"Oh mais franchement..."

There is this word, franc, which gets thrown around a lot; the most obvious synonym is frank, as in Frankly, my dear... To the French, there's an element of truth to the word; someone who is franc is sincere and honest in his speech. He does not prevaricate. To me, though, the better translation is blunt. And lemme tell you, that's something these folks have no problem with.

Earlier this week, in the teachers' room, a woman randomly starts this conversation with me: "So, are there more black people in Alabama than in other states?"

Me: "Uh, I don't know. I guess maybe."

Her: "You've never been to another state?"

Me: "No, of course I have. But--"

Her: "Well, when you went to other states, were there more or fewer black people?"

Me: "I don't know. I guess I didn't notice."

Her: "Ah, well then, if you didn't notice, then maybe it was the same?"

Me: "Listen, I don't know. When I go to visit other states, I don't take a census. If you want, we can go to the computer lab and look up the numbers, but I can't tell you because I don't know."

Her: "I read that there were more. Because of the slavery."

Sigh. Why me, God?