Getting Laid in French

-
For those who don't know, Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec (located in that northern country known as Canada). Quebec is a French province and Montreal is mostly French as well.

On Sunday, as the kids and I were walking downtown, we passed a man begging with a sign. As we passed, Tania asked me, "Why does he say he's ugly?" I asked what she meant and she said, "His sign says, 'Je suis laid'". She further explained that laid means ugly.

I had seen the sign but did not understand the first part since I didn't know what laid meant and I assumed (incorrectly) the kids didn't either. The rest of the sign (which I did understand) said ... help me out and I can get a facial. (ok, it said it in French not English).

The word came up again last night as Jason was reading to me Les Trois Boucs: "... un ogre tres laid et très méchant ..." ("... a very ugly and very mean ogre ...") .

It is pronounced the same way as the French words lait and les, namely (for English speakers) leh.

Image nabbed from here.

I adjusted the image to remove a bluish tint, I don't know if this is permissible under the Creative Commons license or not (depends how you argue what constitutes a 'derivative' work).

Comments

B said…
I imagine you're stat counter is going to reflect some interesting keyword searches leading to this post! :)

I too wasn't aware that laid means ugly in French. That is so sad that the begging man held such a sign.

I've heard that Montreal is so beautiful. I am thinking about visiting on my road trip, as I'll be up in New England.
May 29, 2008 8:30 PM
Richard said…
breal: well, we'll see what kind of hits it generates (if any). For the past month, I have been inundated with hits for this SPAM. Always seems to peak in January and May. I understand why in January, but May.

I think his sign was more in irony that self loathing. He was a fairly young man.

Montreal is quite nice. Along with Ottawa, it is one of my favourite cities. It is very cosmopolitan. Mind you, I know it as a resident not a tourist - so there might be much I have missed over the years.
June 02, 2008 6:50 PM
Anonymous said…
french is a beautiful language!
June 03, 2008 1:40 AM
Richard said…
acey: for me, French is French. I grew up hearing multiple languages around me: English, French, Polish, and now (because of Sofia and the kids) Spanish.
June 03, 2008 12:23 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese Wisdom Concerning Money

-
[19September-2007 @ 17:11 EST: Revised preamble. This page still gets the most search hits: There is no Anthony de Croud. The e-mail is SPAM. I post things that pique my fancy at the moment. I like the 8 precepts, but the rest of the e-mail is junk. However, I thought it fair to post everything in its entirety. I did not write the e-mail. I did not forward the e-mail. I strongly encourage you not to forward it either. (I also encourage you to reply to whomever sent you the e-mail and tell them you don't appreciate getting junk mail.)] Received this in our e-mail (English translation follows): PRECEPTO CHINO SOBRE EL DINERO EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CASA, PERO NO UN HOGAR, EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN RELOJ, PERO NO EL TIEMPO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CAMA, PERO NO EL SUEÑO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN LIBRO, PERO NO EL CONOCIMIENTO. EL DINERO PUEDE PAGAR UN MÉDICO, PERO NO LA SALUD. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA POSICIÓN, PERO NO EL RESPETO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR LA SANGRE, PERO ...
Read more

Why you should regularly visit your dentist.

-
I hadn't been to my dentist since May-2004 (normally I went on weekends, but since Sofia and the kids moved to Montreal, I am not in Ottawa on the weekends). Last night, as I was munching on some cashews, I felt a pain in one of my molars and then some grit in my mouth. I went and washed it out, assuming that maybe there had been a stone or something amount the cashews. Turns out I noticed a hole in the surface of the molar (top right, second from the back, my wisdom teeth were removed years ago). Fishing around for grit in my mouth, it looked like crumbled filling. So I assumed that my filling had cracked and crumbled and come out. Went to the dentist this morning, he took an x-ray and came back with bad news. I have a large cavity under the filling, which gave way. The filling did not fall out, but rather impacted into the space of the cavity. He did not rework the filling, since the cavity is very near the root - cleaning it out would likely result in exposing the root. As some...
Read more

Chicken Menses

-
Image
A friend of mine is an ovo-lactic vegetarian. This means that in addition to the plant matter he consumes, he also consumes dairy products and eggs. Dairy products I can accept, but eggs? … hmm, I wasn’t so sure - it sounds a bit like those vegetarians who say they eat chicken and fish. After all, the egg is an animal product. His answer was simple and satisfying, "Eggs are chicken menses. The hen will produce an egg whether she is fertilized or not. Unfertilized eggs are the discarded products of ovulation akin to menses in mammals." Image grabbed from here .
Read more