Englishman pocketed French royal diamond

A lump of lead from a dusty drawer in a Paris museum has enabled French experts to solve a long-standing mystery. 

The size of a pigeon's egg, the piece turned out to be a casting of the legendary Blue Diamond, the centre-piece of the crown jewels of pre-revolutionary France. The diamond, bought by Louis XIV in the 17th century, vanished when looters stole King Louis XVI's treasures in the heat of the revolution in 1792. The find in the Paris Museum of Natural History has in turn enabled researchers to prove that the long-lost blue diamond is one and the same as the Hope Diamond, a star exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC [in picture]

It had long been suspected that the Hope, which was given to the Smithsonian in 1958 by the jeweller Harry Winston and which is said to carry a fatal curse, came from the Diamant Bleu that was looted in Paris in 1792. This has now been confirmed by François Farges, the chief mineralogist with the Paris museum. He has concluded that the Hope is the cut-down heart of the 69-carat Indian diamond that the Sun King bought in the mid-17th century.

[The lead casting of Blue Diamond]

 

The breakthrough came when Farges and his team were rummaging through thousands of ancient items in the museum. They were intrigued by lot number 50,165, the lead casting. It was tagged as "replica of a blue diamond belonging to Monsieur Hoppe of London". Jewellers used to keep lead castings of stones that they cut. 

The replica matched period pictures of the long-lost royal gem. The French team compared it to computer measurements of the Hope sent from Washington and found that the US stone fitted perfectly inside the Blue Diamond. "It is more than a hypothesis," said Farges. "We have carried out analyses by scanner and laser, which have been validated by experts in gemology."

Suspicions were first aroused in 1812, when a massive blue stone of 45.54 carats turned up in London in the hands of Daniel Eliason, a diamond merchant. Until now, Henry Philip Hope, a City banker, only appeared as the diamond's owner in 1839.

The lead casting now links Hope to the plundered diamond, which was originally bought in the 17th century by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, an adventurer, from the ruler of Golconda, in what is now the Indian state of Hyderabad.

Farges says that he did not sleep for two weeks after the discovery of the casting. He pieced together what he believes was the trail of the gem, which in the early 18th century had become part of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a concoction of gold, diamonds and rubies that was made for Louis XV [Pictured here].

 

The diamond, reputed to have been the most dazzling ever seen, was smuggled to London where it was acquired by Hope and crudely recut, shearing off 23.5 carats as well as its original lustre, says Farges. Eliason was just a front for Hope, says the mineralogist. He has just published his findings in the peer-review journal Revue de Gemmologie.

The Hope diamond changed hands many times after the banker's death. It came to Paris and was owned for a time by Pierre Cartier, the jeweller, before reaching the United States in 1911. The tale of a curse arose from the real or imagined sticky ends of some of its owners, including Louis XVI and Tavernier. The king ended up of course on the guillotine. The adventurer who brought it to France was said to have stolen it from a statue of the goddess Sita. He was later torn to pieces by wolves in Russia, according to the legend.

The Paris museum has made a replica of the royal diamond out of zirconium. It is hoping that a wealthy patron might pay for a synthetic diamond version.   Farges does not expect France to ask for its stone back. Napoleon Bonaparte delared crimes of the revolutionary period exempt from prosecution in 1804.
"The diamond has been recut, which means that the one in Smithsonian is in effect a completely different stone," Farges adds.

[below: how the Hope was cut from the King's Blue Diamond]

Comments

[Blendi Progri]

Perfect story for a saturday afternoon.
____________________________

I take the opportunity to wish a great weekend to few good bloggers:

* Cardinal Strohl
(one of the funniest terms I seen in here in a long time,lol)

* Bishop Jones (Richard)

* Camerade Peter Kinsley

* Azloon The Huggable

* Chris Muir the Chilled Dude from Ozzie land

* Pierre the Lovable Frenchman.

* Rocket the Sensitive [ :) ]

and all other Blog scriblers, who like me, occasionally concern themselves with the way the world is run, how it can be made to run better or even to make it counter-rotate.

