London Calling

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is returned from a long weekend with no internet connectivity. Well... In all honesty, he was back yesterday. But he didn't post out of a combination of having lots of stuff to do and laziness.

But he is back with a vengance today.

The big news of the morning appears to be that London has been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. Cheers to the people of London and to the people of Great Britain. Your Maximum Leader is sure the games will be great.

Of course, for every winner, there are a series of losers. They are, in this case, Moscow, Madrid, New York, and (heh) Paris. In the final presentation to the IOC, Jacques Chirac said "You can put your trust and faith in France..." Heh. Faith and trust to do what? Be international contrarians? Make fantastic food? Continue to decrease the hours in a work week? Defeat the EU Constitution? Your Maximum Leader is still puzzling over that one. (Defeating the EU Constitution that is.)

Now, one supposes that Tony Blair can thumb his nose at Chirac for his comments about British food. Now say what you will, but British food is not really bad at all. It is much more international than you would think. London is one of, if not THE, most international cities in the world. And their cuisine reflects the influences of the whole world.

Now that said, your Maximum Leader will go on the record saying that the best meals he's ever eaten were prepared by two of the most fastidious cultures in the world. Namely the French and the Japanese. French cuisine is wonderful because of the mentality needed to truly do justice to French food.

But French food is likely the subject of another post...

Carry on.