modom (palindrome guy) > wrote:

> Élitists like myself
> positively wallow in French, especially when we're under the weather.
> Gosh, I wonder what French for "under the weather is"? I'm certain it
> has that indescribable frisson, that je ne sais quoi, I'm seeking to
> convey.

As in "être patraque", "être mal fichu", "être soufrant", "être mal en
point", "être indisposé", "être mal foutu"?

Or maybe, to stay marginally on topic, "sentir pas dans son assiette"?

Anyway, prompt rétablissement!

> Because our household is in the grips of an acute élitism attack, D
> added chevre and arugula to the frittata. This resonated agreeably
> with the haricots verts and indeed nearly made me want to read
> Baudelaire again. Then I remembered his poem titled "Spleen" and
> though better of it.

Not Baudelaire, Gilbert (and Sullivan).

Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite
your languid spleen,
An attachment à la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a
not-too-French French bean!
Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle
in the high aesthetic band,
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your
medieval hand.
-- Sir William Schwenck Gilbert


Victor