Latest news with #Romain
Wall Street Journal
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Folktales' Review: Young Adults Mushing Forward
'I think to be a young woman is chaos. There is no other word for things,' notes Hege, a 19-year-old Norwegian who, like many others her age these days, seems to be searching for something she can't quite identify or even envision. In the beguiling and touching documentary 'Folktales,' we observe that, if anything, to be a young man is even more challenging than being a woman. 'I'm nice, but then again I'm kind of annoying,' is the self-assessment of another Norwegian, Bjørn. A Dutch youth, Romain, notes: 'If I talk, I'm annoying. If I don't talk, I'm boring.' He also says: 'Being young is hard. Sometimes I've found being alive hard.'
Spectator
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Monaco, the people-watching paradise
I'm lying on a sun lounger in Monte Carlo and there are so many women with extended blonde hair, hornet-stung lips and bazooka breasts stuffed into tiny monogrammed bikinis that I can't distinguish between them. They make me feel as though I'm part of a different species. My battered copy of Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction and a sweating glass of champagne complete the scene. Like Bret, I'm drawn to the dark side of glamour, which means Monaco is a people-watching paradise. Along with the bazooka babes, ninety-something men also aren't in short supply. A leathery, wispy-chested man in that age category is slumped next to the pool, with a bandage on his foot, plasters up his arm and a wheelchair tucked away to the side. He is chain-smoking cigars and chugging beers. I fear his obit is due any minute, but what a way to go. One striking feature is the sheer number of newly installed British expats. With Labour's changes to non-dom status and the tax raids on private schools, can anyone be that surprised that our ultra-rich are fleeing to places like Monaco? Though I've heard there have been complaints from bored wives trapped in their new gilded cages abroad, missing the verve of British society, which nothing can ever replace. Poor Rachel Reeves. The left-wingers in her party want to bring in a wealth tax, which everyone with a brain knows will drive away even more high-earners, but she's too weak to rule it out. Ever since her horrific breakdown in the Commons, she's been singing for her supper in the City, with a desperate smile screwed to her face. Oh well, at least some of the expats seem to be enjoying their time here. I watch an English man with big gnashers devour an entire watermelon while casually transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from one account to another on his laptop, which has a terrier drinking a cocktail as its background. A week before I flew to Monaco, I had a padel lesson as part of my attempt to ingratiate myself with the world's elite. Forget Wimbledon or even polo, these days it's all about padel in high-society land. Clare Stobart – of the haulage dynasty – took her helicopter to a club in Oxfordshire to meet me and we pranced around with a dashing Spanish instructor (they are always Spanish and always hot) firing balls at us. Goldman Sachs-type guys in caps battled it out on the next-door court while yummy mummies waited their turn. I've been a Francophile since my late grandmother, Anne, first told me stories of her summers in Paris. During the second world war, when she was wee, the family had hosted officers from the Polish tank regiment at home in Kelso. One of those officers, Romain, died in battle in France and was never forgotten by my family. One day at the end of the war there came a knock at the door. A Parisian woman in a powder-blue Dior suit asked to come in – her name was Agnès Chabrier. She claimed to be Romain's fiancée and wanted to see where he had been happy. As it turns out, Agnès was a fierce writer in the Saint Germain set. She released political manifestos under her own name (she wrote scathingly against the USSR, saying that 'When the Russians take Paris I'll be the first to hang from my balcony!') and potboilers under the name Daniel Gray. She became close to the family and invited Anne to spend summer with her in Paris, in her apartment on Boulevard Raspail. The characters my grandmother met there became my fairy tales: the Japanese woman in the kimono who came to tell of the horrors of Hiroshima; the Slav who put his gun on the mantelpiece; the Dior model on the train; the American soldiers celebrating Bastille Day. So began my lifelong pursuit of France and society (I once lived for a year on an oyster farm on Ile de Ré – but that is a story for another time). Monte Carlo, though, is more humorous than France, so extravagant is the richesse. At breakfast at the Hotel de Paris, I enjoy watching the super-rich on the terrace front row being attacked by hungry gulls. (The secret is to ask for a table a row or two back.) Schadenfreude is delicious. And hubris is punishable. On my final night, I request room service on my balcony and brush off the server's warning about those gulls – I want that sea view. So when, like harpies, they circle, swoop and attack, I flee screaming inside only to see my dinner be snatched up and the glasses smashed. I suppose it's only fair enough.
