The French connection

Thank you for having the insight and sense of humor to recognize the absurdity in the call for a boycott of all things French (“Resist the French? Mais Non,” Feb. 26). This misguided response to France’s reasonable refusal to support President Bush’s macho call to arms is outrageous.

I wonder how many “real patriots” are giving up McDonald’s “French fries” in the name of supporting our country. What a joke!

Lori Cooper

Santa Barbara

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Enjoyed your article this morning. Just a little sadness in the humor. Just because I drink “Chuck-a-buck” from Trader Joe’s, there is nothing better than a nice Burgundy, soft, smelly Brie and a pear!

Sally Barnes

Pasadena

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While you are busy giving endless examples of the lack of knowledge Americans have about food and wine, you fail to recognize that the moral values of our citizens and culture have a higher value in world currency. Then you blame us for abusing the poor French. Maybe we’re just tired of their pathetic self-absorption and absolute disdain for the welfare of people not eating at their table.

Nancy H. Carter

Los Angeles

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Bravo! Tonight for supper, we’re having foie gras on toast points, lamb chops (bones Frenched), pommes frites and tarte Tatin -- all washed down with a 1998 Bordeaux.

Joan Gosewisch

Encinitas

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I’m French and I’ve been living in the U.S. for three years, and I’m depressed by all the stuff I read in the newspaper about France and French people. I’m grateful to you and the other American journalists who are trying to show fellow Americans that freedom of speech is not only a sentence for you. Thank you for respecting France’s position.

Patricia Lescarret

Bethesda, Md.

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Sorry, I am going to resist everything French! I was a Francophile. No more. France is off our vacation list, and we’ll boycott their goods. Period.

Diana Magrann

La Palma

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Just in case, as I expect, your article raises the ire of Francophobes, just keep in mind that without the aid of France (particularly the French fleet at Yorktown) there would probably be no United States today.

Salem Spitz

Cerritos

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I am boycotting French cheese, wine and fashion. The French have the luxury of pursuing economic self-interest in the name of peace, because they know the U.S. will bail them out.

Kathleen Allen

San Marino

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Thanks for one of the best essays I’ve read in a long time. It made me laugh out loud. We shake our heads and tsk-tsk over the barbarism of countries at war over slights hundreds of years old, but you were absolutely right: Our feud with France goes back to two World Wars and McDonald’s.

It reminds me of a high school basketball game on TV the other night. Teenage boys, chests painted with letters, facing off against each other in the stands. Which makes me want to ask, is it women who are complaining about the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” or is that a guy thing?

Deborah K. Canja

Okemos, Mich.