Embellish or perish

Hear you Mac speak text

I have been made aware that a comment formulated in my last column has upset some of our club members.

The offending remark is as follows:
“Our club is an old-fashion, fuddy-duddy club stagnating in the past and La Pétanque Marinière is literally marinating in a stale broth.”

I stand by what I said but will elaborate on that subject.

There is no denying that for the last twenty years our club has been in a rut.
We have been repeating ad nauseam (especially in the culinary domain) what has been done since the club was founded.

For some members, the existing state of affairs is as familiar and comfortable as an old shoe, but in an ever-changing world we cannot settle for a status quo.

As a member of La Pétanque Marinière, I am partial to our club, but I must admit that when it comes to special events we have been totally outclassed by other clubs.

To thrive our club must innovate. And we can start innovating by offering more original picnic menus.
Frankly, many people are tired of the Lentils and Sausages, the Leg of Lamb or the steak menus.

“We need to make changes in something established, by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.”

We should not forget that we are not only catering to our club. We are also catering to the world at large.
I know that we have the talents to bring about those changes. They just need motivation and incentive.

The volunteers that we have relied on for the last decades are tired of being unappreciated cheap labor.

I suggest that we invest in a regular culinary crew and remunerate them (as some others do) to the best of our ability.
Let’s give them a budget and allow them to unleash their creativity.
Nothing stirs more the imagination than concrete recognition for a job well done, and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

The question is: are we mature enough to accept criticism and recognize that our Modus Operandi is obsolete and in need of remedial action?
I fervently hope so.

Alain

Allons enfants de la patrie…

Hear you Mac read this article!

225 years ago, on the 14th of July 1789, the Parisians stormed the Bastille and freed 7 inmates (4 forgers, 2 lunatics, and one deviant).

Yesterday, I marched into the Sonoma Pétanque field to partake in the commemoration of this event and schmooze with the local deviants and lunatics.
IMG_4417I also came to munch on some food and hear Le Facteur incite the crowd to mayhem through his fierce rendition of La Marseillaise.

Due Zighi Baci (Two Gypsy Kisses) provided the musical entertainment and Michael Van Why and Sheri Mignano gave us a very believable version of a French “bal-musette”.
Le Facteur took advantage of this and commandeered an innocent woman to gyrate with him on the dance floor. Women beware of smooth-talking letter carriers!

I also showed up to play a little pétanque.

When I arrived, around 9:30 a.m. the weather was fair, but in the afternoon the temperature increased significantly and the oppressive heat made it unpleasant for everybody to play.

The contestants were as follows:

  1. Holly Sammons, Bleys Rose, Steve Van Vleck
  2. Shannon Bowman, Joan Robertson, Ken Goddard
  3. Erin McTaggart, Dave Katz, John Giil
  4. Brendan Cohen, Cliff Knuckles, Lee Hastings
  5. Peter Mathis, Chris Wood, Minette Etallaz
  6. Patrick Vaslet, Marcy Mallette, Dick Nyquist
  7. Bernard Passmar, Blaise Weist, Rita Gordon
  8. Steve Jones, Jean-Michel “Le Facteur” Poulnot, David Nickelson
  9. Alain Efron, Schon Schurecht, Dede Goddard
  10. Adair Hastings, Jean-Claude Bunand, Julie Giil
  11. Delio Cuneo, Peggy Silversides, Bandon Yukich
  12. Carlos Couto, Nina Swusdipani, Lynda Evans

IMG_4462The format of the tournament was “à la mêlée” and this time the capricious Gods of Pétanque were kind to me. They assigned two charming and talented ladies (Schön and Dede) to me and it became quickly evident that we were bound for glory.

Two 13 points games were scheduled before lunch. They would determine who would play in the Concours and who would play in the Consolante.
Our team did very well. We won both games with a score of 13/8 each time and qualified for the Concours.

Then we were summoned to lunch.

As a member of La Pétanque Marinière, I am partial to our club, but I must admit that in the culinary domain we have been regularly outclassed by the VOMPC.

