Beer Flu

The threat of bird flu has been a popular subject on the French news for months now (as I imagine it has in America and the UK as well). Every night the anchorpeople talk about how many cases there are, how close they are to France, and what the risk is of getting it. We hear the words "grippe aviaire" repeated at least 15 times a day.

Le Pacha doesn't believe it.

"Listen to them!" he said. "They're not saying grippe aviaire, they're saying grippe à bière." The whole family laughed and told him that they're not saying beer flu! He refused to believe us. We searched for references in the paper--"grippe aviaire," it said it right there in black and white.

"Well, maybe in the paper they say bird flu. But listen closely--all of the newspeople say beer flu."

Ever since then, when I talk about bird flu, I call it grippe à bière. No one has ever corrected my pronunciation, or even looked at me strangely.

EDIT: I just used an online translator for grippe à bière, and it came back as "seize up with beer." Isn't that great?