Au Cochonnet Marin

This is the message apparently communicated by the French penpushers to Jean-Claude Laprie, a retired man of 79 living in France’s Dordogne area.

This sounds oddly familiar. If I am not mistaken, this is the peccadillo that our former (thank God) commander-in-chief has been bellyaching about. A battalion of living dead staggering to the polls and stealing the rightfully-his elections from him.

Well, monsieur Laprie was not dead, but tarnation, his pension checks stopped coming. The French bureaucracy though was thoughtful enough to send him a new “carte électorale” (voting card). So, even though you are dead… you still can vote.

This is scary my friends. You might be dead, and as it happened to monsieur Jean-Claude Laprie, but you might not be aware of it.

A word of advice if I may… When you wake up, ask a reliable person to check your status. Many “Tamalous” might be in this predicament and live unaware of their condition.

How can you make sure that you are still alive? Ask yourself, am I still playful? Am I still joking? Am I still laughing? Do I have some close friends? If the answer to these questions is no, you might be a living dead.

“For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off.” —Johnny Carson

Don’t laugh, some people are so attached to their smartphones that they want to be buried with them. Just in case… you never know when you will need that thing. Or maybe they want to tell us what’s happening in the Great Beyond. We are all curious, aren’t we?

Many people believe that some living dead have infiltrated our society and are planning a takeover. That’s what already happened in Russia. Citizens have been gagged, sedated, and forbidden to express their feelings. In short, they can live, but only as living dead.

But, miracle of miracles, even the living dead can sometimes come back to life. The cure is a good kick in the pants to awaken them and make them realize what happened to them.

Personally, I pray and hope that all the living dead in Russia wake up soon from their coma… and forcibly remove the brutish puppeteer that made them pariahs the world over.

“He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend . . . provided, of course, that he really is dead.” —Voltaire (philosopher)

Debout les morts ! (Arise from the dead) Восстань из мертвых !

Alain

On Easter Eve, La Boule d’Or, the San Francisco pétanque club hosted a party to honor Jacques Biscay, one of the founders of that club.

But this long-planned celebration almost didn’t happen. Around 3:00 am that morning, I was awakened by a very hard rain slamming my roof and I thought that our little party was a goner.

But Ubiquitous Ann had previously declared that “rain or shine, we will have that party” and absolutely nobody dared to interfere with the newly minted president of La Boule d’Or.

Around 9:00 am the rain had cleared, and a little later we drove to the city. We arrived at the pétanque field around 10:15 am to find a bunch of volunteers actively preparing snacks and drinks. By 11:00 am a sizable crowd (too numerous to mention all names) had assembled, and the small parking lot adjacent to the pétanque court was packed to the gills with cars.

Close to 11:30 am Jacques and Leonie Biscay materialized and were welcomed by Ann and her guests like Hollywood major leaguers. Recording devices of all kinds clicked madly everywhere and scores of photos were taken to immortalize this event.

Ann, who was firmly in charge of this affair, welcomed the guests who were also warmly greeted by their own children (Roger and Patricia) and their respective families.

In a little speech praising Jacques and Leonie, Ann also recognized old-timers (like Louis Toulon and Charles Davantes) for their own contributions to the sport of pétanque. Unfortunately, our own Charlie was indisposed and could not make it, but he called me this morning to tell me that he was back on his feet and ready to take on the world again.

A group photo was taken before lunch by various shutterbugs that included Bradshaw Frazer and me.

Lunch and drinks were offered, and everybody helped themselves to a variety of dishes.

After lunch, it was pétanque time and most of the guests gathered on the still moist field to enjoy a few games. Due to a still sore back, I chose to abstain and instead photograph the action around me.

Let’s not forget to thank Dynamo Ann for her extraordinary effort to promote this celebration and the success it deserved.

Atta girl Ann.

Alain

PS: I posted 2 photo albums today. One is called “Jacques Biscay morning” and the other one is called “Jacques Biscay afternoon”. Enjoy!

What do I remember best about yesterday’s event?
The wind my friends, the cold blasted wind. In the morning we didn’t feel it too much, but in the afternoon, it started to blow. We experienced very strong gusts that seriously disrupted our games. And it got cold, very cold. According to the weather bureau, around 5:00 pm the wind speed reached 23 mph (enough speed as we say, to dehorn a bull) and it got cold enough to cool to incite everybody to cover up.

But let’s start from the beginning. In the absence of Christine Cragg, Mike O’Leary assumed the management of the tournament and assisted by Shama and Sandra ran the show. And an excellent job they did! Kudos to them all and especially to Mike who stayed with us until the end to give away prizes.

Forty people registered to play, and by around 9:30 am things got underway. Three 45 minutes games before lunch, and elimination games in the afternoon.

Originally, I didn’t intend to play, but Francois Moser enticed me with his siren’s song, and I agreed to assist him. Yesterday, the second thing I remember best was the caliber of some of the women we encountered. On our first game, we met Brigitte Moran and Liv Kraft. I was absolutely amazed by Brigitte’s shooting skills. I would estimate her batting average to be around 90%. A really great competitor.

Later on, we met Caitlin and Albert Woodbury. Caitlin also proved to be a mean shooter (I already knew that) and gave us a really bad time. But the ultimate woman gunslinger was Suzie Lee.

We faced her and Sandra Shirkey in the Consolante’s finals and she annihilated us. She didn’t miss a single shot. I had not played against her for a while and I kind of forgot how well she performed. Now, after a crushing defeat, I will remember her for a long time. She is an amazing shooter and totally deserved to win. We lost the finals with an appalling score of 1/13.

Yesterday nothing went according to plan. As usual, I intended (after being booted out of the tournament) to take a bunch of pictures in the afternoon, but the gods of pétanque didn’t see it that way. They let us win more games than planned and almost totally prevented me from doing my job as a photographer.

I managed to take some shots between games, but I had to wait until around 4:00 pm to seriously get to work.

The last game I managed to cover was the Concour’s finals pitting Kue Lee and Tim Peppel against Tom Lee and Mark Shirkey. If I was a betting man, I would have put my money on Tom and Mark… and I would have lost. I forgot how good unconventional shooter Kue Lee was. Sure, he was greatly helped by Tim Peppel, but it was he who nailed the coffin of the other team.

In the end, both teams stood at 12/12. Both Tom Lee and Mark Shirkey missed some critical shots and Kue gave them “le coup de grâce”. The final score was 13/12 in favor of Kue and Tim. Great game. Congratulations guys!

Concours
1^st place: Kue Lee & Tim Peppel                  $84.00/ea   
2^nd place: Tom Lee & Mark Shirkey.         $60.00/ea
3^rd place: Paulo Custred & J-C Etallaz      $36.00/ea

Consolante
1st place: Suzie Lee & Sandra Shirkey.      $36.00/ea
2^nd place: F. Moser & Alain Efron               $24.00/ea

And that’s the way I saw it

Alain

 PS: Please take a few minutes to look at my pictures. Play in “full screen” for best results. Avoid watching on your iPhone. Thank you.