’ll stay longer. My feet are still sore after all the walking I’ve done.
Un autre vin blanc, s’il vous plait!
Un autre vin blanc, s’il vous plait!
I see you have mastered the essentials!
I try.
I have miscalculated. The demo is coming right by the café. At least I see some French flags, as well as the occasional beastly Pali flag.
I also see people wearing the gilets jaunes — fluorescent safety vests — worn by the working class who were protesting fuel taxes and cost-of-living pressures, then broadened into a much larger anti-establishment movement, before Covid shut those weekly mobilizations down.
ChatGPT tells me a big point of today’s protest is the inclusion of the gilets jaunes. Which means this movement is continuing to grow and won’t be over soon. It won’t bring Macron down but it will be pressure making it harder for him to govern on his own terms.
It’s definitely not the astroturf we see in the States. All the signs are hand-drawn on cardboard.
So far it’s been a safe way to witness a bit of history.
Stay safe! — Have an exit route planned.
huxley
Computer voices are good, but I find they didn’t prepare me for full-speed native French in person or in movies.
IOW, the best way to learn second language conversation skill is by face-to-face practice. Apples to apples. Nonverbal cues are important. I learned Spanish decades before computer voices arrived. I still find movies or videos in Spanish more difficult than face-to-face—though some accents are easier than others.
Come to think of it, using text-to-speech while reading is for me, primarily forcing me to keep going instead of stopping to figure out a word. After all, you can usually figure it out from context.
Regarding your deciding to initially concentrate on reading instead of conversation, that’s your choice. It is certainly easier to find a French-language book or article in the US than to find a French speaker. (Though for Spanish, I have always had nearby condo neighbors who spoke Spanish. Or go to the Mexican grocery. Ditto in NM.) Which also means reading skill is more readily maintained.
Have fun experiencing history. Compare your experience with what the media says. I found that what I learned in Latin America from conversations about left wing guerrillas was not the same as what I read about them.
Gringo:
I did say I was starting to work with a native French tutor.
The ILA school I’m attending is a good place with good people, but rushing to school in the morning, sitting for 3+ hours in class, watching the clock and waiting for lunch isn’t my scene or cost-effective. As excellent and amusing the teacher is.
The next $1000 I spend on French will be with my tutor.
French pronunciation is so tricky that the ILA teaches the International Phonetic Alphabetic to complete beginners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
huxley
I did say I was starting to work with a native French tutor.
Yes, you did. I was summing up why you did.
French pronunciation is so tricky that the ILA teaches the International Phonetic Alphabetic to complete beginners.
On my backpacking trip through South America, I spent time with some French tourists. We communicated in Spanish. My French was nonexistent. While I imagine that most of them spoke English, speaking Spanish was advantageous for both sides. The French POV: speaking English would have been cultural surrender. My POV: I’d rather communicate in Spanish than be irritated by a bad English accent. (By contrast, it was a pleasure to listen to Germans speaking English.)
On evening they tried to get me to correctly pronounce the French equivalent of “incredible.” Definitely a cognate. They laughingly gave up after 30+ minutes of my unsuccessful attempts at pronouncing it. I’ll keep my French confined to Edith Piaf. 🙂
Kudos to you to learning a new language at our advanced age.