...of course a special w/-end wish is pronouced on CB, without whom we couldnt meet and who provides the chips and the green cloth for all the addicts.

__________________

Small impressions.

* Yesterday driving, stopped at T.Lights behind a van.
It had the quasi standard Notice:

'No tools are kept in this van overnight'

On closer inspection i saw in small capital letters, in marker pen, in black, neat handwriting:

'Where do you keep them?'
LOL

** 200 yards at another traffic lights. Behind an ambulance. On autopilot, but still my brain managed to read this:

'To open the door pull the handle'

'Woke up' in near shock.
The said Handle was 50 cm long vertically, in black plastic and the only thing to pull or push in that double door.

Then a depressing though captured me, if this crew is sent to my address for an emergency are they qualified enough to rescue anyone?!

*** Wife doing her best to beat the credit crunch. buying things that we don't really need.
As all women do. Not complaining but womanhood folly concerning expenditure in times of c.crunch knows no bounds nor restrains.

**** London is cold right now, chilly and dark.

I am going out...wish me luck!

:)

[jayseabea]

'No tools are kept in this van overnight'

On closer inspection i saw in small capital letters, in marker pen, in black, neat handwriting:

'Where do you keep them?'
LOL
Fantastic idea...gonna do that!

[jayseabea]

'No tools are kept in this van overnight'

On closer inspection i saw in small capital letters, in marker pen, in black, neat handwriting:

'Where do you keep them?'
LOL
Fantastic idea...gonna do that!

[dot king]

That is a wonderful story!
How marvellous to be so knowledgeable about something to be able to make such a discovery and track it down.

I wonder what happened to the person who "crudely recut, shearing off 23.5 carats as well as its original lustre,"?
23.5 carats! 'Ecky thump! It's hard to imagine a diamond cutter wanting to do such a thing - and there'd have been no urgent reason to disguise it surely? Still, all part of its history I suppose.

Splendid detective work - now all you generous-hearted Americans, now that you know THE truth - you KNOW where that diamond belongs - mm?

On Carla's finger, of course.

Who was it in a song (another bit of USA culture :)) who was described as having "a ruby in her tummy and a diamond big as Texas on her toe-woe-woe"

Azloon, au secours! Bumper Book of Hits needed :)

[Pierre Bernardi]

I just told my wife that the Hope belonged to the museum of Washington.

"Ah bon", she replied, in a mutter which sounded like a curse.

[Lex Stevens]

If I am not mistaken, I believe the residue of the Hope Diamond is what the British royal family refer to as 'Grannies Chips.'

[Lex Stevens]

No, no. After I posted, I realized my mistake. Granny's Chips are from the Star of Africa. Silly me!

[Daniel Strohl]

BLENDI,

I am afraid you got somehow mixed up in rankings :). I was nominated as a cardinal through a bull benevolently issued by Her Holiness Pope Richard unduly exiled in Athens & Peloponnesian Islands for already a few years :).

Her Holiness issues august bulls when appropriate and meanwhile makes outstanding research on pig bladders :)

[Clarisse]

On raconte qu'il est maudit, hummm ... et il est à Washington ...

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

I was thinking of going cold turkey on the CB drole equipe until I saw the acknowledgement from Blendi, and decided just to accept chauvinism and touchiness and pride as part of the French bloggers' make-up. Best bet in France is just to keep on saying French is best...French is best. Of course la belle France does have everything: sun sea and sand, best of food and wine, hunting shooting fishing speleology, mountaineering. Never say, however, that Serano ham is better then Jambon de montagne! Because when you open the oyster, and sprinkle lemon juice on it' it will react immediately!
Blendi: beware going out in London. The police here allow only villains to carry weapons and MACE (British customs seize thousands tear-gas sprays a year from incoming American tourists.) and they will arrest YOU for it. I have not been out at night for 6 years.
I am suffering from shock tonight, though: I have just been informed that the biggest sales outlet for Macdonalds and Colonel Sanders is...wait forit...FRANCE!
Help - where has it all gone wrong?

[Clarisse]

Quel gâchis: le diamant a perdu ce qui faisait l'admiration de la cour de Louis XIV: sa taille en "rose de Paris", en sept facettes.
C'était le travail de Jean Pitau, le joailler de Louis XIV. Dommage qu'il ait été retailler.

