Today’s depressing vocabulary items are brought to you by Olivier Peru and Sophian Cholet’s magisterial bande dessinée Zombies. The non-depressing vocabulary item is a prerequisite for getting my French visa renewed. Don’t think that ANY of these vocabulary iterms are non-depressing? First World Problems, baby, First World Problems… (First World Problem explained in the English notes below.)
English notes
First World Problem: Something that could only count as a problem if the rest of your life is better than that of most people on the planet. Examples of First World Problems that I’ve had recently:
- When my long-awaited new iPhone finally showed up, it was the wrong color.
- The Singaporean noodles in the United lounge came in really small containers–like, two mouthfuls.
- I didn’t get surclassé (upgraded) on a cross-country flight.
The better I get at distinguishing my First World Problems from real problems, the happier I get, and I’m already the happiest person you know…
Zipf's Law 
Say ‘aye’ to that man … we first Worlders (or am I second world because I’m not American), we know nothing of real basic need. We have instead a greed on a scale of mild to unfettered that lusts after what we think is need. Avoir le cafard? Yup – often
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Theoretically, I would suppose 1st World is Europe. 2nd World is America. 3rd World is everything else. But if you are The Donald, 1st World is the US, and everything else is 3rd World. If you are from New York City, the only world is New York.
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…and if you’re from Paris, it goes without saying–OF COURSE it’s Paris at the center of the world/universe. Parigot and Proud…
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My stepson was raised in Massachusetts. At his school, every year they had a ‘world day’. On arrival in the morning they would reach into a box and draw a number 1, 2 or 3 which de opted whether they were first second or third world for the day. First World was the USA, Second was Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australasia and parts of Asia and third was Africa, parts of Asia and bits of Eastern Europe. Russia didn’t figu’re at all. Massachusetts is a liberal State. For my part I think that those that set out to define are underlining their own ignorance and that M. le Trump exemplifies my theory 😉
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Personally, I’ve always thought that the zombie is a metaphor for American consumerism.
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Kevin, I’m still not quite sure how you play the matching game.
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Ah, OK. You have to match the English and the French.
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