NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE (Selected)
"French Families Challenge Doctors on Wrenching End-of-Life Decisions," The New York Times.
That physicians wield such expansive powers is a peculiarity born of France’s paternalistic bent, of a culture of deference to hierarchy and expertise, doctors and social scientists say. Never have fears of “death panels” become a matter of public debate, as they have in the United States. [July 2014]
* * *
"The Saturday Profile: A Life Spent Remembering a War France Has Tried to Forget," The New York Times.
Benjamin Stora arrived in Paris in the summer of 1962, a boy exile swaddled in as many layers of clothing as his parents could fit on his little body. [March 2014]
* * *
"Out of Office, Sarkozy Is Still Front and Center," The New York Times.
Chief among the affairs is the allegation, now under investigation by two special magistrates, that Mr. Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign received as much as 50 million euros, or about $70 million, in illegal funds from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. [March 2014]
* * *
"Concern Over an Increasingly Seen Gesture Grows in France," The New York Times.
No one seems to know just what is meant by the “quenelle,” the vaguely menacing hand gesture invented and popularized by a French comedian known as an anti-Semite, but it is clearly nothing very nice. [January 2014]
* * *
"Stromae: Disillusion With a Dance Beat," The New York Times.
It is a mournful anthem that evokes unemployment, divorce, debt, the financial crisis and a sort of resigned hope "to forget all our problems"; it reached No. 1 on the charts in 19 countries. [October 2013]
© Stefan Vanfleteren, stephanvanfleteren.com
* * *
"Vignols Journal: As Wolves Return to French Alps, a Way of Life Is Threatened," The New York Times.
One environmental ideal has undermined another, shepherds say. Were they to write the moral of their story, it might go like this: wolf and sheep may happily coexist in the airy hypotheticals of ecological theory, but they don't mix so well in the pasture. [September 2013]
* * *
"The Saturday Profile: Ascending Heights of French Power, Trailed by Her 'Otherness,'" The New York Times.
Party politics have never much agreed with her, she said, and she is known within the political establishment as having streaks of authoritarianism and pridefulness. “I can’t stand having a boss,” Ms. Taubira said. [August 2013]* * *
"Paris Journal: Rite of Passage for French Students Receives Poor Grade," The New York Times.
Those who believe the old bromides about the French and their slack work ethic would do well to observe the frenzy of study that seizes this country's teenagers each June. [June 2013]* * *
"Two Groups Rekindle Fight Over Anne Frank," The New York Times.
"The conflict has "gone quite far, and I don't understand it at all," Ms. Schloss said. She added: "Otto would be -- 'upset' is a small word. He would be shocked if he knew that anything like this is going on." [June 2013]* * *
"London Journal: A Long Rivalry Resumes, Over Sips and Crackers," The New York Times.
It seems a testament to man's will to compete over just about anything. Or perhaps it is a measure of the attraction to the esoteric and bizarre that seems to reside somewhere deep within the English spirit. [February 2013]* * *
"The Saturday Profile: A Rapper and Poet Pushes for a New French Identity of Inclusion," The New York Times.
He is tall, and slightly slouched and gangly, with large feet that turn out at endearingly odd angles. [August 2012]* * *
"French Region Cashes in on British Games," The New York Times.
Far from the news media crush, snarling traffic, air defense missiles and grousing residents of London, the Russian boxer Sofia Ochigava has been training for her Olympic debut at the ripe-scented municipal boxing club in this sleepy French town, across the English Channel from the cliffs of Dover. [July 2012]* * *
"Paimpont Journal: On the Farms of France, the Death of a Pixelated Workhorse," The New York Times.
A faint trail of mud and manure leads from the door of Yves Denais's barn-floor office, overlooking the pens for his Holstein calves, to a cluttered desk atop which sits a compact beige plastic box that once placed Mr. Denais at the cutting edge of information technology. [June 2012]* * *
"The Saturday Profile: After Guantánamo, Starting Anew, in Quiet Anger," The New York Times.
It was James, a thickset American interrogator nicknamed "the Elephant," who first told Lakhdar Boumediene that investigators were certain of his innocence. [May 2012]* * *
"Memo from Paris: As Candidates Speak in France, the Meter Is Running," The New York Times.
The agency has sought to tally every second of broadcast speech by every candidate in every French presidential campaign since 1988. "This is all about democracy," Ms. Kelly said. [March 2012]* * *
"'Mademoiselle' Exits Official France," The New York Times.
The niceties of the French language are monitored and debated by an august institution, the Académie Française, which typically operates on a timescale commensurate with its venerability and has yet to offer comment. [February 2012]
* * *
"Paris Journal: Long Pursuit of Justice Takes a Father Beyond the Law," The New York Times.
In the dark early hours of an October morning in 2009, acting on an anonymous tip, police in the French city of Mulhouse picked up an elderly German doctor who had been left -- bound, beaten and bleeding -- in a street near the municipal courthouse. [October 2011]
* * *
"Fixed-Gear Bicycles Are an American Fixture in Paris," The New York Times.
One of several new specialty shops selling mostly fixies and fixie components, Mr. Billard's store on a recent afternoon displayed cranks of at least 10 colors, including two shades of mauve. [September 2011]* * *
"Thousands Fleeing Qaddafi Bask in Tunisia's Hospitality," The New York Times.
He admitted that Tunisians had often looked down on Libyans, considering them a nation of oil-rich indolents. But he pledged to house the refugees as long as necessary. [April 2011]* * *
"Unrest? Nonsense, Say Libyans at the Border," The New York Times.
How could he be sure a reporter was not a spy for Colonel Qaddafi's government? "That," he replied, "I leave in God's hands." And why had he chosen to speak? " He threw up his hands and grinned. "I haven't spoken," he said. [March 2011]* * *
"Porcaro Journal: On Motorcycle, European Pilgrims Race Toward God," The New York Times.
"There are never too many problems," Ms. Perrichot said, recalling with a laugh when a gentleman rode his motorcycle into the ground-level barroom several years ago. "We can't complain," she said. "They're all adorable." [August 2010]
Complete New York Times archive.