Test your English, The Great Man, oh and President Sarkozy...

Mon dieu! President Sarkozy is being sarky again....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7484564.stm

I couldn't get the video to work, but you can find the complete video here.... to be honest, it's very long and, in total, not very interesting... now, if he had been hit by a piano or something - that would have been interesting. ...like on the roadrunner cartoons, a grand piano falls from the sky and lands on him:

http://www.dailymotion.com/fr/cluster/news/featured/video/x5yyb9_sarkozy-en-off-sur-france-3_news


Test your English:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4246472.stm

I got 16 / 20... but two of them were careless mistakes.... and then I'm kind of tired this morning - plus they're building a house opposite my flat - it's distracting. And then there's music the workers are listening to.... so much Phil Collins! ....so really, it's like 22 / 20, when you think about it. ;)


Finally, and none of you will be interested in this, but.... the great man himself. 'Le Shate', as he is known in France. 'Lo Shatto', as the Italians refer to him. 'Il Shatto magnifico', his Mexian name. 'Um Shat Doh (the man of a thousand pauses)' as the Thai people call him. ...William Shatner:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7482823.stm


Why is Willian Shatner great? ...because he keeps trying. He's a performer who has been under-estimated and under-valued his whole career. From his time on Star Trek as Captain Kirk, through TJ Hooker to the present day. He has been the subject of ridicule, even abuse. But at the end of the day, all he has ever tried to do is entertain.

There's telling line in that interview. When asked if there were any roles he regretted not taking, he replies, 'I can't think of any that I did not accept. There are a few that I accepted that I wish I hadn't.' Shatner took the chances that came his way. He didn't sit back, safe from the possibility of looking stupid or failing. He tried. And, on occasion, he failed. And, on occasion, he looked stupid. But he kept trying. A lesson in there for all of us, no?

Of course... we probably shouldn't take singing lessons from him ;)

Some poetic ramblings of mine, from many a month back, on the subject of Mr Shatner....


‘Shatner’


Poetic commotion, misplaced devotion

Syntax? Epileptic, drunken through the eyes of William!

Structure swallowed, emotions borrowed
And
Backwards followed, the insignificant emphasised, the important passed-by

Lucy is in the sky

I!
Hit her, with my, rocket
Man!

Monumentally average
Spoken cheese jazz sandwich
Spells

Self delusional to the point of clarity
Hilarity by pathos
Aimless and, thus, always on
Target
Never meant to be forever
Egotistical in his self-deprecation
Resplendent


Miscarried pause

Shatner.