Cinco de Mayo: a date once of little note to Mexicans. St. Patrick’s Day: a date once of little note to the Irish. We Americans have drained those dates of their last, peculiar dregs of meaning and have made both of them better than the originals!
Why? How? What follows is a PowerPoint®-like, bulleted list explanation as to why we chose to enhance those particular days, with mentions of what the improved versions now feature:
• Springtime positioning (i.e., girls finally shedding annoying winter coverings)
• Limitless testosterone, with decades of only a small percentage of young men deployed in uniform
• Cerveza
• The phrase “they’re a happy, musical people”
• Enough vague ethnic pride instilled to result in a fleshy carpet of shamrock, Celtic cross, Notre Dame logo, Virgin of Guadalupe, tear drop, and/or voluptuous Aztec warrior-goddess tattoos
My laser pointer burned a hole in the third item on the list, didn’t it? That was to stress that the Plastic Paddies staggering under the weight of green plastic hats in March were reborn just yesterday as Plastic Pablos straining to support straw mini-sombreros. Two days of designated character building, annually. Surviving youngsters come away with hilarious, lurid anecdotes and some “bummer, dude” cautionary tales.
Italian-Americans blew their chance of going big with the Feast of San Gennaro because it’s in September, which is simply not autumny enough. September is the runt of the summer litter. It’s too back-to-schoolish. However, German-Americans score with Oktoberfest. Autumny enough! Achtung, mein St. Pauli girl.
Aren't these the folks who pray to Santo Muerte and go in for the Day Of The Dead? And what little I've heard of the music struck me as having strong laxative rather than aphrodisiac properties. Maybe I'll be lucky next time. Though the thought of Gringos going home foaming with killer pig flu and laying out their compatriots like skittles probably enhances their joy in living to a degree.
I'm not gone on the food, either. But I'd sooner eat it here than there. Recently a restauranteur "somewhere" in the border area with the USA confessed to serving up hundreds of drug war victims in his cooking. His nickname was "El Pozzolero", which means "The Stew-maker".
Nate—Columbus Day suffers from "Dead White European Male" syndrome. All thoroughly abashed American schoolchildren know they have no right to be playing, learning, and sleeping on sacred land stolen by Columbus, the greedy DWEM who destroyed the noble, peace-loving original inhabitants' hut hoppin’ lifestyle. And that also, I believe, is why "Columbo" was a far more popular program(me) in Europe than in America.
Concocted Mexican and Irish holidays carry no such baggage.
SWFL—I dug the link. "Elvis Country" put Elvis 37 ahead of me in album output.
There is quite a bit in common with the Irish and the Mexicans - as Nicholas pointed out, Dia de los Muertos has much in common with Samhain, or what we now refer to as Halloween. Several cultural anthropologists are working on the theory that one of St Brendan's voyages out west actually stopped in what is now modern day Vera Cruz. Several members of Brendan's crew stayed behind and mixed in with the indigenous Aztecs. Their descendants known as "Leprechanos" are still alive today and founded notable restaurant chains such as "Carlos O'Brien's."
Nicholas—El Pozzolero does have a cool nickname, but he likely has more work to do if he wants to match the numbers reached by 2008’s Tijuana acid vat man: 300+ bodies dissolved for the drug lords. This century gets livelier by the year.
New Pure drops - not so fast on your Columbo assessment. I distinctly remember a college drinking game where, whenever Peter Falk (Detective Columbo) raised his hands above his shoulders, everyone would have to drink. One episode had him ranting about the unfortunate effects of his wife's chili for nearly 6 minutes. That was one tough, long swill of cheap Rainier beer.
re: "happy, musical people"
Did not Yeats once declare that the Irish "have an abiding sense of tragedy that sustains them through temporary times of good fortune", or something to that effect?
Thank you for throwing light on the linkages in the histories of two great peoples.
Along those lines, my County Limerick father, between long medicinal gulps, once pointed to the eagle with the snake in its beak on the Mexican flag and explained that it was for that reason that there were no snakes in Ireland.
“So the brave eagles carried all the snakes away? Across the wide and salty sea?” I inquired.
“What? No, no, ” he replied, startled, “but you can carry home another bottle from the Lebanese market. Across the wide asphalt.”
And here I thought Cinco de Mayo was the day that a ship-full of mayonnaise was accidentally sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
My wife's older sister is crazy about the late Elvis Presley and worships him. We made the mistake of going to Graceland in Memphis with her once and that was enough for us. Both myself and my wife finished our tour of Graceland long before my sister-in-law did. I think my wife and I set a record for the fastest tour of Graceland ever.
