French rhyme of the day

Today, no translation, no useful word, no pronounciation, just some lyrics.
From Fabe's "Au fond de nos cœurs" (o - fon - der - no - ker - "at the bottom of our hearts"). Although the rapper has been nowhere to be seen for the longest time, he remains a great lyricist. I personnaly recommend giving Détournement de son (day - toor - ner - men - der - son - "Sound hijacking") a good listen.

"T'es pas dans ta banlieue" encore un flic qui s'croyait marrant !
Belligérant,
au service de ceux qu'j'aime pas. Entrer dans les rangs ?
J'peux pas en bonne santé, en étant mourant
J'peux pas t'aimer, si tu mens
J'peux pas partir en courant,
J'peux pas aimer un tyran
J'peux pas faire de sentiments,
J'peux pas couler du ciment
sur les pieds d'un type et l'jetter dans la Seine gentiment
J'revois la scène j'ai des sentiments
Aussi des pressentiments,
Du feu sur les continents,
j'en vois partout, et c'que j'ressens
ça semble évident.

Je me sens bouboule

There have been recent reports in the news that the French population might be getting fatter. A quick look at my waistline and the pants button I recently caused to implode by just getting near it seems to confirm this.
So, as a follow-up to a previous post today's word is:
bouboule (pronounced boo-bool) = fatty

Can also be a (not-so-nice) nickname
Hé bouboule! = Hey fatty!

Hairy Expressions

un cheveux, des cheveux = hair

Some random expressions:
couper les cheveux en quatre = to split hairs (literally to split hairs in four)
s'arracher les cheveux = to pull one's hair
tenir à un cheveu = to be a close call
avoir un cheveu sur la langue = to have a lisp (literally to have a hair on the tongue)
arriver or tomber comme un cheveu sur la soupe = to come at an awkward moment (literally to come like a hair on soup)
se faire des cheveux blancs = to worry oneself to death (literally to grow white hair)
avoir mal aux cheveux = to be hungover (literally to have "hairache")
être tiré par les cheveux = to be far-fetched (literally to be pulled by the hair)

Rangeons un peu

(un) tiroir = a drawer. Very boring in itself, but the word is used in a couple of expressions:

• racler les fonds de tiroir = to scrape some money together (literally to scrape the bottom of the drawers). I'm not sure why, but it is very tempting, although wrong, to spell racler with an accent ("râcler")
• avoir un polichinelle dans le tiroir = to have a bun in the oven. A polichinelle is one of these old-fashioned, borderline scary (if you ask me) puppets, also used in the other expression un secret de polichinelle (an open secret)
  

  
  
  

  
  

Le mot trié sur le volet

Today, a few words related to the fascinating, yet underestimated world of windows
(un) volet = a shutter. An interesting expression is:
trié sur le volet = handpicked. Literally, sorted on a shutter. E.g.:
tous les candidats ont été triés sur le volet = all the candidatates were handpicked

Another word with similar meaning but infinitely sexier:
(une) persienne
The latter specifically designates shutters with horizontal openings . The word "persienne" is supposedly a variation of the word "persan" and refers to the oriental inspiration for their design.

(un) store = here's a nice faux-ami, as it actually means "a blind" and is, as its English counterpart, mostly used in the plural form

(un) vasistas (pronounced va-zee-stass) = an opening windowpane.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's recap:

Des volets:	Des persiennes:
Des stores:	Un vasistas:

Les boules!

(une) boule = a ball.
And of course, as it should be expected, the word can refer to either:

• A round-shaped object, as in:
• "jeu de boules" also known as pétanque, very popular in the South of France where it was invented more than en century ago. Best enjoyed while drinking a chilled Pastis
  
• Faire boule de neige = to snowball, very literally since neige means snow
• An unmentionable part of the male body, which leads to a vey long list of expressions all worth knowing:
• Avoir les boules = to be upset, or scared. E.g. J'ai les boules! = I am pissed! or I am scared! (depending on the context)
  
• Foutre les boules = to upset/scare (someone). Foutre is slang for faire (and a lot more...)
  

Tranquille!

peinard(e) = cushy, snug, quiet. The 'd' is silent except in the feminine form. Considered slang, but widely used and wouldn't shock anyone I know - even though that probably doesn't mean much...
J'ai un job peinard = I have a cushy job
Je suis peinard! = I take things easy!
Tiens-toi peinard! = Stay out of trouble!

