Re: White Coat Day

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:40:44 -0400, CDB posted:

Oleg Lego wrote:

[...]

I think it was Mark Twain who said something about wearing a Croix
de Guerre if you wished to be inconspicuous in France. He did not
mean it in a positive way.

Interesting. Can you document that? I couldn't find a reference to
such a quotation in the first ten Googlepages (except for one
possibility in...Jstor), and I would like to know how you came to the
conclusion that Twain "did not mean it in a positive way," since, by
themselves, the words you allude to could be taken to mean that France
had at the time been frequently at war and that many of her citizens
had deserved commendation for courage on the battlefield.

I believe it was a book of short pieces (essays? stories?) called
"Letters From the Earth", and if my memory doesn't fail me, it might
have been in a piece called "The French and the Comanches". I no
longer have the book, so I can't reference it at the moment.

I gather that Jan is still waiting too.

I don't have any idea what he's waiting for. I spoke of the stereotype
about the French from personal experience, and have no references
other than my memory.


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