France Observed Archives - Harvey Mudd

Paris: Irritations and Pleasures

Harvey Mudd — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 19:24:00 +0000

On my first day back in the city after a spell in the US, I needed to take care of some banking business. French banking is bizarrely awkward. The place is over-banked, a bank on every corner it seems, but one cannot go to just any branch of your bank and, with the right account […]

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American Health Care vs French Healthcare 3

Harvey Mudd — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 17:29:04 +0000

AMERICA HEALTH CARE FOLLIES With my finger tip, I could feel something on my back, but I couldn’t see it. Since I had been out in the garden, in an area of New England where Lyme Disease is an issue, I thought that might be a tick. I had no friends around, so went to […]

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France and Food: America Compared

Harvey Mudd — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:49:25 +0000

Forty years ago, when I still lived in the United States, I had a vegetable garden. I lived in the sun. I dug in the dirt and grew squash, sweet corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers. Both the labor and the product gave me great pleasure. Every morning I went out to see how much damage […]

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Paris: The Man With the Blue Guitar

Harvey Mudd — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:30:27 +0000

I am in the process of excavating the social, historical and architectural terrain where I live. I go to a different area of the city once a week, or more often if my other tasks release me. I use Metro stops as my landmarks, much the way a geologist might use an distinctive outcrop of […]

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Paris is the World: The Sacred and Not So Sacred

Harvey Mudd — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:03:04 +0000

Paris giveth and Paris taketh away. It dazzles and disillusions, pleases and disgusts. Beauty and filth. Not, of course, a tension unique to Paris, one found in all great cities, but Paris is where the world and I rub shoulders. I’d arranged to meet my daughter at the Sainte Chapelle, King Louis IX’s private […]

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American Medicine vs. French Medicine – Part 2

Harvey Mudd — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:51:05 +0000

Once “melanoma” was diagnosed, I was directed by the dermatologist to the big public Hopital Saint Louis of the assistance publique system that is stigmatized as “socialized” medicine and dreaded by the Americans – an irrational fear, rather like fearing the devil, and constantly fed fuel by politicians who are obedient to their masters in […]

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The Girl on The Train

Harvey Mudd — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:01:57 +0000

The decals of instruction on how to break the windows and escape from the TGV carriage in case of a wreck have upset a little boy sitting across the aisle. The graphic shows a figure striking the window. He tries to peel off the decals with his little fingers. His mother struggles with him, a […]

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American Medicine vs. French Medicine – Part 1

Harvey Mudd — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:10:18 +0000

Vanity to the rescue. I decided to inquire about the price of removing a large “age spot” on my face. Feeling lightly embarrassed by my interest in such a project: men of my age are expected to have such things, badges, if you will, of life spent. “Age spot” had been the diagnosis, without bothering […]

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Paris is the World: Suffering

Harvey Mudd — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 09:49:20 +0000

Paris, 10 August 2011 The day dawned fair, first good day in weeks. The white lines left by airplanes , like chalk marks, crisscrossed the perfect blue of Parisian sky. I would go, in the afternoon, after some writing done, to the great western forest, the Bois de Boulogne. Climbing out of the metro at […]

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Paris is the World: Insane and How Not to Be

Harvey Mudd — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 12:07:08 +0000

I started the day thinking about what it means to be insane and ended up going the park. The question about insanity came up because the defense attorney for the Norwegian mass murderer called his client “insane,” as if that would not only explain his action but would also minimize its significance. I think that […]

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