IMG_4381Yesterday, under the patronage of Shannon Bowman (president of the VOMPC) Christine Piccin and her gang did an absolutely bang-up job.
According to its website, the VOMPC took 100 reservations for their picnic. That’s a lot of people and a lot of food to prepare, but Christine’s brigade came through with flying colors.

I don’t think that anybody could find fault with anything. Every dish was a success.
The lamb was particularly tasty. It was so good that the local  wasps quickly spread the word and crashed our party by the dozens.

Congratulations to Christine Piccin and her gang for an outstanding job!
By comparison, our club (La Pétanque Marinière) is an old-fashion, fuddy-duddy club stuck in the past and marinating in a stale broth.
It needs to change (especially in the culinary field) to remain relevant.

But back to pétanque.

After lunch the tournament continued.

To expedite the tourney, nine (9) points elimination games were scheduled. Personally, I don’t care for such games. It doesn’t give you a chance to recoup from a few disastrous hands and that’s what happened to us.

On our 3rd game we were eliminated from the tournament by Steven Jones, Le Facteur and David Nickelson.
I know that we could have done better, but such are the vagaries of the game.

At 4:30 p.m. in view of the heat (and being particularly anxious to watch a rebroadcasting of the FIFA World Cup finals), we opted to leave the field and head home.

The final results of the tournament communicated to me by Shannon Bowman:

Concours:

Semi-finals:
Sammons/Rose/Van Vleck vs Jones/Le Facteur/Nickelson
Sammons’ team prevailing

Finals:
Mathis/Wood/Minette vs Sammons/Rose/Van Vleck

Mathis’ team winner of the Bastille Day Concours (13/11)

Alain

PS: To look at pictures of this event and listen to accompanying background music, turn the sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page.

 

Unholy labor

Today I went to La Boulange for a cup of coffee and a “sticky bun”, and later on I drove to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping.
What’s the BFD about that, are you going to ask?

Well my friends, today is the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day and, God bless America, it is business as usual throughout the land.
Stores will remain open for at least half a day, and even though some employees will have to work on that day, they will do it willingly for the greatest satisfaction of all.

In France on the other hand, stores are denied the right to stay open on Sundays, evenings or holidays even though most of the public favors such measures.
While there is endemic unemployment, the French labor unions stubbornly refuse to endorse initiatives that could significantly reduce that problem.

They insist that Sunday must remain a privileged rest day to be spent with family.
They assert that the absence of parents on Sundays (with children left to themselves) would favor delinquency.
And finally, they argue that some bosses would not hesitate to force their employees to work against their will.

Well, what good is it to spend Sunday with family if you cannot pay the rent and put food on the table?

I suspect that French unions members have been genetically modified to become allergic to change. When their hear about it, it gives them a rash.
And just like Pavlov’s dogs they have been programmed to go on strike whenever they hear the word “reform”.

Today, the unemployment rate in France hovers around 10.5%, (one of the highest in the European Union) compared with 5.1% in Germany, 5.2% in Russia and 6.1% in the US.

Obviously there is something out of whack in the land of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” but the unions stubbornly block any reform attempts.

They still long for the glory of the Popular Front, even though it lasted less than 18 months.

Nobody can deny the beneficial effects of the 1936 Matignon Accords.

Among other things it:

  • enacted the law mandating 12 days (2 weeks) each year of paid annual leave for workers
  • enacted the law limiting the working week to 40 hours (outside of overtime)
  • created collective bargaining
  • created the right to strike (that has been grossly abused)
  • ensured that there would be no retaliation against strikers.

Those measures were very positive and nobody is asking to change them. But remaining mired in the past is not the way to improve the future.

For a long time, business operated under the dictatorship of company bosses. Today the country is hobbled by the Mafia-like grip of the labor movement on the government.
Neither one is good.

Due to the intransigence of the Labor Movement exists in France the very possibility of another May 1968.

Some people sometimes ask me “Would you ever go back to France?”
Only if they get a sensible form of government and a balanced budget.

In other words, it is highly unlikely!

Alain