Carla Bruni: "Let Them Eat Cake!"

STOGIE DOES HISTORY

Shades of Marie Antoinette!  History repeats itself:  Carla Bruni, First Lady of France, must go to Paris in disguise since the recession has hit France.  French aristocrats during the French Revolution had to do the same thing, for their own protection.  And so, dear reader, it is time for another segment of Stogie Does History.

Actually, Marie Antoinette got a bum rap.  She never said of the starving peasantry, "Let them eat cake."  It seems they had a liberal press in those days, too.

What she did say was, "Peasantry?  What's that?"

The angry peasants of Paris then descended on the Palace of Versailles, the Queen's digs, with pitchforks and lighted torches where they began yelling and screaming outside the walls. A French servant in powdered wig and red silk knee pants dutifully reported the disturbance to the Queen:  "Serf's up!"

Shortly thereafter, Queen Marie was relocated to a nice apartment in Paris near the Place de la Concorde, renamed Place de la Revolution, where she would eventually attend a public event in her honor.  Not really understanding what the doings were all about, she reportedly said, "a little off the top, please."

Okay, so she wasn't Ronald Reagan.  Those in power are always blamed for recessions whether they caused them or not.  Marie actually had quite a stimulus plan in place for France's powdered wig and silk gown industries.  But the ungrateful peasantry refused to give it time to work.

And so, dear reader, let us learn from the lessons of history.  Queen Michelle Antoinette and King Obama must be given time for the stimulus plan to work.  Say a week or so.  Then we begin waxing our pitchforks and lighting our torches.