Oh those French

I just finished watching a special about French architecture. I enjoyed watching all the innovative ideas that evolved in the French Empire throughout history, but the show’s host made a mistake.

The host ended the show by claiming that “some call it arrogance but I prefer to call it confidence.” Once you start acting like an ass the gloves come off, so here it goes.

His remark was concluding the last architecture of note in France, the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is a wonderful combination of art and structural genius, the only problem is that Alexandre Gustave Eiffel’s surname was changed from Bönickhausen when his family was living in Marmagen, which happens to be located in the German mountain range Eifel. So, pride in the Eiffel Tower may not be as loyal to France as many would like to believe.

Second, the host suggested that the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man built structure since the Pyramids, seriously? No, in fact there were many building between the two that claimed the record for tallest building. A structure of note (and arguably the prized structure that beat out the pyramids) is the Straßburger Münster (Cathedral of Our Lady) which claimed the tallest structure from 1439 to 1846 (and is one of few still standing among this elite group of tallest structures in history). This Cathedral is important because the land it is located on belonged to Germany since the Roman Empire and was given to France after the first world war (despite the popular votes). So, I guess if the French can’t have the tallest building since the pyramids, they can just steel it.

As for French’s second most notable icon, the Arc de Triomphe, was dedicated to an outlander (Napoleon was born in Corsica and received his big military break in Italy).

At the risk of sounding biased to German culture, I will also note that the Eiffel Tower was beat out by a group of American Towers (i.e. The 40 Wall Street, The Chrysler Building, and The Empire State Building) only 48 years latter. Not only is the Chrysler Building taller, it is made out of brick!, remains the tallest brick building in the world, and is a one of the best examples of Deco Architecture.

I hate christmas music

Yes, I hate Christmas music, and although you may think I’m going to hell for this lets take a look at what are listening to.
“I saw Mama Kissing Santa!” What the Hell?
I get it, the kids’ dad dressed up like santa and his/her mom kissed him.
So why would the dad dress up like Santa if he didn’t expect to be seen by the kid? If he expected to be seen, what was the mom doing with him? Kissing him?

And what if dad didn’t expect to be seen by the kid, why dress up like santa? Was this some kind of kinky sex-capade? If so, what kind of subject is this for a Christmas song? “Oh, I got a great idea for a Christmas song, a couple that gets off on dressing up like santa and an un-expecting mom. And to top it all off, this couple also gets off by risking getting caught by their child who will have to see a therapist for years after.”

And “from kids from one to ninety two?”
Oh, that’s so clever, someone who is ninety two can be a kid at heart. No, a ninety two year old is not a kid. The only qualification for being a kid is age. There are enough problems with verbal communications that we don’t need to complicate things by changing the definitions of words. And, yes, at some point in a person’s life they need to grow up, take responsibility, and contribute to society. If a person never grows up they end up taking advantage of other, kinder, people and sometimes the government. So, are you promoting the degeneration of society? Seriously, and you like Christmas music?