[venice] through the farrer lens

We all like to take photos and we might even think we're good

... and then there's David Farrer, of Freedom and Whisky.

Check out his fabulous pics of Venice.

[sacrifice] duty, loyalty and love

Should a woman put her career as a pianist, say, on a reduced plane if her husband's career as a president, say, has just taken off? Particularly if she wasn't that good to start with?

Should she agree to marry someone who is clearly in the public eye and needs a strong and loyal mate, particularly if she is prone to saying she wants her man to pay attention to her needs 24/7 and she'd even be prepared to go to New York to get that from another man?

On the other hand, if you were the leader of a major party and your "wife" suddenly went over your head and stole your career from under you, would you continue to love and cherish? Would you support her shot at the title?

What's the pecking order in a marriage?

Whose career takes precedence over the other and should the other subordinate his/her own plans, at least in the interim?

[tony's photo] gratuitous use for cheap thrills

"Watch me stuff yer country up, yer Sassenachs. Might take me ten years but I'm gonna do it and Broony'll see t'yer after that."

It's the lowest form of blogging to just steal a photo of a well-known figure of derision from someone else's blog, say Dr. Crippen, and to post it as one's own, simply in order to make fun of the said figure of derision. Such bloggers are bereft of imagination and ideas on a bank holiday and it's all such a big yawn.

Incidentally, there is only one thing worse than this sort of blogging and that's running caption competitions. So, in the comments section, post your idea of what Tony's saying.

[virgin and ba] not in the least petty

Never let it be said that BA is petty and vindictive and incidentally much over-rated as an airline, over-priced, with less than friendly service and a history of near in-flight disaster and and that I'm being petty and vindictive because they kept us waiting forty minutes over Heathrow, dropped 5000 feet in ten seconds then nearly ran into a fence in 2000, the last year I ever flew with them. Never let that be said:

British Airways has removed a shot of Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson from the in-flight version of the James Bond movie Casino Royale.

He was seen briefly in the original film, passing through an airport security scanner, but can only be seen from behind in the new edit. The edit also obscures the tail fin of a Virgin plane that was seen in the original.

BA's entertainment team vets films and television shows on grounds of taste and suitability.

"We do reserve the right to edit films, and many films are edited in some way on board," said a spokesman.

However, Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles told AP: "We think passengers should see the whole film and nothing but the whole film."

If I were the BA censor, I'd cut any reference to any aeroplane of any form not BA. For example, in Airport and Airplane, a bit of deftly applied airspraying could conceal the offending airline's identity.

The film would then be quite suitable for in-flight entertainment. I might offer my serices to BA, which does not, repeat, not stand for Bloody Awful.

[sarkozy] absence remarquée de cécilia sarkozy

At 19:01, the result was: Sarkozy 53,5%, Royal 46,5% and at 21:01, it had shrunk to: Sarkozy 52,7%, Royal 47,3%. This was answered by Bill Cameron in my comments section. He also addressed my next question:

More importantly, where is his wife? Why isn't she with him? Le Figaro said: "Cécilia, épouse de Nicolas Sarkozy, n'a été aperçue nulle part en public aux côtés de son mari au cours de la journée, que ce soit quand il est allé voter, lors de ses traversées de Paris en voiture ou salle Gaveau où il savourait son triomphe."

Bill asked:

Wasn't there some question some months ago of a marital rift, because of an affair he was having? I wonder if their seemingly coming together was merely not to destroy his chances of becoming President. There is a taboo in France about delving into private lives of public figures - a feature I think we in the UK could emulate.

Yes, Bill but it's still a remarkable state of affairs for a wife not to accompany him at the very moment where wives would surely do this. Surely she could have made the agreement take affect the next day and not shown him up on the day of his triumph? It seems churlish in the extreme, very Diana. Supporting this were her own words at another time:

« Je ne me vois pas en first lady. Cela me rase. Je ne suis pas politiquement correcte: je me balade en jean, en treillis ou en santiags. Je ne rentre pas dans le moule. »

She supported him in the first round and then seemed to cease. My feeling is that something remarkable happened after that time. Either she found out about a fresh affair or an old one restarted. Again, it seems more than pointed.

UPDATE: Well, she seems to be with him now:

Nicolas Sarkozy est arrivé en compagnie de son épouse Cécilia, peu avant 23H00, place de la Concorde à Paris, où l'attendaient quelque 10.000 partisans venus fêter sa victoire à la présidentielle.

Does she seem right to you in the photo above? Compare it to this earlier photo to the right, where she's quite actively entering the spirit of the thing.

Well, time to sign off for the night. Congratulations, Sarko.

UPDATE ON OCTOBER 18TH

For some strange reason, this post seems to have become popular on Google so you might like to see these as well:

[france] dishing the dirt on segie and sarko

[segie-sarko debate] style versus substance

[sarkozy] seems to have started well

[la france] cheeky sod, sarko

[l'élection] en larmes, en lambeaux

[cecilia] you're breaking my heart

[sarkozy] ségolène a remercié les électeurs ayant voté pour elle

Ségolène Royal a remercié les 17 millions d'électeurs ayant voté pour elle. La candidate socialiste a estimé que "quelque chose s'est levé, qui ne s'arrêtera pas".