# Can someone get that idiot Chirac something to eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 5, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153 "2005-07-05T17:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/61 "2005-07-06T12:32:24Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > Now that London _has_ got the Olympics for 2012, That’s a great new. Thanks for sharing. And my deepest sympathy to Londoners… ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/62 "2005-07-06T12:33:10Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > Now that London _has_ got the Olympics for 2012, what should Tony Blair’s rejoinder be when he sees Chirac tomorrow at the G8? > > Go with the boring, “c’est la vie”? Perhaps, “sorry Jacques, must be tough to swallow”? Or maybe, “I bet that left a bitter taste in your mouth”? > > How _will_ he resist? hehehe I bet Blair waives ‘le Boast Beef’. Maybe he could offer some ‘Spotted Jacques’ to Chirac? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/63 "2005-07-06T13:11:55Z")
OP QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF “Can someone get that idiot Chirac something to eat?” Would you like some Bangers with that. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/64 "2005-07-06T13:20:57Z")
After spending a month studying in Great Britain and Paris back in the '80s, I’d have to say that London would be where I’d prefer to enjoy an Olympics. While Parisians were tolerable overall, we did encounter some rather spectacular assholes, this despite the fact we’d all studied French and were reasonably adept and certainly entheustiastic in our attempts to communicate in their language. Easily the most offensive Parisians we encountered were the police, hence my reticence the see vast hordes descend on Paris where those very police would have certainly played such a ubiquitous and probably unpleasant role. As for the cuisine, while we didn’t find the British fare distasteful, we’d prefer French food on the whole… just so long as we didn’t have to eat it in France. Congratulations London, this should be a spectacular Olympics and Paris still has a 2016 bid to look forward to. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/65 "2005-07-06T13:35:24Z")
Way to go London! Not to downplay the underdog victory, but Mr. Chirac pretty much single-handedly blew this thing. What an inept little man he is. He got his ass handed to him once, got re-elected, and got it handed to him AGAIN. London was the logical choice after his tomfoolery ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/66 "2005-07-06T13:39:16Z")
Thinking about it, for the general information, Chirac’s preffered dish is famously calf’s head. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/67 "2005-07-06T13:45:40Z")
Two things I’d like to add. 1. A big thank you to dear Jacques. Read between the lines. His comments haven’t hurt us in any way and just bring more shame upon himself. Lost the constitution, heading for a kicking on CAP/Rebate, after all Blair has all the cards, and now lost the Olympics too. 2. Not sure what even constitutes English food anymore. The most popular dish over here is Curry! I personally go for Indian, Chinese, Italian food more often than not. Times change. We’ve been overwhelmed by a multitude of cooking programs from [Ready Steady Cook](http://www.bbc.co.uk/food) and the [Naked Chef](http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_nc/0,1976,FOOD_9986,00.html) to cooking competitions such as [Hells Kitchen](http://www.adayinhell.com/) (an Englishman beat a Frenchman there curiously ;P) and [Masterchef](http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/masterchef/) (damn fine show). Speaking for myself, I eat damn fine food and dabble in all kinds of cuisine so the identity of English food doesn’t even register with me. What is he actually mocking? English breakfast - superb if a sure fire way to get a coronery. [Cottage Pie?](http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/comfortingcottagepie_14505.shtml) Nothing wrong with that. The great British roastie? Not the most imaginative of creations granted. Besides, noone has mentioned the Fins yet. Way to go Jacques and alienate more of the planet you twat. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/68 "2005-07-06T13:47:10Z")
Oh BTW, nice to see so many badgers here. Must be the smell of food… ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/69 "2005-07-06T16:00:27Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > I have two words for you: Maginot Line. They had Germany beat in every single quanifiable measurement: men, tanks, planes, weapons, anything, and yet they got dogged in 6 weeks. 6 weeks! > > They quit. I know it’s hard to swallow, but there’s no other explanation. Before jumping to explanations how about a little history? [France lost 84,000 men before their surrender to Nazi Germany.](http://www.miquelon.org/history.html) Total French military losses during the war amounted to 340,000. (By comparison, the United States lost about 300,000 service personnel in WWII.) In those “6 weeks!” French were losing 15,000 soldiers a week! This is not surrender tactics. And how exactly did it end in armistice? > [@](#): > > As the French government fled to Bordeaux, Paul Reynaud pleaded for help from the United States. Isolationism and neutrality were still holding strong in the USA and Roosevelt could only put forth economic assistance. > [@](#): > > The French Premier sent another message to the President on June 14, 1940, the day on which German troops entered Paris. The Premier said that “at the most tragic hour” of its history France must choose whether to continue resistance or ask for an armistice. He warned that the defeat of Great Britain appeared possible if not probable. The Premier said that the only chance of saving France, and through her to save Great Britain, was to throw into the balance “this very day the weight of American power”. [Finally, the Premier said that if the President could not give to France in the hours to come the certainty that the United States would enter the war within a very short time,](http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Dip/PaW/PaW-10.html) “the fate of the world will change”. “Then,” he said, “you will see France go under like a drowning man and disappear after having cast a last look towards the land of liberty from which she awaited salvation.” > … > > President Roosevelt assured the Premier that so long as the French people continued a defense of their liberty, so long would they rest assured that war supplies would be sent to them from the United States in ever-increasing quantities and kinds. He said, however, that these statements did not carry any implication of military commitments, that only Congress could make such commitments. As we know, US would sit back and not declare war on Germany until Hitler declared war on US. