# Did a building in Paris blow up today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645 "2003-06-04T17:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/1 "2003-06-04T17:13:43Z")
I was watching TV this morning before coming to work and saw a report that Reuters was reporting a building in Paris was partially leveled due to what they thought was a natural gas explosion. That was 5 hours ago and i have seen nothing on my web pages. I even looked at the Reuters web sight. Was this all a dream? Did anybody else see such a report? ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/2 "2003-06-04T17:25:03Z")
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2962452.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2962452.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/3 "2003-06-04T17:26:38Z")
Hallo – you can see an item about that on the BBC’s website [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2962452.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2962452.stm) cheers, Ms Boods ---
**Author:** ![Zazie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/4 "2003-06-04T17:27:51Z")
Yes, it was a gas leak. Almost twenty people are hurt. ---
**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/5 "2003-06-04T17:54:55Z")
Thanks for the information. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/6 "2003-06-05T00:36:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zazie \* > \*\*Yes, it was a gas leak. Almost twenty people are hurt. \*\* OK…gimme 20, who will say 20! anyone? OK. going once, going twice…it’19!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/7 "2003-06-05T04:54:46Z")
Do you normally find it funny that people are injured in an explosion? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/8 "2003-06-05T08:11:51Z")
I think \*_ltfire_ is expressing amusement at the phrase “almost twenty”, rather than the fact that people have been hurt. ‘Almost twenty’ is indeed a bizarre construction - ‘About twenty’ makes sense, because it implies that we don’t yet have a firm figure, ‘Almost two thousand’ or ‘More than two thousand’ also makes sense because it implies that we do have a firm figure that is around two thousand, but is inconvenient to spell out fully (‘one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-six’ is not really convenient for a newsreader). But ‘Almost twenty’ implies (to me at least) that we know the precise figure (‘Eighteen’ or ‘Nineteen’ is actually easier to say), it is somewhat less than twenty, but that twenty makes better news. BTW, I mean no offence **Zazie**. ---
**Author:** ![Zazie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/9 "2003-06-05T13:12:45Z")
oh well, my english isn’t perfect… I did see 17 or 19 whatever the number was at the time, and they were still expecting or looking for missing people, doesn’t 19 make “almost 20”??! Oh well anyway it sucks. ---
**Author:** ![hammerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hammerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammerbach)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/10 "2003-06-05T13:31:03Z")
I guess I would have preferred “almost one”. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-building-in-paris-blow-up-today/179645/11 "2003-06-05T21:11:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\*Do you normally find it funny that people are injured in an explosion? \*\* Thank you for the backup,MANGETOUT. The Trade Center tried to kill me. but failed. I find humor in a lot of things that I refuse to explain to anybody.