MissPrism

Ah, Flanner now can do no wrong in my eyes.

It's a sort of club. I remember describing somebody as a ten minute egg and the eyes of the person I was talking to lit up.

yasron

Count yourselves lucky to be fed up with human statues!

I, for one, would be very happy to be travelling somewhere in Europe where there are human statues . Due to cash problems I will have to forgo this "bother" but I am jealous of you who have to suffer this problem once again. (I secretly enjoy them!)
Count your blessings!

flanneruk

"Flanner now can do no wrong in my eyes."

Well, there's a challenge...

Mrs F and I spent much of our courting days in a Milan bookshop we discovered had a stock of the Autograph Edition some idiot had stashed behind crappy "Teach yourself English" textbooks.

For nearly six months, we spent practically every Saturday afternoon systematically checking behind every book in the foreign language section to see what else had hidden itself away. I've now got two entire shelves of my study full of what we found.

The staff - as always in Italian shops - were not in the slightest bit plussed. As, no doubt, He would have put it.

PalenQ

Let's see Miss P scorns me for all the negative English posts and then says Flimflanneur can do no wrong

thus i guess she sanctions his non-stop America bashings

tells us a lot about Miss P

Padraig

Let's see: PalenQ bashes the Scots; flanneruk agrees with him; MissPrism approves of what flanneruk wrote.

Now PalenQ feels like the victim of discrimination. Hmm.

And what about the pure Scots?

PalenQ

And Paddy's an Eirishman - figure that out and all this?

Zeus

I think they're a bit annoying too, but I find the statues less irritating than the phoney old ladies with humpbacks perched at every church entrance, the unmentionable ethnic group that walk around Paris asking everyone if they speak English before laying out a BS story about a relative trapped somewhere needing money or the break dancers who just plain seem totally out of place in a European city. I guess any scam is better than the pickpockets that seem to have taken over every subway system in Europe this summer.

cigalechanta

For those who have never seen one, scroll down to the Egyptian human statue.

http://www.styleandthecity.com/stree...f-our-planete/

MissPrism

I was approving of Flanner's choice of literature.
We have a hero in common.

MissPrism

The staff - as always in Italian shops - were not in the slightest bit plussed.

...but were they positively gruntled?

PalenQ

flanneur with his lack of a proper edikiasion reads literature? Or can read literature

i personally think with his dicey education background he must cut and paste everything he writes - or perhaps have flannerpooch scribe it

BTW - i seriously adore every flanneur post - even the ones slamming me - he is the most articulate master of words and phrases to me on this Fodor's thing - always compelling reading no matter what garbage, on occasion, he (or the pooch) may be spewing - but remarkable with such a poor education background IMO

JulieVikmanis

Once something catches on--like human statues--it proliferates until you get absolutely appalled to find it once again. At one time my niece explained to me that the Peruvian Indian pipe groups were Peru's most important export--but I still love them, and I often buy their tapes. It all depends on your personal perspective. One man's annoying 10,000 human statue, is another's "Oh my, look at that" Relax. Enjoy.

cathies

Agreeing with Zeus - those wretched women with their "do you speak English" scam are a pain in the neck.

In Paris in June near the a guy tried the 'gold ring' scam on me and then spat at me when he realised I knew what he was up to. By contrast a human statue is not doing me any harm.

cathies

Oops, please delete "near the" when reading my post!!

zelphiacat

I agree.
Way too many British guards with bear hats on!

(It IS fun to try to make them laugh, though...)

flanneruk

"she sanctions his non-stop America bashings"

If PalQ stopped his constant self-pitying whining (or abandoned his love affair with Homebase Eggshell)and read a book from time to time, he might realise that Miss Prism and I are swapping references to an author who lived, died, and did his best work in the US and <b> was a US citizen</b>

We still acknowledge him as the greatest writer in the history of our language.

Indeed, one other poster - also perpetually attacked for this US obsession of &quot;anti-Americanism&quot; (odd, isn't it, that there's simply no corresponding concept in real English?) - goes so far as to describe this American not just as the greatest writer ever, but one of the gretest Englishmen: up there with Elizabeth 1.

And I don't cut and paste. Never have: never will. Matter of professional (OK, amateur) pride.

robjame

&quot;after seeing them on practically every street in every town it became a bother&quot;
What a shame.

We love the human statues, the pipers, the busbies....

Of course a lot of it has to do with the attitude when you travel. When we are in another country we are wide-eyed and thankful for the opportunity and new experiences. We try to avoid comparing things abroad with things at home. Travelling is not a game of one-upmanship.

We love Starbucks at home but when in Paris, it is cafes for sure. To do otherwise leads to these jaded, tiresome, silly posts.

MissPrism

I'm allowed to be rude about the Scots.
I married one, &quot;Coming down 'ere and nicking our jobs and our women!&quot; and have produced two hybrids.
My aunt married one and so did my great-aunt.
It's like a family curse.

I remember a busker in our local town who had a small very appealing dog.
While his master was playing his concertina, the little dog would gently paw passers-by, sit up on his haunches, put his head on one side and beg.
Few could resist.
I also remember a group of dogs in Venice all on their own with a hat on the ground with a notice inviting people to give money for their food.
I suppose that it would be a brave person who tried to steal the money.
As for human statues, have you tried standing absolutely still for hours on end?

caroline_edinburgh

&quot;the little dog would gently paw passers-by... Few could resist.&quot;



I would be really upset if a dog pawed me.

guy

Brief note from America to say how nice it is to see Wodehouse described as &quot;the greatest British writer of all time,&quot; and to have others agree. I live near where Plum lived and wrote and golfed here on Long Island, and am proud he graced us.