Going from here to Memphis is an easy three hour drive on the interstate for us.
For people who are crazy about Elvis Presley and worship him, he is not "late", surely - he lives, and is sighted regularly; though not, one hopes, in the bathroom. That would gross me out for sure. Perhaps such sightings happen, but are not reported.
Faux—
Best part of Graceland is The King’s misspelled grave marker. Plus the eerie, ghostly aroma of deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Nicholas—
Of course, The King did shed his mortal coil whilst seated on the “throne.” Pray for the sanity of those cops, detectives, and ambulance dudes.
Every year our humble Phoenix St Pats day Parade features a ropin' -n- ridin' demonstration by real descendants from Los Patricios brigade. Chaps, big sombreros, crossed Mexican and Irish flags and Mariachi music - good stuff.
What I enjoy about the Cinco de Mayo event is that it is often mistaken for our American Quatro de Julio (a.k.a 4th of July) - when in fact it is not Mexican Independence day. It commemorates the victory of a bunch of peasants, armed with archaic weapons, pitchforks and cilantro, over a sleepy, half-drunk French brigade still in bed with the local working girls.
One small victory out of 10,000 loses, commemorated for the next several hundred years with alcohol and song. If that doesn't sound Irish I don't know what does.
We make our pozole with only the one z in these parts. I'm not sayin' exactly what other ingredients we make it with. Here in San Jose, mariachis complain a lot about the cruddy music put out those others -- "Those....those play-pretend mariachis." That's another thing Mexico has in common with Ireland
Atahualpa - next time you're driving by Story and King near little Saigon, please remind them they are no longer allowed to celebrate their Vietnamese heritage - they've all been absorbed into that great abyss known as "American Culture" - That goes for Japan town in SJ too. (Please excuse my reference to a previous plastic thread)
They're free to be whatever they want to be, as long as it's not Scottish. King and Story......seems like only yesterday -- close-on thirty years now -- I was the only non-mexican on one of the Friday night soccer teams at PAL. If the other guys (who were very often a Chicano team) got a direct free kick, and I was part of the wall....
Atahualpa—
In addition to bringing your appropriately cross-cultural name to this Hibernexican thread, your mariachi story brings me back to me a restaurant table in long-ago Peking/Beijing, where (cue the wavering harp music denoting the past) the Hong Kong and Taiwan folks with whom I was dining loudly and patronizingly insulted the quality of the Peking duck. In Peking, you see. Implying that the Peking duck “back home” was better than Peking duck in Peking. You see. Like what the mariachis said. In San Jose.
Batlady—
I refuse to believe I am the only one who has steadfastly awaited the appearance of a Nicaraguan (or Honduran) Englebert Humperdinck. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?
Odelay Atahualpa, I might have played against you back in the day! I grew up in San Panty-Jose. I'd have been the other gringo kid - the one without the hair-net by the lowered Impala, asking if I could bump a few Dubliners tunes in between the Los Tigres del Norte cassettes.
SWFL - admittedly, it's no O'Boobigans. Yet it does manage to "plastic-ize" two cultures in one fell swoop. You have to respect the effort when it comes to commercialization.
I eagerly await other Plastic Culinary Fusion attempts such as "Yao-Ming Murphy's" or perhaps "MacFujimori's Sushi Bar"
Jussa -- If you were born and raised in San Jose, then moved to Phoenix, you can never be other than a plastic Phoenixian. That is of course, if we were to judge you by the strict European standards regarding one's origins. "Plastic Phoenixian." That's got to hurt.
Oh it's far worse than that Atahualpa - I was born back east in Connecticut, then to SoCal, then to NorCal, then university in the northwest, and then to Phoenix. I'm a Plastic bi-coastal, NorSoWestian Phoenixian, with Irish grandparents, naturally.
SWFL -- If we were to operatee by the stricter standards enforced over in Europe, then Jussa would have to stand fast, mute, while "Real Phoenixians" fulfill their destiny.
You guys make me laugh! On my way to yoga, on the 5th, I passed by our local "Mactransfat" and saw a celebration in the parking lot; happy people, multi colored balloons and canned Santana music. We continue to morph.
We went through Graceland too fast to notice much of anything nor were we impressed. My favorite room was the one with the various musical instruments on display. We had to wait almost an hour at the exit for my sister-in-law.
If and when we do go back to Memphis and take my sister-in-law with us, we will probably (abandon) drop her off at Graceland for a few hours and find some other tourist distractions to visit while we are there.
