Pardonnez-moi, je suis fou

March 11, 2008 8:01 PM

Mark Boyle should either take language lessons, read some Peter Jenkins, or wear a better jacket...and yet he blames it on the French!!

He is not the first long-distance foot traveller to botch his journey. Sorrel Wilby was ill-prepared for her walk across Tibet and just barely made it (among other things, her pack donkey ran away on the second day of the trip). They should have consulted also with Will Steger, who dogsledded (involves a lot of walking) across the North Pole, Antarctica and Greenland. He had to spend money though.

posted by Melismata (9 comments total)

No visas. No money. Very little sense.

I'm so tempted to stick a Metafilter: in front of that.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:36 PM on March 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

How exactly is it that "he blames the French?" The link suggests no such thing. (It doesn't say that he blames anyone. If anything it seems to suggest that he should blame himself.)
posted by oddman at 8:38 PM on March 11, 2008

He should have blamed Nazi frogmen.
posted by Tube at 8:45 PM on March 11, 2008

Reading further, it definitely appears that he blames only himself, but I do have to wonder what he was thinking...refusing money when offered, no visa, no bus rides, no non-vegan food and no command of any of the languages he'd need along the way. I'm almost surprised he made it out of his hometown.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:53 PM on March 11, 2008

Hold on. No non-vegan food?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

As a great rabbit once said "What a maroon."
posted by oddman at 8:57 PM on March 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

When they reached France, mainly because they don't speak French, they were misunderstood to be a bunch of freeloading backpackers.

Huh? They were correctly understood to be a bunch of freeloading backpackers. Also, what oddman (and the rabbit) said.
posted by languagehat at 6:12 AM on March 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Sorry, I guess I should have said the author of the article (or at least the headline) blamed it on the French.

He heads a movement and blog believing that there should be no money in the world anymore. I'm not sure what he's getting at. The pioneers who built their houses from local trees in the 18th/19th century U.S. would gladly have used money, if they had any. Promoting peace and love is fine, but practicality needs to be considered.
posted by Melismata at 8:56 AM on March 12, 2008

You see, life would be ideal without currency.

For example: If your mother gave me an apple, I would return the favor by dancing for you. And if my dance were more valuable than the apple, your mother's friend could wash my car etc.

And so life would go on in magnanimous simplicity.
posted by freshundies at 12:09 PM on March 12, 2008

I once believed the whole world could function without money, too.

Then I came down.

And, to echo languagehat's sentiment, I loved the quote where he said "they also see us as just a bunch of freeloading backpackers, which is the complete opposite of what the pilgrimage is really about". In other news, black is really white, up is really down, and less really is more.
posted by kcds at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2008