[Leo...]

"Englishman pocketed royal diamond"

PERFIDE ALBION!

[richard.jones]

And I was hoping that Cardinal Strohl would remain a secret - 'in His Wholiness's bosom'.
BTW I hereby accuse the Katholick Church of a total lack of humour in never naming Cardinal Sin (of the Phillipines) as Pope Pius the Thirteenth.

[christopher muir]

Blendi - And a nice weekend to you, whatever is left of it. May I be so impertinent as to ask whether Albania is is or was part of your landscape? I find this blog to be a stimulating read as it covers so many diverse subjects; no doubt King Zog will make it to these pages one day.

[Rick]

I can vouch for what PETER has written, though the presenter's phrase may have been 'most profitable'.

The (Mac-)restaurant shown looked most appealing, with traces of typically French 'je ne sais quoi' and a menu generously expressed in English. There was a faint air of (Mac)reverence about the eatery, one felt.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

"Nouvelle cuisine", if I am not mistaken, was described by one chef a: "Nothing on the table. Everything on the bill."

[richard.jones]

Hey! Don't knock King Zog - Crown Prince Leka is still with us and is one of Greece's most renowned pigs' bladders' barcoders (better at bar than code to be honest). The Crown Prince is CEO of this - the only out-sourced PB registration outfit in Greece - but is ready for the regal task that awaits him, although sadly his Australian wife Susan has died before she could become his queen.
Leka is a redoutable man, much like his father who returned fire, in 1931, on his own failed assassins as he left the Stadtsopern in Wien, singing 'Ridi, Pagliacci' as he blasted them to kingdom come. The Crown Prince fondly remembers his half-American, half-Hungarian mother (Queen Geraldine) who died but 5 years ago.
As you will gather there is an attempt at humour petalling before your gaze but this is the Balkans and anything can happen here and probably will.

[dot king]

"*** Wife doing her best to beat the credit crunch. buying things that we don't really need.
As all women do. Not complaining but womanhood folly concerning expenditure in times of c.crunch knows no bounds nor restrains.

**** London is cold right now, chilly and dark.

I am going out...wish me luck!"

BLENDI

If any of the women on this blog are in London, then you might need luck to survive the dark London night.
If any woman out there is carrying her "credit crunch" about her person, I suggest crediting Blendi with a good, hard, resounding CRUNCH!

I had noticed that your list of "worthies" was composed exclusively of males of the species.

Go carefully, now, don't forget to wear your crunch-helmet. :)

[dot king]

"BTW I hereby accuse the Katholick Church of a total lack of humour in never naming Cardinal Sin (of the Phillipines) as Pope Pius the Thirteenth."

Richard Jones

Whilst heartily endorsing your noble sentiment, I note with deep resignation that you have been at the sheep bladders again, not without a certain application, which might or might not be to your credit, though certainly not to your wit's end.
Almost a Confession-worthy Cardinal Sin, don't you think? ;D

[azloon]

Blendi

my son's wife is a world-class shopper who is not at all deterred by the credit crisis.

my son compares her shopping to his TV sports addiction. and so says nothing.

(no, mercifully, she was not part of a 5 a.m. crowd, on friday, our biggest shopping day of the year, who trampeled a wal-mart employee to death in its surge to buy discounted plasma screen TVs).

never underestimate the power of the american consumer, nor her sometimes lethal determination.

[christopher muir]

Richard Jones -

I'm not knocking King Zog. Monty Python did that many years ago. He is said to have done good things for his country but was definitely eccentric. His quirks are covered in Wikipedia. Here's an example: "The King's Chamberlain was instructed to accost well-heeled visitors to the local hotel in the capital Tirana with the demand that they attend a Royal audience, at which formal morning dress should be worn. The visitor would be referred to a local outfitter where they could buy the requisite clothes, although this turned out to be quite expensive. The subsequent audience at the palace would be brief and perfunctory. The outfitters was owned by King Zog."

And I bet he knew a thing or two about diamonds.

