My name is Denny Adelman. In my most recent reincarnation, I live in Albi, one of the truly beautiful towns in the southwest of France, which in itself, is a beautiful if rather strange part of the world. At least for an American, which I yam, yes I yam.

The latest chapter of the story is last year I got bored with spending 2000 francs a month in phone bills for my 20 hours a month of connect-time to the Net through Toulouse (which is all of 70 kms (40 miles) away), so I founded , "Internet in the land of Cocagne". That was in january '96. Now I pay 10 times that every month to the telco but I get to put "I'm a provider" on my business cards. (The combination of southern french sunshine and all that good wine can be lethal, n'est-ce pas?)

I also get to check off the days until the first of january, 1998, when France Telecom has to give up its monopoly and all the British Telecom's, MCI's and AT &T's of the world will presumably come swarming into the land of four hundred cheeses. Poor France Telecom.

I have started writing the whole thing down. You can read all about it in the "A-ha, you-want-to-be-an-ISP-in-the-south-of-France" FAQ.

Nowadays I spend a lot of time in front of a Mac PowerPC 7500 putting together web sites and managing our POP in la France profonde.

If you're wondering, yes, being an American in France full-time, and an Internet access and service provider at that, is, as an old friend from Rhode Island liked to say, a "whole nuther story".

Hot Subject #1: Food
The French have this love/hate relationship with America, with the scales tipping toward love, but not too far, and this pertains to food as well. From afar, they consider our cuisine to be disgraceful, having been systematically exposed to the MacDonald's and other burger joints, that are now as firmly grafted onto the French landscape as escape clauses on a retainer contract. From aclose, they all have at least one story to tell about standing on line at Disneyworld, just behind a "typical American family of four", that in the space of 45 minutes shovel down 2 hamburgers, 1 double nachos, 2 large fries, a jumbo Diet-Coke, and a triple scoop frozen yogurt (in a low-fat cone) per person, the whole time talking about aerobics videos and which brand of melatonin works the best.

Since I love the French approach to eating (aka dining), understand their reaction to our eating habits, but know that we Americans are capable of putting together one hell of a meal when we want to, I've embarked on a highly personal campaign to show them all (in Albi, at least) how good American cookin' can be. Rest assured, I am fully aware that this is a risky proposition, and the possibility that I could make a fool of myself before a table of fin gourmets is forever pinching at my gut when I'm in the kitchen. But I'm pleased to announce that these days when the Albigeois talk about american cuisine, they are no longer systematically referring to the MacDo that just opened up on the rotary on the route de Toulouse, but they are talking about les Ribs Barbeque à la mode de Denny.

Yeah.

Garden Gazpacho (with thanks to M.F.K. Fisher)
Ribs à la mode de Denny
Dominique's Salad
Almond Brownies

Lots of cold Listel Gris (rosé)