Emeutes

une émeute = a riot
Speaking of which, the rioters in France will soon get a chance to burn foreign cars, as the French Gendarmerie (military police) recently
switched its contract for high-speed pursuit cars from French maker Peugeot to Subaru. Apparently, the French model was considered too slow...

French Artist of the Day

DJ Cam, a.k.a. Laurent Daumail, follows the likes of hDJ Shadow and DJ Krush. The Parisian mixes jazz samples with hip-hop beats, and got his first success with "Dieu reconnaitra les siens" (listen at amazon.com) in 1993, a single that started a long carreer with great albums like Mad blunted jazz, The French connection or Soulshine

En lambeaux

déchiqueter = to tear to shreds/to pieces, to mutilate, to destroy

je me suis fait déchiqueter! = I got beaten up!

Which leads me to some words that are new to me today:
une dechiqueture = a ragged edge or outline
une déchiqueteuse = a shredder

Slang of the day

chier (shee - ay) = to shit

Used in a variety of expressions:
faire chier quelqu'un = to piss someone off, e.g.:
tu me fais chier! = you're pissing me off!

se faire chier = to be bored, e.g.:
je me fais chier! = I'm really bored

envoyer quelqu'un chier = to tell someone to piss off

en chier = to go through something difficult, e.g.:
j'en ai chié pour finir ce livre = finishing this book was painful

ça va chier des bulles! = there'll be hell to pay! (literally "it will shit bubbles")

ça chie dans la colle = something's not working (literally "it's shitting in glue")

And of course:
un chieur / une chieuse = someone who's a pain in the butt

Menteur!

mentir = to lie
un menteur / une menteuse = a liar

Pas de bol!

(la) chance = luck
If you want to use slang, (le) pot or (le) bol (which means bowl)
E.g. Pas de pot! or Pas de bol! = Bad luck!

(la) malchance = bad luck
If you want to use slang, (la) poisse
E.g. avoir la poisse = to be jinxed
porter la poisse = to bring bad luck

Torticolis

un torticolis = a stiff neck (the 's' is silent)

j'ai un torticolis = I have a stiff neck

Bien tassé

Following an earlier recap of numbers from one to one hundred, here's a few more used for approximations:
deux ou trois = a couple of (two or three)
une dizaine = about ten
une douzaine = a dozen
une quinzaine = about fifteen
une vingtaine = about twenty
une trentaine = about thirty
une quarantaine = about forty
une cinquantaine = about fifty
une soixantaine = about sixty
une centaine = a bout one hundred

e.g. il doit avoir la cinquantaine = he must be around fifty

Loufoque

loufoque = crazy, but in a funny way (loo - fok)

E.g. Il est complètement loufoque! = he's just crazy!

Le travail et la grève

(le) travail (trah - vah - y') = work, job, employment
(la) grève = strike
(une) manifestation = a protest

Today's manifestations in France follow the government's proposal to introduce a new, more flexible job contract for young employees

La Guillotine

La Guillotine (no need to translate this one, I hope) is named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who invented the device as a "humane" means of delivering the death penalty. It was first used in 1792, and replaced previous methods, until the abolition of the death penalty in most European countries in the 1980s.