[qwerty]

Nouvelle cuisine", if I am not mistaken, was described by one chef a: "Nothing on the table. Everything on the bill."

Posted by: peter kinsley

or: "seven dirty plates"

[qwerty]

"200 yards at another traffic lights. Behind an ambulance. On autopilot, but still my brain managed to read this: 'To open the door pull the handle'" (Blendi P)

I've often noticed that the English are remarkably helpful and considerate. In England, everybody has the right to be a retard and receive assistance and unnecessary explanations.

Have also noticed that English waiters (when they're English), pretty often fit into the "slow" category.

average English person = friendly but thick.

However I wouldn't want to make disparaging remarks on the average IQ expectations in the UK.

About the diamond: will never view diamonds in the same way again after seeing "Blood Diamond". Nor children neither.

Moind the gap.

[Pierre]

*If Sarkozy really was the french Thatcher that some AS medias wished he would be or some french believe he is, he would face Gordon Brown (or Obama?)and shout: "I want my diamond back!"

*After all, the king of France was supposed to be family since he represented a symbolic father of the nation. Or, as everyone knows, in France we should always take great care of our "bijoux de famille".

*Reading Rue 89's article about the diamond I learnt another interesting detail hat helps understanding its value.
"Un nombre impair de facettes, tout joaillier vous le dira, c'est la marque d'un travail magistral. Si vous vous vous demandez pourquoi, essayez donc de couper une pizza en sept."

*As much as the diamond's story, CB's report draws my attention to the thrilling life of Jean-Baptise Tavernier. Could provide the inspiration of a large audience movie.

[Andy]

For Dot King:

Elvis Presley and Little Egypt:

words & music by leiber - stoller)
I went and bought myself a ticket and I sat down in the very first row
They pulled the curtain but then when they turned the spotlight way down low
Little egypt came out a-struttin wearin nothin but a button and a bow
Singing, ying-ying, ying-ying, ying-ying, ying-ying

She had a ruby on her tummy and a diamond big as texas on her toe
She let her hair down and she did the hoochie-coochie real slow
When she did her special number on the zebra skin I thought shed stop the show
Singing, ying-ying, ying-ying, ying-ying, ying-ying

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

QWERTY: the quote was from Paul Bocuse (82 and still at it) about "seven dirty plates" reminded me of a discussion on "a large scotch" in The Statesman when a "small" scotch was described as "a dirty glass",
Trevor Howard, Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris, in an afternoon drinking club in London: "Scotch, Vodka, Gin" and the manager, with a knowing smile, said: "Large ones, gentlemen?"
The most world-weary of the trio of drinkists (Howard) regarded him with bleary and baleful eye:
"Bottles," he said.

[dot king]

ANDY - Little Egypt! Indeed! well done, I'd never have remembered that.

Another gem of USA culture - I shall trot one out every time Azloon does a French-bash!
The song-lyric is often mightier than the sword ;)

[Blendi Progri]

JAYSEABEA – You can do that, but careful as the White Van Man often stays in his office - ‘van’ thinking and day-dreaming. Timing is everything so one doesn’t get caught, LOL.

Mr. Strohl
Seen somewhere that Richard called you Cardinal Strohl (didn’t see the 1-st part, nor where he was the Pope,)and remembered the term, as it had quite a rhyme. Don’t know why, but it rhymes.
His Holiness couldn’t have chosen a better place to ponder in exile, than Athens & Peloponnesian Islands; from where he can release his mostly appreciated and timely encyclicals ranging from bladders-to-American elections to adventures of Zogu the 1-st. Titles also are up to him.

I wonder what is the view of the official papacy every time Richard attacks the Vatican official version? ; ) ( Why Her holiness I didn’t get it yet! Richard lives through WW2, is 92 y/o, has been and seen what can possibly bee seen and has the memory of an 11 y/old, now you are saying He is a She?! That is too much. LOL. Even Pope Jonesses the XVIII can’t pull that off)

Peter Kinsley, you’ll always be appreciated on this side of the computer. Your anecdotes are great. Streets of London are getting colder though, literally and metaphorically.

