whitehouse.gov taken over? Cheese-eating surrender monkeys.. .

[Trei, Peter]

> Bill Stewart[SMTP:bill.stewart at pobox.com]
> 
> 
> At 09:28 PM 05/03/2003 -0500, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> >On Sat, 3 May 2003, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> > > At 07:15 PM 5/3/03 -0400, Adam Shostack wrote:
> > > >Please register to participate.
> > > >http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html
> > > Please tell me someone played a DNS game.
> >Not at all: this is to be expected after the three minute hate...
> 
> Oh, right, who's today's target?  Are we still practicing hating Saddam,
> or is it Bashar al-Assad this week, or the French?
> 
> Tim and Peter have been discussing the origins of
> "Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys" and the general hatred of the Frogs,
> but I've got to disagree with Tim's assertion that it's been going on
> for a long time.  Sure, there's been some low-level dislike,
> and Jay Leno's always made fun of their liking for Jerry Lewis,
> and Parisians have a reputation for being as rude as New Yorkers,
> but it seemed like there was such as rush of anti-French surrender jokes
> and anti-French political commentary that it's more than just coincidence;
> it seemed like the meme was being pushed hard and fast by somebody.
> 
> Perhaps the meme was just sitting around from DeGaulle's time,
> waiting to be triggered by France's lack of participation in US
> Unilateralism
> and unwillingness to join the COW coalition this time.
> But it didn't seem that way.
> 
American distaste for the French was not very strong till recently; but 
goes back a long way. The "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" line
goes back to 1995, as I showed - even then it was uncontroversial.

As long as I can remember, there has been a love-hate relationship.
This is based on the notion, held by many French and some
Americans, that France has a superior, more sophisticated culture
than the US. Some Americans just accept this, others see vast
pretentiousness. 

Examples:
"An American in Paris" (1951) - uncritical acceptance.
"Funny Face" (1957) - Young Audrey Hepburn accepts until
		Flostre's real intentions towards her become all too
obvious.
Mark Twain had a LOT to say about the French - check
http://www.twainquotes.com/French.html

For an interesting essay on the evolution of European attitudes 
towards the US, try:
                       THE UNLOVED AMERICAN
                       by SIMON SCHAMA
                       Two centuries of alienating Europe.
> http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030310fa_fact
> 
Peter Trei