Pleasantly outgoing French guy, Dominique Krauskopf, 40-ish, toussled hair and friendly smile, is visiting Seattle with a biggish microphone and smallish voice recorder, interviewing French-speaking locals. "What make Seattle so special?" he wants to know.
Krauskopf catches up with me at the waterfront offices of the French-American Chamber of Commerce. Georgraphy, first of all, I tell him. Mild climate, mountains, forests, lots of water. Industry, he wants to know? Boeing? Well, yes, but Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago. What we have now is technology, Microsoft and Amazon. Knowledge workers. What about the food? Salmon, yes indeed. They used to be shipped to markets back east until Bruce Gore and Jon Rowley and Wayne Ludvigsen showed us how to catch and cook them here. Oysters, too. And mussels. (The French understand bivalves.) Then there's beer and coffee. Right, I agree. Same guy actually launched both Red Hook and Starbucks, very modest local gent named Gordon Bowker. (Had lunch with a friend who'd never heard of him, proving my point.)
And wine, I add. Wine? Krauskopf is caught off guard. Yes, indeed, French varieties grow in the irrigated desert, on the latitude of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Overshadowed by the public's love affair with Napa, but highly appreciated by connoisseurs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Krauskopf is a journalist who curates an internet portal called VoyagerPratique ("The Practical Traveler"). How does that differ from a blog, he wonders, let alone a blog with the slightly irreverent name Cornichon? I show him on one of the office computers. On tape, he quizzes me about it. How many people does it take to produce, this blog? Just me. Génial, he says. The interview runs about eight minutes and will be broadcast in two installments. He promises to send followup questions in writing; I promise to answer.
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