Le Grinch

It can’t happen here:

France, a country where leisure time is sacrosanct, is mulling a radical plan for financing health care after a heat wave estimated to have killed thousands: Make people work on a national holiday.

The idea, which the government floated Wednesday, immediately split opinion and provoked one main question – which of France’s 11 national holidays should go? Labor Day, perhaps, or a religious festival?

No, really — it can’t happen here. Imagine the uproar if some politician suggested crimping the kids’ biggest day, to pay for grandma’s dentures.

On the other hand, Christmas here is pretty much a glorious day of untrammeled consumerism, and we seem to save most of our holiest feelings for Easter.

That’s opposed to France, which performs all its mystical worship on Labor Day.