Mais non, mais si

Buffy over at A's tonight, and my turn to cook, so I made sure to make good use of A's oven. A pork roast (I had gone to the butcher's and asked for a piece of pork to roast) slathered in mustard and with garlic slivers in it, and chunks of sweet potatoes roasted alongside that. Then the sweet potatoes went in a sort of warm salad inspired by the salads from the other night, but with goat cheese and basil in addition to cherry tomatoes and lettuce. I teased A into making the gravy since he's taking a cooking class. He said he wasn't good at gravy but it quickly became clear that he was in a totally different league from me in that department. The first thing he did was to appraise the drippings and say, "Hmm, that needs more fat."

I do love putting things in an oven and just letting them cook while watching Buffy. The pork was done perfectly, too.

Always good to see A. There was a teeny (sub)-cultural difference that came out tonight and set me up for some prime Canada-bashing; there's a scene in Buffy where her mom comes home and finds a boy there, and A couldn't figure out why Buffy's mom was so cold to the boy. I said, "Duh, you come home late in the evening and your teenage daughter has a strange college boy there. Or is that okay in Canada where all the communists live?" It's funny because it's true.

A lent me a couple of books: an old Michelin guide to Paris, with lots of history, and a book in English about the revolution. I'm looking forward to them.

As I was walking to République to catch line 8 (remember, line 5 doesn't run at night, or doesn't run usefully, due to construction) I passed a group of people getting out of a car, and one was saying, "Mais non, mais si." This one takes some explaining. You all know "oui" and "non," for "yes" and "no," but replies to negative questions work differently. Spose someone asks you, "Tu ne viens pas?" ('You're not coming?'). If you answer "non," you're answering, 'no, I'm not coming.' If you want to say 'no really, I am coming,' you have to say "si," which is not a possible answer to an affirmative question. You can't answer "oui" to the negative question. Now, I've heard the phrase "mais oui, mais non" before ('but yes, but no'), where you partially agree with someone, but then go on and say why you don't totally agree with them. So "mais non, mais si" is the same thing but in reply to a negative question.