Behind The Gallic Fumes 

Disturbing: Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord

Claude François' grave in Dannemois (near Paris). Click for bigger.

In 1967, French singer Claude François wrote a song in French called Comme d'habitude ("As Usual"), which became a hit in Francophone countries. Canadian singing star Paul Anka reworked it for the English-speaking public into the now legendary hit most famously sung by Frank Sinatra as "My Way". It now turns out that the song is responsible for numerous deaths in the Philippine karaoke circuit:

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Claude François himself died in 1978. He was not killed in a karaoke bar but got electrocuted in his own bath, when he tried to change a light bulb.

Many people think this Google commercial during last night's Super Bowl was the best. I haven't seen the others but it is decidedly brilliant.

(The soundtrack is "Comptine d'un autre été" by Martin Ermen)

I've featured French sculptor Stephane Halleux in the past. Here is a site which shows no less than 250 images of this guy's amazing work.

With the Winter Olympics around the corner here's a clip from two years ago: French skier Yannick Bertrand straddling the gate and taking a mean shot to the groin during his super-g attempt in Kvitfjell, Norway. He did not finish the race. And his voice was never the same again.

Your Sunday link dump:

Arch-enemy Dominique de Villepin takes aim at ‘the dwarf’ Nicolas Sarkozy (Times)
French ‘smear’ Britain’s EU chief Baroness Ashton (Times)
The French Attitude and Their Wines (Beachside Resident)
In Paris, the customer is not always right (BBC News)

Banks unsafe from burqa wearers in France (Malaysia News)
Pardon my French! But we need it (Commercial Appeal)

Travel tips:
Best for reluctant downhillers: Sainte Foy (The Independent)
Best for literature lovers: Cévennes (The Independent)

Portez ce vieux whisky au juge blond qui fume is the French equivalent of The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It's the shortest sentence containing all 26 letters of the alphabet. The French pangram contains 37 letters, two more than the English one. On the other hand, the French version has no repetitive vowels. Some people have tried to create even shorter pangrams but they ended up as nonsensical phrases like Jerk ! zig vint : body, phlox, musc, waqf.

Irony: this French pangram was invented in Belgium, and first appeared in the Belgian version of Mickey Mouse Magazine!

Photographer Bruno Levy [blog] has an eye for beautiful people. Here is his portrait of a railway worker, at the Gare de l'est, 8h39. She's responsible for the proper composting of tickets.

(For inexperienced travelers: composting a ticket means validating it by having it punched in a machine. Ticket validation is required to prevent riders from using a single ticket multiple times.)

Your Saturday link dump:

Roman Polanski's risqué duet (Charles Bremner – Times Online)
French politician and son jailed for smuggling immigrants into Britain (Mail Online)
Jacques Baratier obituary (The Guardian)

Far-left party reveals ‘veiled’ female candidate (France24)
The 5 Most Statistically Full of Shit National Stereotypes (Cracked.com)
Was it fake wine? Gallo awaits French court ruling (Yahoo! News)
Headscarf-wearing officer to appear before disciplinary committee (France24)
Book Review – 'For the Soul of France – Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus' (NYT)
Historical images of French cities damaged in WWII in Google Earth (This French Life)
Cheese's twilight rattles France's sense of self (NCT)

Scary scenes from a century ago, from the utterly charming nostalgia site Agence Eureka. Click for king-size scans (up to 2480 x 3729).

(Image created with Obamicon Me)

IMF chief hints at running for presidency as poll shows edge over Sarkozy (France24)
Strauss-Kahn aims to oust Sarkozy (Times Online)

French actress Catherine Deneuve has been married only once but her affaires are nearly countless. One of her lovers was Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni (who died in 1996). The two had a daughter who also became an actress, Chiara Mastroianni. Apart from their careers in the movie business they also shared another passion:

Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni, Chiara Mastroianni.

Now that Paris has accepted the idea that skyscrapers can be built at the city's outskirts there's a new challenge for the capital's fire brigade: how to handle towering infernos.

This week they held an exercise on a 110m tall building, simulating a fire outbreak on the 26th floor. The tower was an empty shell after a lengthy removal of asbestos in 2003. At this moment the firefighters have the capacity to pump water up to 100m high, but that won't be good enough in the future. By 2014, Paris will have a twin tower complex exceeding 320 meters, containing stores, offices, a five star hotel and 500 apartments at heights unparalleled in Western Europe. One of the standard features of each skyscraper will be a water reservoir at the highest floors, each containing 120,000 liters of water. Each building will also have outside escape lifts.

Source: Figaro

Loana Petrucciani (simply Loana for the intimi) is mostly known for her appearances in French reality TV shows where the hot lights force her to take more clothes off than the average celebrity. This week she was interviewed on a radio station, and again the spotlights were overwhelming. When she was introduced as "the most scrutinized face of the decade" she replied indignantly "it's not my face in my opinion!"

It may have been radio, but there was at least one camera to record the magic moment:

French daredevil Henri Rochatin, now 65, has been performing stunts since the age of 5. In this video, he balances on a chair on two glasses which are on top of another chair, which is balanced on four glasses, over a precipice 12,486 feet (3,842m) high in the French Alps. (Warning: contains Swiss music!)

HT Neatorama

Your Thursday link dump:

Carlos the Jackal sues over French TV drama (Guardian)
Say santé with France's tastiest tipples (Times Online)
As ancient cheeses go extinct, French sense threat to a pillar of their identity (Canadian Press)

Raid on French print works destroys 150,000 newspapers (Expatica)
Opinion: Why I'm proud to wear the burqa (CNN.com)
Citroën DS3 THP 150 review (Telegraph)
Inspectors 'failed to check runway' before Concorde crash (AFP)