LIFE IMITATES BULLSHIT, PART II

Okay, so it looks like The Paris Business Review really exists! Or does it? I suspect that someone else is taking the same joke in a different direction-- only these guys can afford to register a domain-- and they even know French!

"PBR April 31, 2004: We are proud to have been mentioned recently by a misguided American entertainer named Bill O'Reilly, who apparently hosts a television program on a fledgling network called "The Fox News Channel" in the United States. He referenced a recent Paris Business Review article that said France has "lost billions of dollars" because of an American boycott of French products. Of course, that article was meant in jest."

I haven't decided whether to drop the name yet, in spite of the fact that no one else seems to think it's funny. Since no one is actually reading this, that doesn't really matter. A lot depends on whether the "original" Paris Business Review is kept alive by further updates. It may not be a joke after all. I notice that they refer to Bill O'Reilly as "misguided". That kind of understatement strikes me as authentically European.

Anyway, just in case, a hearty bonjour-- and congratulations to our friends accross the ocean at the Paris Business Review. A lot of Americans seem to think that La Belle France is not our true friend, because she opposed the war in Iraq-- but here in the U.S., we have a saying: "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." (I'll bet it sounds better in French.)

I will always think of France as the concerned hostess who tried to take our keys, after we'd had a little too much to drink at the big Globalization Christmas Party, and got an earful of drunken abuse for her troubles. She did it for our own good, and hopefully, we'll appreciate that some day.