Okay, great; let’s start serving foie gras, caviar and lobster thermadore to the little tykes for lunch.
France’s slogans don’t enter into it. This is pomp and circumstance. Our head-of-state is hosting the France’s head-of-state. France’s president is being welcomed to our country on all of our behalfs, and we are honoring him with a state dinner. That’s no time to try to make a pointless point about calorie intake.
It would insult the specialness of high-level diplomatic visits. It goes against the tradition – medieval and ancient! – of putting out the best feed possible when the king of an allied state comes to visit.
Part of the true “specialness” of the U.S. is our democracy, and, to be honest, if I were the President and visiting France, I’d probably be happier with “home cooking” rather than cordon bleu haute cuisine. Bigger helpings, to start with!
Yeah, which is why our President lives in a bona fide palace. Some are always more equal than others.
I assume French school children get a decent quality bottle of wine with lunch, so that wouldn’t be so bad, I guess.
Fuck these guys. Seriously.
CNN: GOP has an actual playbook for fighting the ACA.
You can read the playbook here.
Somebody needs to tell them the final whistle has blown.
Let’s see what one of France’s poorest towns is serving for lunch in the public schools, shall we?
Monday, October 15th
Salad: ‘Marco Polo’ salad (Pasta salad with tagliatelle, seafood (e.g. crab, shrimp), and vegetables (peppers, tomatoes)
Main: Roast Pork or Fish Filet with ‘provencale’ sauce (tomatoes, onions, olives, and Herbes de Provence like rosemary and thyme) with Cauliflower-Curry Casserole
Cheese/Dairy: Saint Paulin (a mild, creamy, soft cheese originally made by Trappist monks)
Dessert: Fresh apple slices
Tuesday, October 16th
Salad: Fresh ‘market greens’ salad
Main: Mushroom crepes (or ground beef) with green beans, with cubed roast potatoes
Cheese/Dairy: Tomme de Savoie (a hard, mild-tasting cheese somewhat like old cheddar)
Dessert: An orange
Wednesday
no school
Thursday, October 18th
Salad: Tomato and celery salad
Main: Omelette with herbs or carbonade flamande (a traditional Belgian sweet-sour beef and onion stew) with garlic carrots and fried potatoes
Cheese/Dairy: none (probably because the meal is so rich!)
Dessert: Fruit ‘velouté’ (a fresh fruit pudding a bit like a smoothie) with ‘Galette sablé’ cookies (a bit like shortbread)
Friday, October 19th
Salad: Soup ‘Crécy’ (a simple carrot soup with thyme)
Main: Sautéed veal or filet of sole, with pasta (macaroni elbows) and creamed spinach
Cheese/Dairy: Camembert
Dessert: A kiwi
Mon Dieu! L’horreur!
o/ Bot off course, Miss, zis is Frawnce... o/
This is clearly beyond the topic of this thread, so I’ll try to make it my last post here on this subject.
I would feel very good about it. I also suspect that French school lunches are of better quality than ours. And that’s part of the point.
This means nothing to me. To the extent that the United States is special to me, it’s because I am an American. I don’t expect anyone else to feel the same way or cater to such feelings on my part.
Is that practical? Desirable? Nutritious? Cost-effective? Environmentally sound? If so, then go right ahead.
There are countries and there are governments. I believe in government. I believe in government policy. I believe in government programs. I believe in democracy. I don’t believe in “the state.” I think all notions of “the state” should be excised from government operations. A government is nothing more than the administrative body for a territory and polity, largely created as an accident of history.
If people want pomp and circumstance, they can organize their own parades and ceremonies—the N.F.L. seems to do a pretty good job.
The meeting of the president of the United States and the president of France should be treated no differently than a meeting of any of the government employees that work under them.
To sum up my comments above, fuck that.
I think the White House, like the Capitol, should be a public building only, with offices and public areas, but no residence. If someone asked me to decide, then I would remove the president’s residence to something modest and unremarkable. If it were practical (I concede it probably isn’t), I would require the president—like members of Congress and the Supreme Court—to be responsible for securing his or her own housing.
As silenus’s sample menu indicates, the French take the “cultural patrimony” issues of la gastronomie very seriously. I spent a few months in a small French city once with friends who had kindergarten- and primary-school-aged children, and cafeteria meals there are NOT what we’re used to. They hire actual chefs who prepare food on-site, and the kids are expected to eat fairly sophisticated regional specialties. Not quite caviar and lobster with wine, but we’re not talking frozen chicken patties here.
That said, anybody who thinks that domestic school lunch policies have the least relevance to what should be served at the White House for a formal dinner with international heads of state is missing the point. As Jack Batty noted, this isn’t about eating habits, this is a diplomatic ritual.
Now, if somebody wants to grumble that the POTUS should get school-lunch food for his private family meals, let 'em. I personally don’t grudge a four- to eight-year temp worker a little personal luxury while he’s being Chief Executive of the federal government and representing our country on the world stage, but if some people prefer ostentatious austerity, fine.
“People” can’t spontaneously organize official formal events as part of international diplomacy, even if they want them. And citing the NFL as a role model for a democratic institution holding public ceremonies directly inspired by the popular will is ludicrous: it’s a branch of the corporate entertainment industry leveraging its PR to maximize revenue for advertisers.
Anyway, White House state dinners are infrequent, traditional, and very popular as a form of celebrity entertainment, so I think you’re outvoted.
Every other POTUS got to live like a king, kindasorta. Why is it suddenly objectionable WRT this one?
I’m speaking to people’s general desire for pomp and ceremony. If they want it, they can do it, but it shouldn’t have anything to do with the government. In my view, it has no business being part of government. International diplomacy should be treated as nothing more than a bureaucratic functionality, a meeting of employes in an office. As I said, I don’t believe in “the state,” and there should be no formality, no event, nothing of the kind. Two people meeting as per their job functions. period.
Pomp and circumstance is nothing more than entertainment anyway. If they want it, I’m happy for them to get it from a profit-making corporate entity. I would rather that people channel their instincts for tribalism and identity-ism away from consequential things like nations and states and governments and towards innocuous things like professional sports and choices of cola and beer brands.
Expressing my opinion is not a democratic exercise. You don’t get to vote on it.
Because he doesn’t know his place. :rolleyes:
:rolleyes:
Perhaps a more pointed way of saying the same thing would be Anyway, White House state dinners are infrequent, traditional, and very popular as a form of celebrity entertainment, so I think your opinion is outnumbered.
Please step off the cross; we need the wood.
But The State believes in you, which makes your opinion, much like yourself, irrelevant.
In Russia …
The head of state runs around with his shirt off. But cannot sink a three pointer from downtown.
[QUOTE=silenus]
Let’s see what one of France’s poorest towns is serving for lunch in the public schools, shall we?
[/QUOTE]
The tragic thing is, what these kids really crave ishamburger and fries or spaghetti drowned in ketchup :).
Snerk. You may imagine that that would somehow trivialize instincts for tribalism and group identity. But in fact all it would do is sacralize cola.
And we’ve got enough of that going on already.