Le Puy en valay

[Marlene Blansha]

As we all know, yesterday's neutralized stage began in Le Puy en valay. This is kind of off topic
but on a lighter note, to maybe take our minds off all this tragedy momentarily.

The one thing that's noteable about that town, for me anyways is its notoriety among the inlaws. My
inlaws have another son, who is kind of a moron, and his spouse is french, and she hails from
guess-where! Le Puy en Valay! She's also a dull-witted, pasty-skinned, straggly haired, overbred
french aristocrat, and from what I understand her whole family is like that. Essentially, she's a
dumb hick, but she has a pulse, which is enough for Dave and so they're together. But my inlaws
think she's made of gold

him). They're just fascinated with the fact that she's from FRANCE, which in their mind makes her
superhuman, and they never fail at any opportunity to bring up LE PUY EN VALAY, and the family's
CHATEAU (which they've visited). Just mention Europe and somehow, LE PUY EN VALAY comes up, and out
come the photos and maps and the entire occasion ends up being about Miss Le Puy. So with Paris
nice, I had a feeling that her family would tell her about the stage and we'd hear all about YOu
know what. But none of them follow sports much, and dave knows nothing about sports at all- he
didn't even know who Lance Armstrong was. For us, this is something we follow because we like the
sport, not because it has something to do with LE PUY EN VALAY!

Anyways, with this terrible tragedy, I know now we'll end up hearing about it anyways, only this
will be about the terrible risks of cycling or something like that. The funny thing about Miss Puy
is that she used to cycle but refused to wear a helmet 'because I have too much hair', her words
exactly, even though we've told her about the dangers, etc. Which is actually true, she has this
straggly mop of hair that she refuses to cut or style. I'm like, okay, well it's not like there's
much up there to protect, LOL. As for their bikes, they now sit rusting in our garage (we let them
store them there), because since the kids they don't use them anymore anyways.

So that's my little anecdote about Le Puy en Valay. Actually it sounds like a nice place, and if I'm
not mistaken the tour did a stage there a few years ago, maybe 1996 or 1995.

 

[Bart]

With all these rows over world politics it's time we try to understand one another better. I will do
my contribution by explaining differences between our countries and political systems through the
concept of Cow Politics. feel free to add.

Socialism You have 2 cows, and give one to your neighbour who has none.

Communism You have 2 cows, the government takes both and gives you some milk.

Fascism You have 2 cows, the government shoots you and slaughters the cows for the army.

Bureaucracy You have 2 cows, the government takes both, shoots one, milks the other and
pours the milk.

Traditional Capitalism You have 2 cows, you trade one for a bull, breed a lot of cattle, and live
from rent in the end.

American system You have 2 cows, you sell one and force the other to produce for 4. When it drops
dead you are surprised.

French system You have 2 cows, AND THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT COWS IN THE WORLD!!!

Brittish system You have 2 cows, they are mad.

Italian system You have 2 cows, but you don't know where exactly.... and now it's time to have
some pasta.

Swiss system You've got 500 cows but none belongs to you. You earn big money keeping them for
"unknown" foreigners.

Flemish system You have 2 cows; you sell 3 to your daughter firm in Korea and book in the money your
mother in-law obtained for you from a Brussels bank; you talk an American firm into buying your 4
cows so you can make 5 cows tax-deductable. The subsidies Europe gives you for the milk your 6 cows
produce are invested in the Korean arm. In your annual report you bring up 8 cows with a 9th
optional. You sell 3 cows to take over an American breeder. The Americans find out you know ****
about cows and your stalls end up empty.

Wallonian system You have 2 cows, and go on strike because you want 3 of them.