I should have said, pork green chili. Yes Quigley, I have it all the time. I remember going back to the east coast back in 1989. I was in what I thought to be an authentic Mexican restaurant. Ordered the burrito and asked if they had green chili. The waitress had the strangest look on her face and said, " why, is there something wrong with it?" Hope they upgraded the menu by now.
Japhy Ryder -- What do you think of chile verde con queso? No puerco, just queso. It's a wonderful soup for cold weather, IMHO. I asked about your bowl of green chili because, for all I knew, you could have been in a part of the world where Mexican food is a novelty. Ever see New Englanders turn up their noses even at the mention of 'Local' chowder?
I don't blame New Englanders if they abhor irrigation by decoctions of this or that foully virulent Central American shamanic vegetable - though of course there have been oddball New Englanders who have gone for this, well, to try and blast New England out of their systems.
nicholas -- There aren't peppers in New England chowder, as we know it. Evidently, there is insufficient New England-ness in our chowder, though. (Shrugs)
("Chili's a practical JOKE, FFS, not a food!")
If you ever to go Texas, I must warn you not to say that while you are there, Nicholas. You might end up at the bottom of the river wearing concrete cowboy boots.
Mr. AQ, my fine Hiberno-Peruvian friend, it's because you keep calling it 'chowdeR'. It's pronounced 'chowdAH'. I was raised in the Granite State. I'd wager those poor folks have no idea what you are offering them.
"Sully, what is this 'chowdER' he keeps trying to give us?"
nicholas --
Feel free to mistreat any visiting Texans, for any pretext. You can dust off some of the more medieval implements if you like. With regard to chili pepers: I submit that if England introduced even a few chilis to the national diet, the country would spend far less on winter heating.
It can be, at times. Sometimes it can be an imperial power unto itself; using the rest of us as its vassals -- witness ENRON. Sometimes, its just plain folks. It is America in microcosm, really. Do you subscribe to the notion of giving Texas back to Mexico? It's a very popular idea out here these days. There are those among us who would willingly forfit any cleaning deposit.
I don't think we should give Texas back to Mexico because the Mexicans have enough problems of their own with adding Texas to their country. Also, both my wife and I have relatives living in Texas whom we try to visit once a year. If we give Texas back to Mexico, we would like to help our relatives move out of Texas first.
In Harry Turtledove's alternate history of the United States in which the Confederacy wins a certain most (Un)Civil War in the 1860's, the Confederate States and the United States fight a war during the 1880's because the Confederacy annexes northern Mexico and adds it to their territory.
Here on this forum, as in arguments with neighbors about "The Texas Question," I urge caution. As I see it, a Mexico augmented by Texas would soon be run by Texas. They'd make the PRI look like boyscouts. In its worst days, El PRI never wanted an overseas empire for its citizens.
Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Cinco de Mayo: a date once of little note to Mexicans. St. Patrick’s Day: a date once of little note to the Irish. We Americans have drained those dates of their last, peculiar dregs of meaning and have made both of them better than the originals!
Why? How? What follows is a PowerPoint®-like, bulleted list explanation as to why we chose to enhance those particular days, with mentions of what the improved versions now feature:
• Springtime positioning (i.e., girls finally shedding annoying winter coverings)
• Limitless testosterone, with decades of only a small percentage of young men deployed in uniform
• Cerveza
• The phrase “they’re a happy, musical people”
• Enough vague ethnic pride instilled to result in a fleshy carpet of shamrock, Celtic cross, Notre Dame logo, Virgin of Guadalupe, tear drop, and/or voluptuous Aztec warrior-goddess tattoos
My laser pointer burned a hole in the third item on the list, didn’t it? That was to stress that the Plastic Paddies staggering under the weight of green plastic hats in March were reborn just yesterday as Plastic Pablos straining to support straw mini-sombreros. Two days of designated character building, annually. Surviving youngsters come away with hilarious, lurid anecdotes and some “bummer, dude” cautionary tales.
Italian-Americans blew their chance of going big with the Feast of San Gennaro because it’s in September, which is simply not autumny enough. September is the runt of the summer litter. It’s too back-to-schoolish. However, German-Americans score with Oktoberfest. Autumny enough! Achtung, mein St. Pauli girl.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I applaud your astute analysis, sir!
There is one key difference, and that is the food.
