OK, well, I perform professional genealogical and statistical research on American casualties in the European theater of WWII — as a side job to the actual book I am writing about Operation Torch.

Look, we could go on about this at length, but I assume you’re just trying to troll me. So why don’t we just accept that I definitely know more about this than you do, and we can both get on with our days?

Gives me the chills — especially when the announcer mentions that one of the French players lost a cousin in the attacks. Also this:

WWI is actually the case that’s most galling (no pun intended) — 1/6 of the country was occupied by the enemy, 11% of the entire population was either killed or wounded by the war (including more than 2/3 of their soldiers).... If the French were really such inveterate defeatists, wouldn’t they have surrendered then?

Is just annoying stereotype that shows off American ignorance

I think the American anthem is better sung solo — those high notes are just murder if you’re not trained. The Marseillaise, meanwhile, draws a ton of its power from a crowd, and is the better mass sing-along tune. There’s nothing like hearing several thousand people singing about bathing fields in blood in the name of…

Grantland on “La Marseillaise” has always been my definitive take:

According to the British historian Niall Ferguson, France has participated in 50 of the 125 major European wars fought since 1495, and in 168 battles fought since 387 BC, they have won 109, drawn 10 and lost 49: this makes France the most successful military power in European history - in terms of number of fought and…

La Marseillaise is objectively the most badass national anthem, too.... Like, there’s just no comparison

Foreign policy is honestly the biggest spoiler for me supporting either candidate. Would I rather vote for the guy who doesn’t really seem to know or care much about it, or the lady who knows a lot, but has consistently gotten it wrong? I can’t tell which is the riskier proposition.

i love how many of us were obsessed with a song that WASN’T EVEN IN THE MOVIE.

This has been in development for a while — in 2012 it was workshopped with Aaron Tveit as Dimitri, which IMO is the casting coup to end all casting coups. Still, I am up for any version of this whatsoever that ends up on stage.

Yeah, there definitely are people who combine elements of the traditional route, but overall it’s a really different vibe here. I think it’s an unexpected perk of secularism — like, if we’re not all going to spend an hour and a half sitting in church, we’ve got more time for the fun shit.

I think you’re projecting/taking this interaction out of the wider societal context — it is still way more common for women to be shamed and judged for never getting married than for marrying.

Yeah, I was going to say - I feel like there’s a linguistic conflation inherent in English, where “getting married” and “having a wedding” are deemed to be the same thing, but that’s not inevitable. I’ve been present when friends in France got married, and I’ve also been to French weddings. They’re very different…

There are times when I really hate being single and alone.

If you’re trying to come back from a 2-0 deficit at home, that’s exactly the strategy you want, though — high pressing to nip back two goals, and then fold back defensively to stop the other team from getting an away goal and making your job that much harder. Real Madrid did it exactly right by scoring their third as…

my favorite thing about cristiano ronaldo is how many times people who so desperately want to hate him just... can’t.

Thank you for bringing up the WWI element to this race’s history. As an American living in France, it’s often startling to me how much the Great War (because that’s what the people I know still call it, “la grande guerre”) weighs on Western Europe, particularly French, mentalities. It shows up even in little things,…

That’s really great to hear. I was always curious about how his involvement in writing “Streets of Philadelphia” came about, so I googled it — turns out he was just as thoughtful and low-key awesome about gay rights: