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Re: Stranger than fiction

To: "Fredd" <fal@hiwaay.net>, <fot@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Stranger than fiction
From: "jonmac" <jonmac@ndirect.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 19:57:46 -0000
>Don't you think that it was amazing that the *chunnel*
connecting France and
>the UK actually met at the correct place during
construction.
>This must have been a first in history :)

Technologically - it was an amazing achievement, especially
when you consider the French were using centimetres and
metres and driving on the right, while we were doing it in
feet
and inches and driving on the left. There are other things
to consider, such as incentives. The French had exponential
bonuses paid to them to work under what we know as the
'English Channel'
because the Chamber of Deputies in Paris had already
previously agreed not to call the stretch of water above the
tunnelers 'La Manche'.
Furthermore, all French workers had to sing the patriotic
song "Nous approchons le paradis Brittanique" whenever they
came on shift.
The chorus, sung in five part harmony, written and
orchestrated by a fiercely
Republican Irishman and now enshrined in British Holy Writ
was

"Nous sommes desoles,
en verite
nous adorons les anglais"

(apologies for the lack of accents in the right places)

Jonmac


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