I can survive somehow, but I think of the next generation. Seems like the street has gone in the hands of the few. The few who have guns. Rightly, the British are weary of armed police. (this can’t be understand that easily by non-British, but is something deep in the British psyche, that says no to armed cops – and rightly So- I say)
But often, and more and more, people think if the Police should be armed, or if the population should also be. South London is worse. As is knife crime, 20 teenagers knifed, in past few months.
UK has helped many foreign cultures assimilate and prosper in the past, accepting them as they come with good & bad, (talents & habits) from Huguenots to Jews, Polish, the Maltese and more. Now things seem different. It is no more one nationality, culture at a time, it is a mess. Many coultures at the same time. Uk is too small a place to deal with that, it has to be gradual, but it aint.

Though no ones fault, just how it is.

So, what happens is that the foreign culture instead of being assimilated by a large autochthon & host one, is in a clash with another one, similar or different. We have a group of cluster cultures, neighbourhoods, of nationalities (politicos call them communities, LOL) that face each-other, are hostile and (to be fair) a little confused too. It is a very tight rope to talk-analyse and discuss about these things by everyone, in person or in print, but this is how it is. IMHO *

Christopher Muir, thank you. Albania was a part of me up to 15 years ago, when I decided that it was too small a country for a man of my talents : ) So I abandoned it, left it and the last I heard is, its doing well : ) without me.

As for King Zog- well where to start. (I am sure R. J. was tongue-in-cheek talking about the self-publicist that was King Z-ed) the guy (IMHO) was a canny peasant. A thief too.

When Italy did occupy Alb. In 7 April 1939, a day previously King Z (did as all kings do when the goings get tough) took his convoy of 30+ cars, his young wife ( Geraldine- a minor, distant cousin, of Hungarian royalty) and his 1 day old son to escape to Greece. In the process he took with him the state treasury (mostly gold) and spent it all over the world. As for ‘King/ price’ Leka his only son, I can only say that he is a bit lost (not his fault completely), distant from the reality and whom people view with amusement; but are not very interested on what he does (he does nothing- btw, lol) or says. Anyhow, in one sentence. Zog, rose in a time of trouble (god knows that country had many of times like that…) a common brigand that proclaimed himself a king later on.

Times has written about him, during WW2 and later also (he came to UK, then to Egypt and so on) there also is an anecdote that says Zog wanted to buy The Times.
What a clown, don’t know if the anecdote is true or not. But the money wasn’t left to him by his daddy.

---

Guys also I saw the programme about French cuisine.
It had good points, but… mostly was trying to be:

-sensational
- simplistic
- a tad patronising

It tried to ‘fit in’ with the view all of us ‘must ‘ have on and about, what is France and French cuisine. I am not an expert on French food, but I found it a little insulting.
Although it was a programme on food, it simply portrayed France as a country that lives by food and for its food, in the most vulgar sense.

A Martian would have though nothing else happen in Fr. but people cultivate, eat and cook. For a Francophile like me that was a little hard to bear; come on, France even in a programme ‘about cooking’ is bigger than French cooking’

The guy (with all of his mighty frame) tried to fit, to envelop and put a costume on a country that 250 types of chesses. (acc. to his own clichéd-words) and by the end of it, I was tired. It had flashes of good info, but the condensation often turned sour.

It seemed a format that was more about the presenter than the subject. In one word: It didn’t escape from dynamic & agressive STEREOTYPING.
---

Azloon, great description. They are all the same. And the Evolution has nothing to do with it. It seems a woman only needs to see another woman go shopping, and then the race is on. Even thinking about it, is enough.

I have for the 10 years told my wife (100 times) that SALES, Is something that doesn’t mean SALES. Everyone can say it was £100 now it is £50. No one can stop the retailers doing that. (there are some intricate, long lost laws that govern this procedure a little, but, no one is ever prosecuted) write in a tag, ad a price and take away another. But to whom am I talking? To the door? The window? Well…

The same in markets I got this cheap she says (only £15) in the shop it costs £50!!! And waits to be congratulated on a bargain. LOL. Is not real I say, it is a fake. No it has a tag she say. Is even Marks & Spencer, surplus that they give away.
To whom, market sellers I reply. Better buy something expensive that it last 10 years that something crap every 6 months. But now, I have given up. The Most rational, amongst women- when shopping is involved- goes awry and there’s nothing any man can do. I have given up. Is a loss –l loss deal.

