Friday, October 22, 2004

TV Much Improved By Medication

Back in the states, being sick meant going to two places: the pharmacy for over the counter drugs and the grocery for soup/hot tea/comfort food. Then I would bliss out in front of the tv for the remainder of my illness, as there is no better way to recover from a cold than watching Sesame Street on a NyQuil high.

Alas, this comfort is now gone, as NyQuil is not available here, and we don't have satellite tv. But I made do as well as I could. Flipping through seven channels (well six really, since Canal+ is blocked out most of the day), I watched a very cheesy made-for-tv movie starring Megan Mullally, better known for her role on Will and Grace. Of course it was all dubbed, but I couldn't help thinking she was speaking in Karen's nasal high pitched voice.

Then came back to back episodes of Touched by an Angel, or as it's known in France, Les Anges du Bonheur. When the hell did Valerie Bertanelli join this show? And what happened to Roma Downey's face? Anyhoo, the first show featured Luther Vandross, and the second featured Angela Lansbury. Whenever the actors sing (and of course there's singing), the dubbing stops and the lyrics are subtitled. Would it have killed them to subtitle the whole show? Hm.

My favorite show right now is a quiz show called Zone rouge, or Red Zone. One person is strapped to a chair in the middle of the studio and is asked rapid-fire questions by Jean-Pierre Foucault. The trick is that your heartbeat is being monitored, and if it goes too high, you enter the "red zone" and must calm yourself or lose all your winnings. They can also be quite silly; here's a sample question from yesterday's show:

What did Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple have in common?

a) their mustaches
b) their nationality
c) their professions
d) their father

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm feeling a little better than I did yesterday. Stéph is convinced I had the flu, given the unbelievable ache in my back and hips that had me shifting around every 10 minutes. It must have been a sympathy flu for all my fellow americans back home with no flu shots.

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