Jacques Chirac’s crusade against English has led him to storm out (with aides right behind!) of a European Union meeting.
When M Seillière, who is an English-educated steel baron, started a presentation to all 25 EU leaders, President Chirac interrupted to ask why he was speaking in English. M Seillière explained: “I’m going to speak in English because that is the language of business.”
Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers, leaving the 24 other European leaders stunned. They returned only after M Seilière had finished speaking.
The hilarious part is the attempt by French diplomats to explain the childishness away:
Embarrassed French diplomats tried to explain away the walk-out, saying that their ministers all needed a toilet break at the same time.
A potty break? That was the best they could come up with? Hilarious. (HT: the Instapundit)
Speaking of futile public relations…(I need to rant)
Okay, so I frequently give tours of the house of famous author X. There is a local tour guide, Z, who hates the owners of X’s house, and whose dream is to buy the house, buy all of the other houses on the street and knock them down, and establish a highly profitable shrine to X (I’m not kidding).
Z frequently comes round X’s house with small groups, and every now and then will call and ask if I’ll let one of the groups in the house. He has been so hostile in the past that we stopped allowing Z entry into the house, but with an aim to build rapport with Z and try to patch things up, I agreed to show X’s house to 25 Americans from Atlanta.
Today was the big day. At the bottom of our street is a sign that says “No Coaches.” Z claims it is an illegal sign. Since it was put up by the City Council, I think it is a legal sign. Consistent with his claim, he drove his huge bus up our narrow street, and when I told him he needed to move it, he said:
“I most certainly will not move the coach. That sign down there is illegal, and I don’t need to obey it. A lady from one of the houses on the street came out when we were driving up and told us to move the coach, and I told her, ‘One day I’m gonna buy your house and knock it down.’
Now he said this in front of the tourists. Everyone was looking on, blinking. I was a taken aback, so I said (as one who is torn between what he wants to say and what it’s appropriate for 25 Atlantans ignorant of the situation should hear),
“Well, that was sufficiently rude, Z. Okay, welcome everyone, why don’t we come into the front garden?”
Now, this comment has no literary merit, so I’ve utterly failed to convey how maddeningly idiotic this man is. Trust that I was put at my wits’ end, and have forsworn all future alliance with Z. Writing this, however superficially, has purged it from my soul, and maybe if you read this you’ll be moved to send me flowers, bath salts, frangranced ointments, and various other niceties, including a computer that I can give to Matt. My address is, The Kilns, X Close, Oxford, OX3 8JD, England.
I wonder if that went on “The Daily Show”…
Reminds me of Gandalf saying how he knows the language of Mordor but will not speak it.
Shouldn’t this be in the “Ha Ha” category?
Public Relations is all about pleasing the common people.*;-
some times its a pain in the ass to read what people wrote but this website is rattling user pleasant! .