Sunday, February 24, 2013

Mon Dieu! "The New Yorker" misses French idiom!

Guess The New Yorker isn't reading this blog. In their February 25, a feature about the French actor Gérard Depardieu ridicules him for allegedly describing a bottle of rum he received from Castro as "God in velvet underwear." Most likely, Depardieu was simply using the common (if odd) French idiom, C’est le petit Jésus en culotte de velours -- it's baby Jesus in velvet shorts --  most often employed to describe, say, a smooth wine. As I explained in a posting a while back, an earlier generation of Americans might have exclaimed, “It’s the cat’s pajamas!”

Please, New Yorker, Depardieu deserves to be ridiculed for many things (not least of which is drunkenly peeing in the aisle of an Air France plane), but let's not kill him for employing a colorful idiom. Your provincialism is showing.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2013 at 11:45 AM

    He's still a great actor, even though he misbehaves. Wonder how he'll do in his new home in Belgium.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lfcApril 17, 2013 at 11:02 AM

    In my opinion, a person need to be famous enough to even be mentioned by New Yorker. I guess Depardieu is famous enough. :)

    Hey, New Yorker gains publicity for the controversy, Depardieu gains publicity for the mention. It's a win-win!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 19, 2015 at 4:51 PM

    Am presently reading your "Flirting with French" and so enjoying your descriptions and experiences. Absolutely love "C'est le petit Jesus en culotte de velours." Visited Paris last spring and am absolutely in love.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)