Journal November 3, 1963

November 3 (concluded)—Examples, paraphrased as little as possible: I saw a couple necking in the Métro last night–and you try to tell me that dating customs are different here from ours in the States!…I heard a little boy crying in the street, and he wasn’t crying in French. Therefore, people are just alike, no matter where they come from!…I’ve examined the Arc de Triomphe pretty [260] closely, and you can’t tell me that a Frenchman can have any trouble understanding our manuals as they stand.…You talk about anti- La Garde Républicaine American feeling: well, I’ve only spent five months of my life in Europe, but I’ve been here long enough to be certain that there is no such thing as anti-Yankee sentiment. How can you people who’ve lived here for years fail to understand this fact?…) And, as if this weren’t bad enough, he climaxed the insult by turning the time back over to Sister Jacobsen so that she could read the list of proposals that they two had worked out on the way TO the conference. She made a great point of the pre-conference origin of these ideas (we’re not responding to anything you’ve said). They were perhaps 40% acceptable but totally inadequate, from our point of view. It was as if to say that they were very glad to come to our silly little meeting, if it would make President Petersen feel any better, but that they had arrived with their minds made up, prepared to throw us this sop and to give us the choice between it and nothing at all [261] from the august heights of their Mormon-aristocratic provinciality. Frankly, I hope that President Petersen hears a good, full, unhappy report from President Hanks, and that his health will permit him to raise the stink that is currently in order. The stencilled notice translates as “POST NO BILLS” I’m guessing it was also intended to discourage graffiti… Saturday night, it was back to the Opéra to see Carmen. Thanks to President Dunyon’s emergency departure, Elder Bennion and I enjoyed the production from the comfort of Loge 39, dead-center on the third balcony, in the company of the Hinckleys, the Haights, and the Waterses. Another terrific section, and a splendid finish to an extraordinary week.

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