Calgary Herald
18-07-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Kids use Lemonade Day to whet their appetite for branding and selling
Article content What do the kids get for selling the most lemonade? Article content The prize question. Article content During the day, the children will participate in two contests, one nationally and the other a local venture. Article content Nationally, children can vie for the 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year' award, wherein winners are selected based on a number of criteria — their business plan, profits, personal stories and take-aways. Article content 'Some children have super unique stories and experiences of how their stand came to be,' Romain said. Article content The other is a venture initiated by Tiller Digital, in which children can win on their choice of branding. Article content 'Branding is a super huge part of our work in a day, so it's something we really pay especially close attention to,' Romain said. Children would be judged on the experience, the look and feel of the stands, the choice of colours, design, decorations, naming — 'all the elements that go into branding,' he added. Article content Article content They will also be asked to submit answers to questions about their story and how they invested in their brand, and how it affected their lemonade stand. Article content What do the kids have to say about it? Article content 'They love being able to make some money,' he said. Article content And their mentors, often parents and caregivers, have echoed similar thoughts, he added, on what it's like to see their children work together, get creative and follow through on a goal. Article content Kristin Mason said all four of her children will participate this year for the second time. Article content 'We're pretty much repeating (the strategy for) last year,' she said, when the children honed their family's business in beekeeping to make a homemade lemonade sweetened with honey and turned into a slushy for customers. Article content 'Then it could be sponsored by our family business, so we could provide the honey and our logo goes on the stand,' she said. The kids call it the 'McBain Honey Freeze,' as an ode to the family surname. Article content Article content Her oldest, Russell, who is 10 years old, tended to spearhead and manage the stand's logistics, she said. Last year, he set up an option for customers to pay electronically, via the Square app — 'It was all him,' she said — and managed the payments while the others, eight-year-old twins Alden and Ethan, and the youngest, six-year-old Lily, talked to customers and ran back-and-forth with fresh supplies to keep the product icy. Article content 'We're all in the conversations,' she said. 'We all did the recipe, tasting and testing.' Article content Last year, the kids did especially well as their stand coincided with a community cleanup event taking place the same day. While the two events don't coincide this year, it has sparked an idea to do two lemonade days — one on Lemonade Day and another on the same day as the community cleanup event.
CNN
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
French gameshow contestant's epic 21-month winning streak finally ends
A French gameshow contestant has been dethroned after a record-breaking run of 646 wins that lasted 21 months. Émilien, 22, made his first appearance on the '12 Coups de midi' daily game show on September 25, 2023, according to a statement from French TV network TF1, which announced the end of his run on Sunday. The network has not revealed his surname. In the show, four contestants compete in a general knowledge quiz. The winner then answers a series of questions to determine their prize pot for that day, before returning to take on a new slate of opponents the day after. Émilien won more than 2.5 million euros ($2.93 million) in cash and other prizes, as well as 23 cars, making him the biggest winner in French game show history, said TF1. His haul more than doubled the previous record of one million euros ($1.17 million), held by Bruno Lafourcade. 'I never expected to have the chance to stay for such a long time,' said Émilien, who comes from southwest France. 'It's amazing everything that has happened. It's hard to understand.' Prior to appearing on the show, Émilien studied history at university and was aiming to become a teacher. He then paused his studies to concentrate on his record-breaking run, which came to an end when he ran out of time to answer a question during Sunday's show. Despite his loss to Romain, an architect, Émilien has become the world record holder for the most solo game show appearances, and the European record holder for prizes won, according to TF1. His run became something of a sensation in France, with his defeat drawing an average of 5 million spectators on Sunday. TF1's '12 Coups de midi' has some similarities with popular US quiz show 'Jeopardy,' which airs every weekday for 30 minutes. The record for the highest number of consecutive wins on 'Jeopardy' is held by Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row in 2004, followed by Amy Schneider, who won 40 consecutive games in 2022. Jennings also holds the record for the highest amount of prize money won on 'Jeopardy,' at $2,520,700, followed by James Holzhauer on $2,462,216.
CNN
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
French gameshow contestant's epic 21-month winning streak finally ends
A French gameshow contestant has been dethroned after a record-breaking run of 646 wins that lasted 21 months. Émilien, 22, made his first appearance on the '12 Coups de midi' daily game show on September 25, 2023, according to a statement from French TV network TF1, which announced the end of his run on Sunday. The network has not revealed his surname. In the show, four contestants compete in a general knowledge quiz. The winner then answers a series of questions to determine their prize pot for that day, before returning to take on a new slate of opponents the day after. Émilien won more than 2.5 million euros ($2.93 million) in cash and other prizes, as well as 23 cars, making him the biggest winner in French game show history, said TF1. His haul more than doubled the previous record of one million euros ($1.17 million), held by Bruno Lafourcade. 'I never expected to have the chance to stay for such a long time,' said Émilien, who comes from southwest France. 'It's amazing everything that has happened. It's hard to understand.' Prior to appearing on the show, Émilien studied history at university and was aiming to become a teacher. He then paused his studies to concentrate on his record-breaking run, which came to an end when he ran out of time to answer a question during Sunday's show. Despite his loss to Romain, an architect, Émilien has become the world record holder for the most solo game show appearances, and the European record holder for prizes won, according to TF1. His run became something of a sensation in France, with his defeat drawing an average of 5 million spectators on Sunday. TF1's '12 Coups de midi' has some similarities with popular US quiz show 'Jeopardy,' which airs every weekday for 30 minutes. The record for the highest number of consecutive wins on 'Jeopardy' is held by Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row in 2004, followed by Amy Schneider, who won 40 consecutive games in 2022. Jennings also holds the record for the highest amount of prize money won on 'Jeopardy,' at $2,520,700, followed by James Holzhauer on $2,462,216.