While items such as corned beef and cabbage are easy on the intestines, I'm still recovering from an avalanche of jalapenos and salsa.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Italian Americans have Columbus Day
its only big here on the East Coast
they don't celebrate it down there in Elvis Country
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Nate Ryan
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Elvis Country? Donde esta el 'Elvis Country'?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Country_(I'm_10,000_Years_Old)
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Oh session.org and the disappearing closed parenthesis!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Country_(I'm_10,000_Years_Old)#Content
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
"Happy, musical people"...?
Aren't these the folks who pray to Santo Muerte and go in for the Day Of The Dead? And what little I've heard of the music struck me as having strong laxative rather than aphrodisiac properties. Maybe I'll be lucky next time. Though the thought of Gringos going home foaming with killer pig flu and laying out their compatriots like skittles probably enhances their joy in living to a degree.
I'm not gone on the food, either. But I'd sooner eat it here than there. Recently a restauranteur "somewhere" in the border area with the USA confessed to serving up hundreds of drug war victims in his cooking. His nickname was "El Pozzolero", which means "The Stew-maker".
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Nate—Columbus Day suffers from "Dead White European Male" syndrome. All thoroughly abashed American schoolchildren know they have no right to be playing, learning, and sleeping on sacred land stolen by Columbus, the greedy DWEM who destroyed the noble, peace-loving original inhabitants' hut hoppin’ lifestyle. And that also, I believe, is why "Columbo" was a far more popular program(me) in Europe than in America.
Concocted Mexican and Irish holidays carry no such baggage.
SWFL—I dug the link. "Elvis Country" put Elvis 37 ahead of me in album output.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
There is quite a bit in common with the Irish and the Mexicans - as Nicholas pointed out, Dia de los Muertos has much in common with Samhain, or what we now refer to as Halloween. Several cultural anthropologists are working on the theory that one of St Brendan's voyages out west actually stopped in what is now modern day Vera Cruz. Several members of Brendan's crew stayed behind and mixed in with the indigenous Aztecs. Their descendants known as "Leprechanos" are still alive today and founded notable restaurant chains such as "Carlos O'Brien's."
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I didn't realise that American schooling was drenched with guilt to quite that extent - it seems more like the UK or Canada.
But of course Columbus was a Latino, not a kosher Mayflower WASP. Maybe he's being allowed to slide in the charts for that reason.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Nicholas—El Pozzolero does have a cool nickname, but he likely has more work to do if he wants to match the numbers reached by 2008’s Tijuana acid vat man: 300+ bodies dissolved for the drug lords. This century gets livelier by the year.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
New Pure drops - not so fast on your Columbo assessment. I distinctly remember a college drinking game where, whenever Peter Falk (Detective Columbo) raised his hands above his shoulders, everyone would have to drink. One episode had him ranting about the unfortunate effects of his wife's chili for nearly 6 minutes. That was one tough, long swill of cheap Rainier beer.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
re: "happy, musical people"
Did not Yeats once declare that the Irish "have an abiding sense of tragedy that sustains them through temporary times of good fortune", or something to that effect?
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by will morgan
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Jusa—
Thank you for throwing light on the linkages in the histories of two great peoples.
Along those lines, my County Limerick father, between long medicinal gulps, once pointed to the eagle with the snake in its beak on the Mexican flag and explained that it was for that reason that there were no snakes in Ireland.
“So the brave eagles carried all the snakes away? Across the wide and salty sea?” I inquired.
“What? No, no, ” he replied, startled, “but you can carry home another bottle from the Lebanese market. Across the wide asphalt.”
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
And here I thought Cinco de Mayo was the day that a ship-full of mayonnaise was accidentally sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
My wife's older sister is crazy about the late Elvis Presley and worships him. We made the mistake of going to Graceland in Memphis with her once and that was enough for us. Both myself and my wife finished our tour of Graceland long before my sister-in-law did. I think my wife and I set a record for the fastest tour of Graceland ever.
Going from here to Memphis is an easy three hour drive on the interstate for us.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I think El Pozzolero claimed over 500.
But maybe he was boasting.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
For people who are crazy about Elvis Presley and worship him, he is not "late", surely - he lives, and is sighted regularly; though not, one hopes, in the bathroom. That would gross me out for sure. Perhaps such sightings happen, but are not reported.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Nicholas—
500—ambitious! (Sweeney Todd, the lazy man’s El Pozzolero.)