Another expression I like that comes to mind is se la couler douce - to take it easy (literally to flow softly)
il se la coule douce au boulot = he takes it easy at his job (un boulot is slang for job)

Une fois n'est pas coutume... du sport

For those who didn't know, the Paris Saint-Germain ("PSG pour les intimes", friends call it PSG - but God knows it doesn't have many friends left...) miraculously got out of its habitual torpor to win a game last week-end for the first time in... I stopped caring. Of course, the victory is useless - Lyon, the opponent of the day, will still be Champion in a few weeks if not days, and PSG will still be the laughing stock of all non-Parisians soccer fans

Oh yeah - I forgot to mention - PSG is the Capital's greatest and only soccer club, with a history made out of an equal amount of great moments and laugh-out-loud failures. To be honest, maybe more failures than great moments. But as a born-and-raised Parisian, I can't really help having special feelings for this special club.

They have cars in France ???

Peugeot = French car manufacturer (pronounced p-er-joe). Created in the late 19th century by the Peugeot family, the manufacturer became famous for its 3-digit model numbers (402, 305, 406, 807 - always a zero in the middle). Some claim they worked on the first automatic transmission, which became surprisingly popular in the US after Peugeot representatives made a trip to Detroit to present it to the likes of Ford and GM. In the 70s, it merged with other French car manufacturer Citroën and became known as PSA Peugeot Citroën

http://www.psa-peugeot-citroen.com

If you are thinking of buying one, there are some things you need to be aware of

Music to kill kittens to

Sidilarsen. Techno-metal band from Toulouse's "Antistatic" collective. Think Nine Inch Nails meets Rammstein à la Française. Probably very hard to find outside of France, but their website have a few downloadable samples.

 

http://sidilarsen.free.fr/home_uk.htm

About hunger and thirst

(une) dalle = a slab / paving stone

Some interesting slang expressions:

j'ai la dalle! = I'm starving! (literally "I have the slab"). Also acceptable: je crève la dalle! (literally "I'm piercing the slab" - or something)

j'ai la dalle en pente! = I'm thirsty! (literally "I have the slab inclined" - whatever)

que dalle = nothing at all. E.g. on n'y voit que dalle! = you can't see a damn thing!

French Word of the Day April 2005

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 10:54 PM

Aaaaah, that good'ol French vs. English battle http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3819169

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 12:12 AM

Sidilarsen. Techno-metal band from Toulouse's "Antistatic" collective. Think Nine Inch Nails meets Rammstein à la Française. Probably very hard to find outside of France, but their website have a few downloadable samples. http://sidilarsen.free.fr/home_uk.htm

Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 11:22 AM

(un) compte (pronounced like "conte") = count / amount au bout du compte / en fin de compte = in the end (when everything has been counted) tout compte fait = all things considered

Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 9:17 AM

plaire = to be attractive / pleasant / likeable / popular

il plaît aux femmes = women find him attractive

mon travail me plaît = I like my job

conjugation of this one is tricky, I'll stick to the present tense:

je plais

tu plais

il plaît

nous plaisons

vous plaisez

ils plaisent

I don't think anyone needs the "imparfait du subjonctif" form

encore eût-il fallu que vous leur plussiez

Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 8:42 AM

(la) poisse = bad luck avoir la poisse = to be jinxed porter la poisse (à quelqu'un) = to bring bad luck (to someone) c'est la poisse! = too bad!

Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 6:29 PM

(la) pluie = rain Après la pluie, le beau temps = every cloud has a silver lining (literally: "after the rain, nice weather")

Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 8:43 AM

Hélas = Alas ('s' is silent, 's' is not)

Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 8:53 AM

(un) poisson d'Avril = an April fool's joke (literally: an April fish) The typical poisson d'Avril consists of sticking a paper fish on someone's back without him/her noticing. Why a fish and not an elephant or a camel is unclear, and there are various explanations: some say it's because it coincides with the end of Lent (when fish is consumed instead of meat) some say it's because fishing is prohibited during this period, and that as a joke people would make fake fish and throw them in rivers some say it's because of the Zodiac sign

As with everything else, I don't really care.