Cereal Variety

Next up to bat in our Franco-American grudge match is another topic near and dear to my heart: that of cereal variety. Does this even need to be debated? The U.S. wins hands down. The French's idea of breakfast is, at best, yogurt and a croissant (not that I hold anything against croissants). The Americans have options of pancakes, waffles, sausages, ham, hashbrowns, and plenty of other artery-clogging foods to choose from. On top of this already impressive superiority in the realm of breakfast foods, you can add a nearly endless array of breakfast cereal varieties. Try as I might, I have not been able to locate nary a box of Cap'n Crunch or Froot Loops anywhere in this country. This round we'll be singing a hearty round of the Star-Spangled Banner, and not le Marseilles. All the French super markets I've been to have a depressingly similar and paltry selection of breakfast cereals, the best of which I've found is probably Miel Pops (Honey Pops), a far cry from the Cap'n's roof-of-your-mouth-grating pleasure. The tally: U.S. 5, France 3.

Link of the Day: Bill Maher has done an interesting U.S. versus France analysis of his own...check out the link, it's pretty funny.

French for the Day: the expression for "to wear the pants" (as in, "Who wears the pants in this family?") is "porter la culotte"--literally, "to wear the women's underwear", although "culotte" also referred to an older form of pants worn by Frenchmen around the 18th century.