"There have been many definitions of hell, but for the English the best definition is that it is the place where the Germans are the police, the Swedish are the comedians, the Italians are the defense force, Frenchmen dig the roads, the Belgians are the pop singers, the Spanish run the railways, the Turks cook the food, the Irish are the waiters, the Greeks run the government, and the common language is Dutch."
David Frost and Anthony Jay
Mark:
ReplyDeleteTalk ABOUT political incorrectness!! So - what are the English, Welsh and Scots doing all this time? Ah, on the dole, right?
This is probably more appropriate for a twitter than the "official" Drools blog.
SDG
jco
The quote is from sir David Frost, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frost, who is a British
ReplyDeleteinstitution. With the European elections coming up, I figured it amusing and topical.
I bet the French version is much simpler:
ReplyDeleteHell is where the Americans cook the food and the English make the wine :)
I believe the more traditional quote that this is derived from, which also includes a definition of heavan is:
ReplyDelete"Heaven is where the Police are British, the Chefs are French, the Mechanics are German, the Lovers Italian and it's all organised by the Swiss.
Hell is where the Chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the Police are German and it's all organised by the Italians."
Personally I love these little European idiosyncrasies, it's one of the things I like about Europe.