McDonalds has come to the Louvre. Mc Vinci? McRubens sandwiches?
It’s actually in an underground approach to the museum, somewhere between the art and the commerce of a shopping mall. Still, French art lovers are not pleased.
The website Louvre Pour Tous (Louvre for All) has summoned its finest rhetoric, which, in its original French, could be performed at the Comedie-Francaise, but will have to suffice in more prosaic Anglais: “Henri Loyrette, president of the Louvre Museum, just had to say one word to stop the whiff of French fries from wafting past the Mona Lisa’s nose. He chose otherwise.” An art historian at the Louvre, perhaps more familiar with the age of gold than the coming of the quarter-pounder, says “Starbucks was bad enough but McDonald’s is worse”.
Is nothing sacred?
In a related development, while sitting quietly in my airplane aisle seat, a late border hurried down the aisle while shouting into her cell phone. She was a 30-something Dallasite, I reckon. “I wouldn’t go back to France or Italy. I would go back to Spain. There’s nothing to see in Italy except the Vatican. Everybody seemed poor over there.”
Yes, there is still such a thing as an ugly American.
But we get real nice when exporting our Le Grande Macs. Somehow, though, we’ve got to figure out what to do about these poor people who make poor tourist attractions and cannot afford the hamburgers we generously export to them.
I’ve got nothing against McDonalds. There’s one in St. Lukes Hospital in Houston, which seems even more astonishing than the new one in the Louvre. I guess hospital hamburgers can be looked upon as health care rainmaking of a sort. Not enough patients? We’ll take care of that in the basement McDonalds.
The French outrage at the Louvre McDonalds does raise an interesting existential question about French Fries, though. I’ll just let that sit in your deep fryer awhile.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
