Sometimes I really question what our world has come to

McDonald’s is Louvre’n it by Peter Goddard

PARIS–News that a McDonald’s is to open shortly in the bosom of the Louvre has sent waves of shock and horror worldwide. Appalled art lovers cringe at the possibility of the outlet serving up a juicy Double Da Vinci burger with a side of frites. Or a Francis Bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich.

I mean, we’re talking here about Sun King Louis XIV’s former digs, the home of the Mona Lisa, star of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Is nothing sacred?

Get over it, I say. For one thing, the proposed McDonald’s is to be in Le Carrousel du Louvre, a modern subterranean mall run by a private company and not operated by the state-owned museum. The outlet will be next to a proposed museum ticketing area.

As malls go, Le Carrousel is clean and pleasant, leading to either the subway or a doorway opening at 99 rue de Rivoli, the busiest street in all of France.

True, the Louvre could quash the deal if it wanted to. But it doesn’t want to, not while it maintains the title of being the most visited museum in the world, with some 8.5 million paying customers a year. Nor should we forget that shopping is one of the realities of museum-going and an increasing source of museum revenue.

Not many weeks back, I went to the Louvre with the single purpose of shopping at its bookstore. I found myself in Le Carrousel by accident. Along with a children’s bookstore, a post office and clothing stores, I came across Perigot, the high-end German housewares shop selling such necessities as pricey fluffy feather dusters. McDonald’s will fit right in.

Most likely, the real shock is the realization how big a presence McDonald’s already has in France. Sure, authorities in 1993 nixed the possibility of the golden arches being hoisted under the Eiffel Tower. But France, with more than 1,100 outlets, is the fast-food empire’s second biggest market after the United States. The Champs-Élysées McDonald’s is reportedly the most profitable outlet in the world, the result of non-stop tourist traffic. And the Louvre outlet will help the company celebrate its 30th anniversary in the country.

Meanwhile, Italy, where McDonald’s is not nearly so visible, has sparked a Big Mac outrage of its own by hiring Mario Resca, a former director of McDonald’s in Italy, to juice up the tourism business for its 3,600-plus museums. “Visitors’ needs should be satisfied,” Resca says. One can’t wait for those Roman McNuggets, Forum-style.

All of which leaves one question: How long do we have to wait for Tim Hortons to open next to the Tom Thomsons at the Art Gallery of Ontario? It’s the Canadian thing to do.

REALLY?  IS THERE NO ESCAPING THE GOLDEN M?  Does anyone else get those weird McDonald’s cravings in the middle of the night, or when you wake up in the morning?  I think they’ve got me right where they want me -_-;

Sorry for not updating often, life is pretty crazy these days!  I just started my teaching practicum so I’ve been busy preparing lessons.  Today was a particularly rough day – filled with technical difficulties, lack of familiarity with my own teaching subject (and subsequent embarrassment and criticism), chatty/hormonal teens excited for the long weekend, and fire alarms.  omg.. all in all a bady day -________-;

Hopefully Tuesday will be a clean slate.

Summer = brain rot.  Brain rot = TV.  I don’t know where I was trying to go there, but I feel really rusty with this now O________o.  Time to get back into it, I suppose!

Last Chance to See is a wonderful BBC documentary series.  The show follows Mark Carwadine (a wildlife photographer and zoologist) and Stephen Fry (Hugh Laurie’s old comedic partner :O ) as they search for animals on the brink of extinction.  Of course, all the while they are exploring the wildlife of their surrounding regions.  The project was actually started by Carwadine and the late Douglas Adams in 1990 – however, it was in a book format at the time.  I think Carwadine was interested in seeing how the dynamics had changed over the past 20 years, so he decided to embark on this long journey again.  Stephen Fry had a friendship with Adams, and therefore opted to take Adam’s place as Carwadein’s partner.

Some of the moments in this show are just beautiful.  Truthfully, they make me tear up a little.  The hard truths are a little difficult to swallow.  For instance, it is difficult knowing that as a human being living in the Western world, I have played an indirect role in “history’s worst mass extinction”.

Animals covered so far include the:

The Amazonian Manatee

The Northern White Rhinoceros - now declared Extinct in the Wild

The Aye-Aye - in case you are wondering, it's a lemur, lol

Carwadine PRETTY much has my dream job.. like actually.  I often say that I don’t know what to do with my life, but if i had a choice now – this would be it.

Watch this show!  It is wonderful.  Aside from searching for these fascinating creatures, they also encounter a variety of  wildlife along the way.  Not to mention the fact that some of the places they go to are truly just breath taking.

