Recent content by figtree

Maybe there is some hope And just when I thought there was no hope for the future I discover that all of the collective wisdom of humankind resides safely and securely here at MERB! The fault needs to be found in first causes. Capitalism, pollution, energy depletion are all secondary to the...

Grooming as Payment? It seems to me that only a rabid capitalist would interpret grooming behaviour as payment. Sure, there may be some notion of exchange in the monkey behaviour but viewing it in non-economic terms, grooming would be part of what humans would call foreplay. When humans...

More gender fun We need to be careful with the assumption that we can conveniently change the gender of a word: Your personal trainer is l'entraîneur, which is masculine. If your trainer is a woman she is not l'entraîneuse because that is a hostess in a night club. Also, a trucker is le...

grassouillette Plump, chubby

The rule of toy? Metoo4, The toy idea is interesting but there are some problems. After I confiscate my girlfriend's le godemiché and le vibrateur where do I put them? Or better still, don't answer that...

Merci Thanks for all your chapeaux. The fun part about gender is that logic does not apply. Consider the following: le vagin, le sein, le clitoris and then la verge, la bite. What poor confused anglophone could have guessed at those?

beau - belle It is the "c'est" that changes the gender of the adjective. So la belle vie becomes la vie, c'est beau. Just say c'est and the adjective that follows is masculine. La belle ville - la ville, c'est beau.

Cosmo, Well, Big Daddy Cool certainly brought it down a notch. Yes, thank you, Cosmo, as well for your respectful insights into this very important matter. Although I consider myself to be as Canadian as the Maple Leaf, my ancestors came to Canada from Europe in the 1880's. If your...

Cosmo, Thanks for your well considered comments. To clarify, I am not against the display of crucifixes or the ringing of church bells. In my original comment I was trying to point out how discriminatory the rules of Herouxville really were. Surely if we can tolerate the ringing of bells and...

Cosmo, Your comments confirm the need for a charter of rights and freedoms in a democracy. Sure it is easy to say we respect the traditions of the majority (such as the public display of human torture as depicted by crucifixes) however, this does not mean that the traditions of minorities are...

They "Forgot" Some Rules The citizens of Herouxville "forgot" to include some important rules in their list of forbidden activities. How about some of the following: 1) It is not permissible for Catholic priests to molest children, 2) The depiction of cruel torture as in the public display...