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/70 "2005-07-06T16:34:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Personally I think Chiracs remarks were stupid and ignorant, even if said in jest, but he does not speak for the whole of France You have got to be kidding right ? President of the country, representing his national interests in front of an international audience ? Do me a favour ! Look, he made ‘ironic’ comments about UK food, whatever the contexts it has to be at the very least, superb ammunition against him, and by extension, France. Add to this he made similar comments about Finnish cuisine, and sometimes what goes around comes around. Other nations may well have decided that frankly his language was stereotyping, generalising, and perhaps even bordering racist and colonialist. If he makes such comments about what are widely regarded as civilised nations, then one can only imagine the sort of things he says in private about other nations who may not have such cordial relations. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/71 "2005-07-06T16:35:30Z")
> [@New Iskander](#): > > As we know, US would sit back and not declare war on Germany until Hitler declared war on US. We also know that there would be no US without France. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/72 "2005-07-06T16:48:21Z")
So we’re even then, right? ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/73 "2005-07-06T16:49:45Z")
Oy, what I wouldn’t give for a steaming bowl of perspective. Of course Chirac doesn’t like English food, he’s a Frenchman for pity’s sake, and to be honest, I don’t see a lot of English Restaurants around here. Maybe he shoulda kept that fact to himself, but it’s just food. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/74 "2005-07-06T16:54:21Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > We also know that there would be no US without France. Their support of the Colonies was just a method to fight Britain. Similar to the support of the many Jacobite rebellions in Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/75 "2005-07-06T17:04:07Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Their support of the Colonies was just a method to fight Britain. Similar to the support of the many Jacobite rebellions in Scotland. Or support for the French underground as a method to fight Germany. Same same. A rationalization for an axiom is not the same as an inference drawn from one. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/76 "2005-07-06T17:29:22Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > That’s a great new. Thanks for sharing. > > And my deepest sympathy to Londoners… Yeah, cheers; I was quite looking forward to making trips over to Paris and letting a completely different taxpayer pay for the privilege. With the cost estimated at £200 per Londoner in the runup to the Games, I’m sure I will receive great value from my increased council tax when I’m stuck on the shafted-anew Northern Line, waiting for the inevitable signal cockups to clear as they build a line to nowhere. It took them 2 whole years to replace the escalator at my stop; God only knows what disaster will occur when they try and actually make some real changes. Still, I’m sure the shiny new velodrome and so forth out in Stratford will “regenerate” the area, and not turn into pointless boondoggles for future archaeologists to puzzle over. Big empty buildings inspire The Kids, you know. I did like the way it was pointed out, during the “shall we, shan’t we” phase of winning Londoners over to the bid, that Londoners would only have to pay for half of the Games; “the government” is putting up the rest. How reassuring to know that half the money will be taken from us by a completely different route. Why, it’ll almost be like we’re not paying for it at all! As for Chirac speaking for tous les francais, it should probably be noted that his popularity rating at the moment is hovering somewhere south of that of herpes, so perhaps a little slack can be cut for our garlicised amis. Anyway, our food has improved massively of late, by dint of nicking the good bits from everybody else’s; no peche a la frog for us no more, oh no. Blimey, there _are_ a lot of badgers in here. Hope you’ve all got your TB shots. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/77 "2005-07-07T00:48:27Z")
This started as a pitting of Jacques Chirac for making stupid jokes while journalists are listening, but somehow it turned into a discussion of mustard, Champagne, the snobbishness of Parisians, the French Army during World War II and the 2012 Olympic Games. I don’t know about you, but what it tells me is that those Americans who hate “the French” are _really_ irrational about it. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/78 "2005-07-07T01:02:53Z")
Some humble pie perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/79 "2005-07-07T03:16:34Z")
:dubious: I’m gay but even I won’t eat spotted dick!! :eek: :eek: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153/80 "2005-07-07T07:57:34Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > I did like the way it was pointed out, during the “shall we, shan’t we” phase of winning Londoners over to the bid, that Londoners would only have to pay for half of the Games; “the government” is putting up the rest. 😃 Priceless! They must have built that government on rock ‘n’ roll. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-get-that-idiot-chirac-something-to-eat/311153.md?page=5)