Vendredi de Vocabulaire: Une Bolée

Posted on by Anju

Une bolée de cidre
Une bolée de cidre à Bretagne.
Image Credit: http://www.marcarine.be/
Used under Creative Commons license.

I had lunch with Olivier the other day. Olivier is an expatriate from France, and therefore he’s occasionally useful when I want to know something about the French language or culture. I mentioned to him that when I was in Paris, I ate at a crêperie one night, and they served cider (le cidre) in what looked like large teacups. He told me that cider is traditionally served as une bolée: a bowlful.

Apparently you can get other words relating to volume by adding the -ée ending on to a container. You get une bolée from un bol (a bowl). You can do the same derivation with the word for spoon:

  • une cuillère – spoon
    1. une cuillerée – spoonful, dollop
    2. une cuillère à thé / à café – teaspoon
      • une cuillerée à café – teaspoonful
    3. une cuillère à soupe – tablespoon
      • une cuillerée à soupe – tablespoonful

On Menstruation and Charities

Posted on by Anju

I know it’s probably unlikely, but for those of you with some extra funds kicking around, New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof has some charitable suggestions.

This year, I decided to give away some found money. Some of it went to Philabundance, and another portion went to City Kitties. Both are organizations that serve the Philadelphia area. The last portion went to one of Kristof’s susggestions: Sustainable Health Enterprises or SHE.

SHE’s goal is to provide low cost menstrual pads to girls in developing countries in an attempt to keep them in school. Apparently, many girls miss school during their periods because of inadequate menstrual supplies. I chose this program over the one Lunapads is associated with because—while I like the Lunapads products—SHE pointed out that the absence of clean water and soap is often a problem in the developing world. The lack of clean water makes reusable pads or menstrual cups a potential source of infection.

As at least one study has pointed out though, providing girls with menstrual supplies may not be enough to keep them in school. The comments on Kristof’s blog post about the article provide some hypotheses as to why.

Despite this study, I’ve chosen to donate to SHE because I think it’s important to talk about and to reduce the stigma surrounding menstruation.