You have all misunderstood Europe. From a British point of view (in fact I prefer English) one prefers Continental Europe (with or without quotation marks) to distinguish the big bit from the offshore segment.

Whilst it is allegedly a fact that the United Kingdom is part of "Europe" the reality is that there are "continentals" and there are British.

As it happens I am married to a continental, so I have a foot either side of the water.

Everyone surely knows that Europe, when surrounded by quotation marks, includes the EEC undesirables. Hence it is clear from Del's post that his secret dining companion hails from neither the UK nor the likes of France and Germany. Thus we are dealing with a nouveau "European" I fancy.

Whilst it is allegedly a fact that the United Kingdom is part of "Europe" the reality is that there are "continentals" and there are British.

We're back to grammar. Actually, J-C hasn't made further contributions. But he will!

[quote=Minnesota Marty]...
Some American businessmen class Europe as a geography and often lump it in with a wider geography called EMEA as a convenient acronym for marketing purposes. Perhaps an EMEAN would have covered Del's tracks better than those quotation marks.

Did you know that last week the German President proposed English become the official language of the European Union? It then transpired that it is the only language Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Francois Hollande, the French President, have in common.

Way off topic, again, but ...

I write on behalf of my brother Jean-Claude who is, for two reasons, unable to make a posting on his own account. Firstly, in his last post he announced that he would make no further pronouncements in this thread and like all Frenchmen his word once given is irrevocable. Secondly I'm afraid that the thread has very much weakend his already rather feeble grasp on reality. His twin obsessions - English grammar and personal hygene - led him to take a bath on Wednesday evening and he remained in the bathroom until yesterday night. We could hear him shuffling about looking for additional cleaning materials and muttering 'I stink therefore I am' which was upsetting for the household and bad for the morale of the servants. Things came to a head yesterday night when he appeared in the salon looking for a subjunctive case in which he thought that some carbolic soap might be found.

Unfortunately it has been necessary to move Jean-Claude into an institution where we hope that he will be able to receive the care that he needs.

Happily I do not share my brother's obsession with grammar and do not intend to make any observations on that subject. My purpose in writing is to comment on part of Withindale's most recent contribution, which reads:

'Did you know that last week the German President proposed English become the official language of the European Union? It then transpired that it is the only language Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Francois Hollande, the French President, have in common.'


Chancellor Merkel is a dynamic, popular and successful leader of her nation so I imagine that the ability to speak Englsh is in fact the only thing that she has in common with M. Hollande.

J-P