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Oh yes, and lest we forget, viva los San Patricios:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Battalion
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
You know, I kind of breezed through here and I've got a goulash of Colonial guilt, Elvis, Mexican drug lord stew and St. Brendan's taco stand.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Faux—
Best part of Graceland is The King’s misspelled grave marker. Plus the eerie, ghostly aroma of deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Nicholas—
Of course, The King did shed his mortal coil whilst seated on the “throne.” Pray for the sanity of those cops, detectives, and ambulance dudes.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Every year our humble Phoenix St Pats day Parade features a ropin' -n- ridin' demonstration by real descendants from Los Patricios brigade. Chaps, big sombreros, crossed Mexican and Irish flags and Mariachi music - good stuff.
What I enjoy about the Cinco de Mayo event is that it is often mistaken for our American Quatro de Julio (a.k.a 4th of July) - when in fact it is not Mexican Independence day. It commemorates the victory of a bunch of peasants, armed with archaic weapons, pitchforks and cilantro, over a sleepy, half-drunk French brigade still in bed with the local working girls.
One small victory out of 10,000 loses, commemorated for the next several hundred years with alcohol and song. If that doesn't sound Irish I don't know what does.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
We make our pozole with only the one z in these parts. I'm not sayin' exactly what other ingredients we make it with. Here in San Jose, mariachis complain a lot about the cruddy music put out those others -- "Those....those play-pretend mariachis." That's another thing Mexico has in common with Ireland
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
SWFL—
Please don’t forget the mayonnaise and the college drinking game.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
put out BY those others
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Atahualpa - next time you're driving by Story and King near little Saigon, please remind them they are no longer allowed to celebrate their Vietnamese heritage - they've all been absorbed into that great abyss known as "American Culture" - That goes for Japan town in SJ too. (Please excuse my reference to a previous plastic thread)
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
They're free to be whatever they want to be, as long as it's not Scottish. King and Story......seems like only yesterday -- close-on thirty years now -- I was the only non-mexican on one of the Friday night soccer teams at PAL. If the other guys (who were very often a Chicano team) got a direct free kick, and I was part of the wall....
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Atahualpa—
In addition to bringing your appropriately cross-cultural name to this Hibernexican thread, your mariachi story brings me back to me a restaurant table in long-ago Peking/Beijing, where (cue the wavering harp music denoting the past) the Hong Kong and Taiwan folks with whom I was dining loudly and patronizingly insulted the quality of the Peking duck. In Peking, you see. Implying that the Peking duck “back home” was better than Peking duck in Peking. You see. Like what the mariachis said. In San Jose.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Nombre Hiberno-Peruano, pero no importa.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Tut, tut. Let us not forget that other melding of questionable cultural heritage:
El Vaz, the Mexican Elvis.
http://www.elvez.net/
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Michele Sims
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Atahualpa—
I went for "cross-cultural," sensing that Inca ring. Perhaps after utilizing Google.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Batlady—
I refuse to believe I am the only one who has steadfastly awaited the appearance of a Nicaraguan (or Honduran) Englebert Humperdinck. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I found Jusa's Carlos O'Brien's, lovin' the logo!
http://www.azeats.com/CarlosOBriens/default.htm
Yes, I'll have the Columbo beer bucket special with extra mayo.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Odelay Atahualpa, I might have played against you back in the day! I grew up in San Panty-Jose. I'd have been the other gringo kid - the one without the hair-net by the lowered Impala, asking if I could bump a few Dubliners tunes in between the Los Tigres del Norte cassettes.
# Posted on May 6th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
SWFL - admittedly, it's no O'Boobigans. Yet it does manage to "plastic-ize" two cultures in one fell swoop. You have to respect the effort when it comes to commercialization.
I eagerly await other Plastic Culinary Fusion attempts such as "Yao-Ming Murphy's" or perhaps "MacFujimori's Sushi Bar"
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Jussa -- If you were born and raised in San Jose, then moved to Phoenix, you can never be other than a plastic Phoenixian. That is of course, if we were to judge you by the strict European standards regarding one's origins. "Plastic Phoenixian." That's got to hurt.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Now wait a second, wouldn't a plastic phoenix just melt when it did the whole 'rising from the flames and ashes' thing?
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Oh it's far worse than that Atahualpa - I was born back east in Connecticut, then to SoCal, then to NorCal, then university in the northwest, and then to Phoenix. I'm a Plastic bi-coastal, NorSoWestian Phoenixian, with Irish grandparents, naturally.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
SWFL -- If we were to operatee by the stricter standards enforced over in Europe, then Jussa would have to stand fast, mute, while "Real Phoenixians" fulfill their destiny.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
operate
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I did have a bowl of green chili.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
You guys make me laugh! On my way to yoga, on the 5th, I passed by our local "Mactransfat" and saw a celebration in the parking lot; happy people, multi colored balloons and canned Santana music. We continue to morph.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Leendah
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Japhy Ryder -- Did you like it?