QWERTY

There’re quite few ‘gems’ of that kind all over the place. When one sees them ‘live’ they seems unreal. Seems like a discovery.
So many like ‘careful it can be hot’ on an iron. Not to be used in the shower, on a hair-dryer, or do not operate machinery (on my 8 year old’ s Calpool) as if our life has to be governed by warnings and restriction to the point where we/ the people are considered thick.

I agree with you when you say English are friendly, they indeed are, reserved but great people. I venture to ad ( at the cost of a new EU war) that Brits are the friendliest in Europe-once you know them well. They are not thick (lol, sorry to respectfully disagree a little) but they are ‘diluted’. Lately a lot.

In the sense that it is not easy to find a true English in the sense of ‘times past’.

Brave, adventurous, urbane, well read, respectful and polite to a fault.
But there are So Many Chavs around (I think chav-ism, is the most virulent threat that Europe is facing in the last 2000 years, but we still haven’t got it, lol) so great, educated,civil and intelligent folks mostly keep quiet, stay indoors (lol) or do not get involved. That is why. In England one meets people that seem to come out of book pages and with a modesty that is hard to describe, one has to look though, but they exists.
Chavism, is threatening the way of Life in UK ( other countries too) and I know of no solution to this plague of modern times. If we put them in the army we’ll slip into Nazism, and if we call all proletarians, communism. If anyone knows how to un-chav a chav, please let me know.
Chavs are everywhere nowadays, and they are suspicious! Careful!
___________.
Today at 8.30 am London was 2degress Celsius.
_________
• IMHO
(some use it as in my humble opinion, I use it to save space mostly, and it translates as In My Honest Opinion)

__________/

Now a true story in Chris Rock style
(i.e a black person can call another one the n-word but when a white one says it, is racism)

Few years back had a small team installing a shower and few things in my house. Main guys were a Bulgarian, an Albanian and a Greek. All 3, were great, hard working and v. funny guys.
I wanted to show them something in the shops (materials I wanted etc) and drove them all to the warehouse. On way back all 4 of us went into a newsagent to buy newspapers, cigarettes etc.

Builders, boisterous and loud (mostly, lol) as they are, started to talk:

-Hey what is going here- said the Bulgarian to his friends – (loud enough to be heard outside) we have work to do.

-Yeah man, we can’t stay here all day- said the Greek dude.

A shopper with little English was having some communication problems with the Indian shopkeeper.

- Bloody foreigners mate, that is all, Bloody foreigners. Said the Albanian builder, matter of fact, with a thick accent.

So loud, that everything stopped.

I was last side by side with another gentleman, he looked at me, shrugged a bit as if to say ‘ Well builders , eh what can you do? ‘

Don’t know what come into me, but to be funny I said:
Don’t look at me, I am a foreigner also.

Me too he said, I am a Saffa ( south African) WE both exploded in laughter.

12-15 people on that morning, you had Chinese, black, whites, Indian etc….all foreigners.

And when a foreigner, starts to say bloddy foreigners, then we got a problem.
___
That is why I wanna retire in France, too many foreigners in UK right now : )

p.s. are there many chavs in France?

[Daniel Strohl]

BLENDI,

"Now you are saying He is a She?! That is too much. LOL."

In French "Votre Sainteté" (Your Holiness) is feminine :). La lune (moon) is feminine, le soleil (sun) is masculine. Don't ask me
why !

PS : Richard called me Cardinal Strohl - of course, I was flattered ! Since he is a few :) years older than I am, it was logical to infer that he is the Pope !

[christopher muir]

Blendi -

Të lutem...appreciated the information in your last post.

[richard.jones]

Bloody rude Blendi :-). I'm 89 in Western Europe and 90 in Greece - 02/08/1919 - dd/mm/yyyy.

