Then there's the presumed stereotypes of themselves the French project onto others (as contained in the French words "French/Frenchie"). Almost always surprising.
It's still wrong, though: people think Johnson is people like them, ie tells an approximation of the truth, except when he's lying. But in fact what Johnson does is tell the narrative that suits him, and only the truth if that's what lends his narrative credibility. That is, he's not *even* a liar.
There's this American word "casserole" they use a lot, but which never appears on their menus, and I suspect explains why they eat out or order in so often.
This question wasn't written for us, it was written for a deadline and a page count. Sometimes there's no alternative.
The best bits in the Boris Johnson memoirs are the unintentional revelations. Here, we learn that the Queen read government briefings, and he didn't.
Imagine a man worthy of PM: "I was certainly very ill. And very frightened, though medics quickly reassured me about my prospects; as PM, it's no surprise that the level of care I had was the very highest possible. As I fought to snatch scrappy breaths, I thought of the hundreds of thousands of..."
Yes, though I once refused to slip into a coma for fear I'd wake up in a 1970s police procedural.
I suppose that's the pain of accidental divorce - we still want to identify with the soulmate we've lost, even as life pulls us apart, which becomes a less and less sound basis for a future relationship.
My dad was famous in our house for having a letter of complaint published (maybe in the Radio Times?) after the BBC's early evening graphic coverage of the storming. It must have been my young eyes he was concerned for. I don't remember much, but the duck rings a bell.