Governor Walker Hearts Public Higher Education

I'm so happy our Governor Scott Walker loves public colleges and universities. I'm now convinced he knows what's best for us. Full speed ahead.

After all...

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other."

Ayn Rand (from "Atlas Shrugged")

APRIL FOOL--POISSON D'AVRIL! by P.B. Lecron

Crybaby, my Franco-American hybrid kids' pet fan-tailed goldfish must have been on my mind when I went to the chocolate shop. 

One more slip of the tongue, this time on the funnest day of the year in most places in the world, April 1.   In France the April's Fool prank is called a poisson d'avril, literally fish of April. The most common gag here is for school children to stick a cut-out paper fish on the back of a teacher or classmate, then giggle about it.

It's a big day for the chocolatier, too, who makes and sells ribbon-clad chocolate poissons d'avril, usually filled with smaller chocolate fish or fritures. Wanting to buy a chocolate fish on a first of April at our town's chocolatier, I inadvertantly asked the salesgirl for a poisson rouge (goldfish). It was not until after she began looking at all of the chocolate poissons d'avril on display that both of us realized that I had just pulled her leg.

All of these poissons d'avril were swimming around Aux Colonnes, a chocolatier in Versailles. 

Our prettiest poisson d'avril ever--a Lalique fish.

Vocabulary                              
un poisson:  a fish
un poisson rouge:  a goldfish
une friture:  a small fish
chocolatier, ière:   maker or seller of chocolate
faire marcher quelqu'un:  to pull somebody's leg    
une farce:  a prank
un canular:  a hoax
une plaisanterie:  a joke
Expression
Ton lacet est défait:  Your shoelace is untied.

A comedy of errors!
For more language fun, including some of my now famous slips of the tongue :
Sip 'n Slip
Caution: Language Barrier Crossing
Chic, Chickpeas
Madame Malaprop Goes to the Dentist
I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore
It's All in How You Say It
Accidental English
The Artichoke Next Door
Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron