Au Cochonnet Marin

“In love, there is always someone who kisses and someone who offers the cheek.”

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Unrequited love is arguably one of the most painful emotions that one can endure. It hurts like an open wound and takes a long time to heal.
When you become smitten with someone, you find it difficult to accept that your feelings are not returned in kind.

Love cannot be explained. It is an irrational emotion that can drive to semi-insanity.
It is easy to love, but the most difficult part is to make the one you love, love you. Many people fall for people who do not love them, but they cannot stop obsessing about it.

You can try to buy the stuff but it is futile. If you buy it, like a new car it immediately loses half of its value.
But this doesn’t stop elderly men (and women) from buying trophy wives. It keeps them warm and always looks good on camera.

Georges Bizet’s opera (Carmen) is the typical example of unrequited love.
After first spurning her advances, José falls in love with Carmen. Then Carmen abandons José and takes up with Escamillo, a bullfighter.
After José pleads with her and after Carmen rejects him, he stabs her to death.

This is sometimes the tragic outcome of unrequited love.

I presently alas love somebody who doesn’t love me.
When I first met her, I was struck by her beauty and her eagerness to flirt with me.
Like Carmen she first seduced me and ultimately betrayed me.

I took her home and treated her like a princess. I bought her a necklace, baubles, toys, fancy food… To no avail.
She accepted me but never really loved me.
She now has only eyes (and ears) for my wife and follows her everywhere like a little dog.

My wife (who did not care much for her in the first place) can roughhouse her without any fear of retribution.
If I try this with Kate, teeth and claws will quickly find their way to any area of my exposed skin.

I don’t know what it is? Females are supposed to be catty to each other, but in my case, my two “femmes fatales” seem to taunt me with their inhibited display of affection.

Is love fair? NO. “L’amour est enfant de bohème, Il n’a jamais, jamais connu de loi. »

Dear Abby, what can I do to make Kate love me?
Where can I purchase Love Potion Number 9?
Help!

Alain

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You might be surprised to hear it, but you are a gambler. As a matter of fact, all of us are… to a certain degree.

Crossing the street is a gamble. Flying is a gamble. Marriage is a gamble… a big one – at least fifty percent of us can testify to that.

When you cross the street to meet your girlfriend, you are taking a chance. You might get hit by a car and suffer some injuries, or even worse. But you are taking the risk because you think that embracing your girlfriend is worth the gamble.
It is a calculated risk.

Some people are more audacious than some others. They know that in order to achieve, they have to go out on a limb. It takes pluck to do so. If you succeed you will be a hero; if you fail you will have to bear the sometimes-dire consequences.

In 49 BC Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon. It was a huge gamble because in the eyes of Rome it was considered an act of insurrection and treason.
In case of failure, it meant certain death.
But he dared and succeeded.

Some others gambled and didn’t fare that well.

During the reign of Catherine II of Russia, disaffected young Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (1742 –1775) led a Cossack insurrection. After some initial success he was captured, and in 1775 at the age of 33, he was beheaded and dismembered in public in Moscow.
His risky gamble didn’t pay off.

 In our daily lives we don’t have to face a Rubicon dilemma but we still need to make some decisions and for some it proves difficult.
Should I quit my job? Should I have an affair with my boss? Should I save money or travel? What should I eat? What should I wear? How should I vote?
All of these minor decisions can go both ways and sometimes have unattended consequences. Especially how you decide to vote.

Some people procrastinate… endlessly. It is not a good idea. “Procrastination is like a credit card; it’s a lot fun until you get the bill.”

It is also said that fortune favors the bold. It is frequently the case in pétanque.
If you have the guts you will shoot to get 4 points instead of settling for 1 point.
You might lose everything in the process, but you might also clinch the game with this daring shot.
This differentiates the gambler from the ordinary player.
Better fail in a blaze of glory than coast to a colorless win.

There’s a (slight) difference by the way between a gamble and a calculated risk.
Risking $100 at the roulette table is a gamble. Jumping in parachute is a (well-prepared) calculated risk.

If you are perpetually unsure of what to do, I recommend reading the entrails of a chicken to make up your mind.
It has never failed me yet.

Alain

Once upon a time there was a small tribe that dwelled in a little hamlet called Petanquium.

Its inhabitants were hunters/gatherers and usually got along well with each other. They were noted “bon-vivants » who ate heartily and guzzled with abandon a local brew called mead.
The local druid once declared, “When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink” and this encouraged the village philosophers to drink generously to stimulate their thinking.
In their spare time they practiced for war by throwing rocks at a small target on the ground. Some were very accurate and were called Tiroflans.

Sometimes the villagers drank too much of the sacred concoction and became ornery and bellicose.
One day two villagers respectively called Alambix and Tournedix got into a heated argument over a local custom… and even reached for their battle-axes.
Fortunately reason prevailed and both sides walked away unharmed.

But after this foolish incident, they studiously avoided each other.

Some time later, at a yearly banquet honoring the gods, Alambix and Tournedix started drinking… and thinking.
The more they drank, the more they thought… and the more they thought, the more they drank. After a while, incapable of any kind of thinking, they forgot their past quarrel and shook hands… and drank some more to celebrate.

Now, Toutatis and Taranis be praised, peace has returned (at least temporally) to the little village and all seems to be well in Petanquium.

But a small community is always ripe with gossips. It might not be long before another incident erupts and sends everybody reaching for their daggers.
Ultimately a goat or virgin (of either sex) may have to be sacrificed to appease the gods.

May everybody drink more hydromel to encourage independent thinking and develop a more understanding way to play the popular “tosstherock” game.

Toutatis, Taranis and Esus be praised!

Alain

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