Today as I left my apartment, I was confronted with this missive, taped prominently to the glass door of the vestibule of the building. It was next to the announcement for the annual Reunion du Syndic -- basically a co-op or condo-owners' meeting -- next week, to which I'm not invited, as a mere locataire (renter) not a proprietaire (owner).Translation:
"Hello! Good Evening!
A CURIOUS THING SINCE THE NICE WARM WEATHER HAS ARRIVED
We have a delicious noise of a motor blowing and a cool draft, coming from the chimney conduit of our living room, accompanied by falling soot and dust....
We have deduced that it is from an air conditioner connected into our chimney conduit...
This is very unpleasant and probably not within the art or science of the laws of installation...
What should we do?
THANK YOU to those who might feel a little bit concerned, and who might contact us, to recognize and stop the problem.
The XX Family"
Yankee-Protestant-guilt-ridden that I am, I immediately worried that they were referring to me, the token American -- Lord knows why, since I don't even own an air conditioner.
Then I took a deep breath and assumed my newly-acquired Gallic shrug -- and headed out to enjoy the day.
I've since decided that the "Gallic shrug" must be the original version of "WTF."
3 comments:
Makes me glad to not own an apartment in your building- a bit passive aggressive.
Yeah, but it really assists in my mastery of the Shrug.
...That last line had me going. Now that I know what a Gallic shrug is, I'll be Gallic shrugging a whole lot more now at some of my friends (or enemies).
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