Au Cochonnet Marin

« Elle était aussi bien de fesses que de face. »
Raymond Queneau

 

On April 17, under a beautiful blue sky, La Pétanque Marinière hosted its annual Lentils & Sausages picnic/tournament.

You might not realize it, but lentils are one of the healthiest dishes on earth.
According to a medical journal, lentils lower cholesterol. They reduce your risk of heart disease. They help prevent constipation and they stabilize your blood sugar. And since it contain virtually not fat, it helps you to lose weight.
Aren’t we a caring bunch?

A light shadow was cast over the tournament following the unexpected demise of René di Maio. A minute of silence was observed but as the poet says:

“Better to die, and sleep the never-waking sleep, than linger on and dare to live when the soul’s life is gone.”

Memories will linger, but life will go on.

Sabine Mattei prepared the lentils (thank you Ma’am) and as usual Cartouche (aka J-C Etallaz) and Antoine Lofaro cooked the sausages. Thank you fellows.

Thirty-six contestants signed up for the tournament.

1. Blaise West, Gus Foucher, Claudie Chourré
2. Alain Efron, Doug Colville, Clea Massiani
3. Bleys Rose, Catlin Woodbury, Joanne Easton
4. Shannon bowman, Joe La Torre, Genevieve Etallaz
5. Francois Moser, Robbie Passemar, Calvert Barron
6. Brigitte Moran, Noel Marcovecchio, Monique Bricca
7. Patrick Vaslet, J-M Poulnot, Eva Lofaro
8. J-c Etallaz, Christine Cragg, Sabine Mattei
9. John Morrison, Charlie Davantes, Liliane Sebban
10. Henry Wessel, Marshall Elliott, Paul Tucker
11. Bernard Passemar, Larry Cragg, Richard Ehrinberger
12. Albert Woodbury, Rob Everett, Tamara Efron

Among the participants, I spotted notorious Rasputina (Tamara), Le Canonnier (Noel), Fillette (Brigitte), le P’tit Suisse (Francois), le Facteur (Jean-Michel), La Bête Noire (Henry), Minette (Genevieve), whimsical La Voleuse (Clea), Pitouf (Paul), Dagobert and Firefly (Bernard).
Most of these troopers did well in the tournament.

We also noticed with pleasure the participation of four young San Franciscans who didn’t hesitate to cross the Bridge to compete on our own turf.
We hope to see them on a regular basis.

After random pairing (due to the diligence of Liv Kraft and Christine Cragg), triplettes were assembled and games (3) started after lunch.

My own team consisting of Doug Colville, Clea Massiani (aka La Voleuse) and myself (La Foudre) lost the first game 7/13. This was just a warming up session.
On our second game, we went down 11/13 but did noticeably better.
On our final meet, after a highly contested game, we were (barely) bested 12/13.
As you can see, we improved with each game and with two additional games we would have definitely crushed the opposition.

While playing I managed to take a few snapshots on the fly. They are not my best work, but I plead extenuating circumstances.

After the dust settled, the final results emerged and they were as follows:

1^st place:  Albert Woodbury, Rob Everett, Tamara Efron             $25/ea
2^nd place: Sabine Mattei, J-C Etallaz, Christine Cragg                        $18/ea
3^rd place: Henry Wessel, Marshall Elliott, Paul Tucker                          $15/ea
4^th place: Brigitte Moran, Noel Marcovecchio, Monique Bricca           $10/ea

Congratulations to the winners, and especially to Rasputina (Tamara) who promised to take me out for dinner with her fabulous winnings.

Until we meet gain, hasta la vida amigos, or as my better-half would say “До скорого!”

Alain la Foudre

PS: To look at photos of this event and listen to the accompanying background music, turn your computer’s sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page. For best viewing, go Full Screen.

PS 2: Look at Clea’s gallery:

http://www.bassandreiner.com

 

After a short illness René Di Maio peacefully passed away in his sleep April 14, 2016. He was 81 years old.

René was born in Marseille, France in 1935, and was a true Provencal.
As they say in Provence:

“Fai pas bon travaia quand la cigalo canto.” (It is not good to work when the cicada sings.)

He was issued from a family of fishermen and had a varied and colorful career.

He enrolled in the French merchant marine at the age of 14 and later on served in the French navy (with world famous Jacques Pépin).
Just like Jacques, René loved to cook.

René was a Jack-of-all-trades. Throughout his life he dwelled in various occupations and was in turn a fisherman, a taxi driver, a painter, a waiter and a maître d’.
In his heyday, in his fair city of Marseille, René was also a great dancer and won several competitions.

With Louis Toulon, Charlie Davantes and Marcel Parnell, he was one of the original founders of La Pétanque Marinière.
They launched the club in 1973 and gave it its actual name.

René was an excellent pointer and won many tournaments. He excelled in a technique called “jouer a la godille” (to spin your boule around an obstacle).
He was also an avid golfer who not too long ago managed a rare “hole in one”.

René was a complex character with a deadpan humor not always understood by everyone.
But he was above all a devoted family man who doted on his grandchildren.

 

He is survived by his wife Mireille, two sons and four grandchildren.

Alain

“A friend is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” Aristotle –

 

Everybody wants friends, the few people with whom we can share secrets and intimate thoughts without fear of betrayal.

But true friends are a rare commodity for friendship is a slow ripening fruit. It is a long process and much to the chagrin of many, there is no such a thing as an instant friend.

Individuals usually become friends in their formative years, or through shared experiences like college, army or even prison.
True friends though can be counted just on one hand, because as the saying goes “if you have too many friends, you have none”.
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.

People desperate for friends will sometimes turn to social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
There they can get “instant friends” at the click of a button, but these “friends” are not the genuine article and they all come with STD (Socially Transmitted Disease).

The minute you “hookup” with a friend, the hosting social media will grab the names (and all its accompanying data) all your friends and the friends of your friends.
Media Miners will immediately pounce on it.

These specialized data gatherers will analyze and extract as much information as possible and resell everything to merchants for a hefty price.
So, be wary of the information that the media prods you to volunteer.

Merchants are more than happy to pay for this. Instead of shooting in the dark, they can now focus on your interests and shower you with targeted ads.

So, “media friends” can be as much as a liability as a source of comfort.
And you cannot call any of those “chums” in the middle of the night for an emergency. They are just fair weather friends, ready to disappear at the first rumble of a storm.

If you want a true ever-loving friend, someone who will stick with you through thick and thin and never utter a single disparaging word against you, get a dog!

Alain

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. Euripides