FRENCH LICKS / ROMAN WRINKLES
PARIS IS NOT NICE, & NEITHER IS NICE*
If we would please in society, we must be prepared to be taught
many things we know already by people who do not know them.
–Nicolas Chamfort, French writer
Beg pardon, Monsieur Chamfort, but since when have the French (even the
Nice* French) had a reputation for giving a damn about pleasing anyone?
*Nice (a city in France) is pronounced “NIECE” in French
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NOSING AROUND THE HILLY ROMAN EMPIRE
The Eternal City of Seven Hills
Has more holy grounds than a catacomb.
But — be it ever so rumpled —
“There’s no place like Rome.”
Ah….Roma!
Arrivederci Roma!
The Observation Post 
arekhill1 6:59 pm on February 2, 2015 Permalink |
Sounds like you’ve been roamin’ around, Sr. Muse.
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Michaeline Montezinos 8:43 pm on February 2, 2015 Permalink |
If you are in Roma don’t forget to send me a cardoma but leave the stoma on the statue, please.
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mistermuse 9:35 pm on February 2, 2015 Permalink |
Been to Paris, but didn’t make it to Rome when I was in Europe, which is too bad because I was Catholic at the time, and it would’ve been nice to stop by the Vatican for a friendly little papal bull session.
I never heard of cardoma, Michaeline, and I can’t find it online or in my dictionary, but no matter — my long distance travel days are over until I’m summoned to the pearly gates. Maybe they’ll have cardoma there, but until then, I can’t help you.
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Don Frankel 7:30 am on February 3, 2015 Permalink |
This is why I never leave New York. I’ve never been to Paris but I’ve heard there not nice there. And, from what I understand you can’t even get a slice of Pizza in Rome, so what’s the point?
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Mélanie 11:52 am on February 3, 2015 Permalink |
@”I’ve never been to Paris but I’ve heard there not nice there.” – I do confirm: Paris, Texas is neither nice or interesting… 😀 btw, I love NYC… 😉
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mistermuse 11:30 am on February 3, 2015 Permalink |
Hey, Don, there’s a Rome in upstate New York which is large enough to have a number of pizza joints, so if you want to be able to say you’ve been to Rome and got pizza, just hop on your dog sled and head northwest….or you could wait for the April thaw and enjoy the Roman Spring with Mrs. Stone (that’s only funny to old movie & Tennessee Williams fans, and probably not even funny to them).
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Mélanie 11:50 am on February 3, 2015 Permalink |
I love Italian, it’s been easy to learn it after Romanian, French and Spanish… 🙂
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mistermuse 1:37 pm on February 3, 2015 Permalink |
I’m glad at least one of my readers was able to understand the Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo singing “Arrivederci Roma” – but no matter the language, he sounds good, and the youtube video (with its scenes of Rome) looks good. As for the smells: Ah…Roma (or so my poem imagines).
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Michaeline Montezinos 12:13 pm on February 8, 2015 Permalink |
mistermuse, I chuckled when I read you did ot know what is a “cardoma.” I had to look up “epherma” in the dictionary since I had read that word you wrote. With my vision and the small type in thae dictionary, it took me 10 minutes to find epherma.
You wrote about not going to Rome when your were Catholic. So I just use the Italian Roma for Rome in my reply. By cardoma I invented a word for a post card. I wanted it to rhyme. Perhaps it was wrong for me to make you wonder about that word.
Ivana Trump, who we know was Donald’s first wife, said after the divorce, “The best revenge is served cold.” I didn’t think you would take my cardoma so seriously and I hope I didn’t chill you, mistermuse.
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mistermuse 2:07 pm on February 8, 2015 Permalink |
I’m just relieved that “cardoma” isn’t Italian for carcinoma, Michaeline. Beyond that, it’s no skin off my nose – hahaha.
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pendantry 4:19 am on September 14, 2021 Permalink |
The kind of joke that only works in text.** A good one: I’ve not ‘heard’ it before. I’ll pass it on to my nieces; I know they’ll appreciate it!
** Unlike this one, which only works when you hear it: “Anaka’s Tomb de Zayam, Toopub licks Peking…” 🙂
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mistermuse 7:52 am on September 14, 2021 Permalink |
I ‘hear you’ — but I don’t “hear it.” Guess I’ll have to have someone sing it to me (to this tune):
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pendantry 1:07 pm on September 14, 2021 Permalink
Getting someone to sing it to you would, I think, work extremely well. Please give it a shot, and let me know how it goes! 😀
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mistermuse 2:36 pm on September 14, 2021 Permalink
Unacustomed as I am to public screeching,
I nonetheless went to my wife beseeching
Her to sing it, but how she did moan & groan
….and so I had to figure it out on my own.
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