Le Rustique cherche Petit Munster (a matter of [cheesy] affinity) - from Dean Marks

[Marie Wintzer]

Dean loves to play with words, and taking the twisted roads of language back and forth between French and English is even more fun. He knows how to build a story around the most (apparently) insignificant comment that comes up on a blog. So he knows that crêpes suzette only make me moderately homesick and that it is cheese (and alsacian Munster cheese in particular) that does the trick. The story here is based on a play with the words affinité/affiné. Affinité meaning affinity, and affiné being said of a cheese that has been matured or ripened. So here comes this Cheese, Le Rustique, he's a bit lonely and looking for affinité, maybe with a Petit Munster cheese, who knows if it is affiné enough. Le Rustique decides to write an ad * to the journal Valentine. Because obviously that's the place where to find the best affinités and the most matured and ripened soul mate cheeses of all :-))) Dean's French friends found the story infantile, which he thought was just perfect, and I think so too. It's a great play on words, but what made me laugh even more is to think that Dean had to buy one the smelliest cheese on the market and make his fridge very unhappy for days. And I hear he is doing it again for another mail-artist whose identity shall be kept secret for now. I should have warned you, Dean, cheese from Alsace is very addictive. You will be making dozens of those pieces, I am afraid. I'm very sorry for your fridge, but it was totally worth it, great fun in the mail, as usual. Thank you muchly-muchly!

* Le Rustique, soft texture, melty, rich taste and unique character, searches Petit Munster to share a slice of bread + more if matured and ripened, write to le journal Valentine.

[Marie Wintzer]

Dean, thanks for dropping in! I'm surprised it took so long for the ban to kick in. You are always up to something in the Dean household, it's always funny how you tell us about your highly suspicious mail-art related activities.

[Dean aka Artist in Seine]

Sorry, very busy weekend.  French Elections today.  Very funny comments from everyone.  Carina is Just to right about Finnish cheese.  Or is it just too ripe in Finnish?

  Great blog Marie, I could never have translated that and explained it so clearly.  I was sure you would never blog this piece.

   I always thought the French dating ads were funny.  "Man looking for girl to go to the movies, and more if we get on."  Well that's how I translate it, Marie translations a bit more intellectual.

   PS Sadly there is now a ban in my household of Munster cheese.  "Why for the past 3 weeks are we having Munster cheese?" was asked.  "I think it was on sale"; I replied

[Marie Wintzer]

I think Dean has eaten too much Munster. I warned him... and now he's nowhere to be seen...

[cheryl penn]

I have no affinity with affiné  cheese, but I'll have a side of dialogicity with my translinguistic-ity please;-) XX

[DKeys]

Dean is amazingly prolific it's a wonder he has time to sleep and take apart appliances at all! This is a great and thoughtful piece and Thom, I have never heard the word translinguistic and I  plan to use it in a sentence sometime today:)

[Marie Wintzer]

Juusto. That doesn't sound a thing like cheese :-)) Thanks for the daily Finnish, Carina!

[Carina]

Is this scrabble word game? I've always been bad at that... ;)  Great blog and art!
By the way cheese is "juusto" in Finnish, I know that Dean is studying Finnish at the moment...

[Marie Wintzer]

Thom, this is such a great story, thank you for the comment! It guess it's cowtij then!! :-)))

[Thom Courcelle]

Parfait!  I LOVE the wordplay--and you have continued the play quite well in your blog title, Marie, using the Americanized version of "cheesy" that refers to kitchy types of humor! Why is it, I wonder, why the French are so particularly brillant et ingénieux when it comes to such word play and so amoureux of that particular linguistic acrobatics?  I think I've mentioned before that Hélène Cixous is absolutely my favorite author-goddess.  Word play (and even translinguistic word play) is one of her fortés.

I would classify Dean's work here as "GOTIJ," except that I'm pretty sure that Munster is made from cow's milk. Har, har, har.

When my brother lived in Paris, he and his wife would every week at the street markets purchase the absolute stinkiest cheese that they could find, and brave themselves for the experience.  I think it was just a fun and funny thing for them to do.  But I remember going to visit them one time, and opening the refrigertor, and being almost knocked off my feet par le nez!