[Blendi Progri]

Mr. Strohl, I agree French is peculiar, but so is Enlgish sometimes. My orig. lingua too, we divide nouns by gender; feminine, masculine and neutral. I got the correlation pope-cardinal now. Though Bishop Jones, had a nicer ring. Have to let it go somehow : ( one can’t compete with a Pope.

Chris Muir, Faleminderit. Once in a while I go on overdrive, it took long to reply as had to fix few things around the house.

I am not asking for Male sympathy ( well, a little solidarity) but when things are moved, broken, trashed, re-arranged, thrown away, conked out no one asks Dad. When they need to be returned, replaced, put in the right order, fixed, stacked, repaired, glued, made to work and so on…then the scream goes: Daaaad.
And dad, instead of doing something more productive, i.e. watching the history channel, has to waste time. If it wasn’t for dads this world would be…( that’s for another time) …suffice to say that my long held suspicion is -- in most dads there is a philosopher wanting to come out.

Lol @ RJ. I sincerely hope that for a long time no smoke will be seen in this blog, no matter how old you are : )
_____/
In the vein of Cardinal Sin, name-play.
_______________>

Once upon a time, there used to live a guy, a good guy, a nice guy, a kind guy (as they say), who had anything he wished for. Tall, good looking and clever. He was a professor too.
Only trouble he had was that his surname was Culo and he lived in …Italy.

After spending most of his life trying to persuade the average Italian that the difference between cUlo and CulO can’t be greater, and failing, he emigrated to Libya, where Culo as a term doesn’t mean anything to them, in Arabic.

[Does it say anything to Libyans as an anatomical object? That doesnt concern this blog ; ) ]

[Daniel Strohl]

BLENDI,

"P.S. are there many chavs in France?"

Since I had never heard the word "chavs" up to now, I tried to figure out what it could mean. First I thought it could have something to do with Chav-ez (Hugo :), then I turned a little bit more intelligent and had a look at Wikipedia ...

Yes, we too have chavs in France, but at least up to now, they are less "knife friendly" than their British counterparts.

One of the problems in the UK is that the population is much more concentrated that it is here - the density of inhabitants per square kilometre is 245 in the UK, and "only" 113 in France. Of course, density is a parameter among several - otherwise Monaco would be in big trouble with its density of 17000 :)

(Source : Atlas de l'Europe de l'Atlantique à l'Oural - Patrick Merienne - Editions Ouest France - 2006)

[Blendi]

Daniel, you got a good point there about the concentration of the population in uk. Ad my theory of 'dilution of the good people' and one needs the lamp of Diogenes to find a 'good guy' to talk/ walk with.

Also, unintentionally you have hit on another problem, chav doesn’t come from Chavez, but to me El presidente is the epitome of what happens when a Chav gets power, is well lubricated and not afraid to use / abuse it. A chav, like Chavez is dangerous, thinks he is good looking (no chav, unglier as they are, thinks differently) and doesn’t care what happens next.

As I said chavs – as species (some try to confuse it with working class, well that’s wrong) and Chavism as Way of Life, in the near future will threaten our civilisation as we know it.
How to spot a chav?
• A chav is loud, brash and agressive.
• Talks-shouts non stop
• Doesn’t look, but stares.
• Swears twice in every 3 words.
• Thinks he’s entitled to everything on his field of vision
• Hates everyone he perceives as a non-chav and is prepared to be violent towards…
• After any ‘good chav’ there’s a chavette (don’t ask me how to spot a chavette…that’s easier still)

How to deal with a chav?!
There are only two ways. Chavs never talk, they argue. You don’t find them, they find you. To win an argument with a Chav you either:
a) knock them out cold
b) ignore them and walk away.

No other remedy is known.
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What is the difference between a chav and the redneck?! Well, same species, different category, but that is for another time.
________

[Daniel Strohl]

BLENDI,

Your description of Chavs is brilliant ! From now on, you are the Chavologue in Chief !

More seriously : this is really a problem hitting many European countries in various extents. I don't know if similar things (already) happen for example in Japan or China.

[azloon]

what do you call 'chav' with oil at $30/bbl?

you call him at his condo in miami.