The Satin Pajama awards -- sponsored by A Fistful of Euros -- are out. And sadly, no!(TM), chez Nadezhda didn't win best non-Euro blog (although Sadly, No! did win in the humor category).

It was an exciting competition, however -- nip and tuck for third place just behind The Head Heeb (Jonathan Edelstein). The competition was certainly exhalted. Hey, when you beat out Brad Plumer and Matt Welch, you gotta feel pretty good about yourself. And the lot of us got totally creamed by One Good Thing by Leigh Ann Wilson, who took first place with more than half the votes -- none of this plurality business for Ms Wilson, thank you very much.

One of the great things about the various blogging awards is that they point you to all sorts of goodies you'd never otherwise come across in a lifetime of wandering the particular corner of the blogosphere you inhabit. And since I think Fistful has assembled a great list of blogs -- including their own regulars, who weren't eligible for PJs -- I'm going to try to make a habit of sharing some of the things I find on their nominee sites.

One of the most popular of the Satin PJs nominees -- and for very good reason -- is petite anglaise, a 30-something Brit, living in sin in Paris with Mr Frog and Little Miss Tadpole. She has a fine eye for all sorts of lovely absurdities passing by.  This one tickled my funny bone -- part of her take on another skirmish in the hopeless war against the invasion of English in all things French, this time French television. The French media government watchdog wants to see accompanying French program titles when the primary title is in English. This threatens to open a new battlefront, spearheaded by the dreaded "Attack of the Colon"!

Star Academy: l’Ecole des vedettes? Fear factor: le facteur de la peur? An amusing article in Libération  points out that the literal translation of “Loft Story’ would give us the following catchy title: ‘Loft Story: Une histoire de local a usage commercial ou industriel amenage en local d’habitation’.
[...]
The English titling phenomenon is not limited to made-in-France reality/junk TV shows. Quality programmes imported from the USA tend to be broadcast nowadays using their original titles. ‘Nip/Tuck’, ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ (coming soon on Canal+) are examples which immediately spring to mind. Personally, I’m thankful for this, as if they had been renamed I probably wouldn’t have noticed they were on at all. It took me long enough to work out that ‘Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir’ = ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Deux Flics à Miami’ = ‘Miami vice’.

I had exactly that problem with 'chapeau melon.' But then again, you've never lived until you've seen Walter Brennan dubbed in French!