I’m back, britches

As you MAY or MAY NOT have noticed, this blog is on hiatus for the sizzlin’ summah. ^______^

Check back sporadically if you wish, but I will be back in September FO SHO.

You can count on it

#26: Bear Grylls and Will Ferrell

This is no secret, but I just LOVE Bear Grylls.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Will Ferrell.  When I heard that Will Ferrell would be guest starring on an episode of Man vs. Wild, I seriously thought that it was a joke.  I later realized that this would be the perfect plug for Ferrell’s new movie, Land of the Lost -_________-;

The episode overall was pretty enjoyable.  I realized afterwards that I’ve never actually seen Will Ferrell behaving as Will Ferrell.  Everytime I’ve seen him on TV or in movies, he has been in character.  He was surprisingly pleasant IRL.  For some reason, he has always struck me as the douche bag type, but that was totally not the case here.

In other news:
I feel like a pile or turd today because I stepped on a little dog paw at Woofstock.  That poor little thing.  I’m so very sorry.  Aside from that scarring experience, the day was pretty awesome.  There were TONSSSSSS of dogs, probably more than I’ve seen in my entire life.  Some of them were sooooooo beautiful, others were cute, ginormous, scary etc.  They came in all shapes, sizes and breeds.  The only problem was that you really had to be careful of where you were stepping ^______^ (aside from being mindful of little paws, you also had to be mindful of…).

Well, I’m POOPED (HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR -___-;).  Don’t worry, I promise that I’ll never do that again.

Time to do some work before going to bed.  Wahoo -_-

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I’m a closet Shinee fan. Actually, since I’m sharing this knowledge with all of you.. I guess I’m not in the closet at all.

As you’ve probably noticed, my once daily posts have been reduced to dismal numbers. Internet access at home is inconvenient at best. Did I mention that my WiFi card is still broken? -____-; I barely have time to be on the computer now. I spend most of my day studying or passed out somewhere on a couch.. double -______-;

FOR SHINEE, I AM WILLING TO BREAK THIS LAZY SUMMER MOLD.

Let’s not kid ourselves – I have anxiously anticipated this comeback for some time now.

SO, comments?

• Minho, that is one sweetass rhinoplasty that you got.  Those Koreans seriously know their way around a scalpel.
• Jonghyun is the only one who doesn’t look completely emaciated.  OH, FOR THE LOVE!  Somebody please feed these boys some rice.
• This song reminds me of an upbeat “Love Like Oxygen”.
• For me, personally, Onew is still the only member missing a GRRRRRRRr factor.  That’s kind of weird seeing as how he’s their appointed leader.
• TAEMIN’S HAIR = FAIL.  So actually, maybe not much has changed since those Replay days.  I honestly can’t pick the lesser evil between that old, awful bowl cut, and this newly permed, curly up-do.  Why do the other boys get the privilege of semi-normal hair? -____-;
• I love that there are girls screaming in the background the whole time (I also love that these girls are probably half my age and age-appropriately in love with a boy band, unlike myself).  Did anyone else notice the deafening rise in decibels when Taemin broke into his solo at 2:15?   Whaaaa ^___^
• Jonghyun ages well.  *cough* *loosens collar*
• Atleast they’ve stopped wearing those sequins and weird, rainbow-fringed outfits.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars – with 5 being “Replay” quality.

I was unaware that there was anything on the face of this good Earth that could make my eyes look smaller than they actually are (actually, I wasn’t even sure that they could get any smaller)

.. I was wrong.

Since I have a sense of humility, I am going to share this with all of you:

THX KRISHNA!

OMG
I TOTALLY FORGOT ECOTW! O_______o

I have been busy.

#25: Nancy Callahan and John Hartigan (film version: a.k.a. Jessica Alba and Bruce Willis)

Gotta love the “reality” of this situation.

Might I add that I don’t quite understand reality either…

O________o  I mean, who is this guy?  One thing’s for sure: he is pretty darn lucky.

P.S. Stunning even when preggers ^____^

#24: PEANUT BUTTA AND CHOCOLATE

O_________o

I think.. you all know what I’m craving right now.  Subtlety has never been my strong suit.

Has anyone seen these ads on television?  Ahem, DAY TIME TELEVISION!   They make me cringe and laugh at the same time.

This naughty Santa thing is so gross and disturbing -_-;

Smiling Bob, you’d better put that shit away before you hurt somebody.