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
We went through Graceland too fast to notice much of anything nor were we impressed. My favorite room was the one with the various musical instruments on display. We had to wait almost an hour at the exit for my sister-in-law.
If and when we do go back to Memphis and take my sister-in-law with us, we will probably (abandon) drop her off at Graceland for a few hours and find some other tourist distractions to visit while we are there.
# Posted on May 7th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I should have said, pork green chili. Yes Quigley, I have it all the time. I remember going back to the east coast back in 1989. I was in what I thought to be an authentic Mexican restaurant. Ordered the burrito and asked if they had green chili. The waitress had the strangest look on her face and said, " why, is there something wrong with it?" Hope they upgraded the menu by now.
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I know a couple of Irish-Mexican places, usually Irish beer and Mexican food involved, I guess the reverse combination is not as appealing........
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Irish stew and coronita?
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Ramiro
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Now, now, flatulence will get you nowhere !
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by murfbox
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Japhy Ryder -- What do you think of chile verde con queso? No puerco, just queso. It's a wonderful soup for cold weather, IMHO. I asked about your bowl of green chili because, for all I knew, you could have been in a part of the world where Mexican food is a novelty. Ever see New Englanders turn up their noses even at the mention of 'Local' chowder?
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
The visiting New Englanders, I mean.
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I don't blame New Englanders if they abhor irrigation by decoctions of this or that foully virulent Central American shamanic vegetable - though of course there have been oddball New Englanders who have gone for this, well, to try and blast New England out of their systems.
Chili's a practical JOKE, FFS, not a food!
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
nicholas -- There aren't peppers in New England chowder, as we know it. Evidently, there is insufficient New England-ness in our chowder, though. (Shrugs)
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
("Chili's a practical JOKE, FFS, not a food!")
If you ever to go Texas, I must warn you not to say that while you are there, Nicholas. You might end up at the bottom of the river wearing concrete cowboy boots.
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Mr. AQ, my fine Hiberno-Peruvian friend, it's because you keep calling it 'chowdeR'. It's pronounced 'chowdAH'. I was raised in the Granite State. I'd wager those poor folks have no idea what you are offering them.
"Sully, what is this 'chowdER' he keeps trying to give us?"
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Good point, SWFL.
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
nicholas --
Feel free to mistreat any visiting Texans, for any pretext. You can dust off some of the more medieval implements if you like. With regard to chili pepers: I submit that if England introduced even a few chilis to the national diet, the country would spend far less on winter heating.
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
PEPPERS
# Posted on May 8th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
But Atahualpa Quigley, I thought Texas was supposed to be a foreign country.
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
It can be, at times. Sometimes it can be an imperial power unto itself; using the rest of us as its vassals -- witness ENRON. Sometimes, its just plain folks. It is America in microcosm, really. Do you subscribe to the notion of giving Texas back to Mexico? It's a very popular idea out here these days. There are those among us who would willingly forfit any cleaning deposit.
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
I don't think we should give Texas back to Mexico because the Mexicans have enough problems of their own with adding Texas to their country. Also, both my wife and I have relatives living in Texas whom we try to visit once a year. If we give Texas back to Mexico, we would like to help our relatives move out of Texas first.
In Harry Turtledove's alternate history of the United States in which the Confederacy wins a certain most (Un)Civil War in the 1860's, the Confederate States and the United States fight a war during the 1880's because the Confederacy annexes northern Mexico and adds it to their territory.
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Here on this forum, as in arguments with neighbors about "The Texas Question," I urge caution. As I see it, a Mexico augmented by Texas would soon be run by Texas. They'd make the PRI look like boyscouts. In its worst days, El PRI never wanted an overseas empire for its citizens.
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
you just reminded me a little song I wrote for a friend, called "all my texts are to my ex's" (sung to the tune of "All my ex's live in Texas")
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by airport
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
[rolls on floor, laughs posterior off]
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
LOL, airport. Give it to us (George)"Strait".
SWFL Fiddler, have you managed to re-attach your posterior yet?
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
aw shucks, thanks guys - when I get my grammy, I'll be sure to mention y'all
# Posted on May 9th 2009 by airport
Re: Cinco de Mayo (St. Patrick’s Day, Jr.)
Don't mention me, I like my anonymity.
# Posted on May 10th 2009 by fauxcelt