The French Love Sweaty People

Is it just me or do French people absolutely love sweaty people? Let me explain...I was watching the French Open this morning. Andy Roddick was beating the crap out of some guy and every so often he would call over the towel boy. For those of you who aren't tennis enthusiasts, the towel boy is the kid who runs over to the player with a towel. The player then wipes his sweat all over the towel and throws it back to the kid. The kid then stands back against the wall and waits until the player summons him once more.

Can you imagine the interview process for the job of towel boy? "Hi, thanks for your interest in the towel boy job. Now as you probably know, the job pretty much only entails holding a very sweaty towel. The towel will get progressively more sweaty as the day goes on, but you must still hold on to it. Do you accept the job?" The towel boy says, "Oui."

What a horrible job. I know, I know, you get to be within feet of the world's best tennis players, but at what cost? What I observed most about the Roddick match was that Andy was the sweatiest person in France since Lance Armstrong pedaled his way down the Champs Elysees. After Lance finished the race, mobs of Frenchies hugged him and high fived him. See what I mean? The French love sweaty people.

If I had the misfortune of being the towel boy, I'd insist that either a new towel was used every time the player wanted to deposit sweat, or I was a towel boy for, say, the French Chess Championship, or the French Spelling Bee, or the French Sitting Around Watching French Television Competition of France.