Monday, November 03, 2008

Inner City Pressure

Dear People and Marketing Machines Everywhere:

Stop using "Olé!" as a catchall/cutesy non-sequitur anytime something of or related to Mexico comes up. (Especially recipes. For some reason it especially burns me up to see "Olé!" at the end of some recipe that's got "Mexican" in its name because Betty Sue decided to throw some corn in it.) Just stop it. Following are a few reasons why:

1) "¡Olé!" is an expression from Spain, not Mexico.
2) Spain is actually a different country. This means it is not Mexico.
3) John McCain may be ignorant of this fact, but you don't have to be: Spain is actually in Europe (an entirely different continent, it turns out!).
4) Mexico is our immediate neighbor to the south. In fact, Mexico is two hours south of Los Angeles (which does sort of explain a lot of the place names here, doesn't it? Like "Los Angeles."). The preponderance of Mexican culture evidenced, oh, EVERYWHERE AROUND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, should be enough evidence alone to curb the use of "Olé!" in U.S. advertising and editorial. Cause, you know, you could ask somebody. If you aren't sure. You know.
5) Because it makes me almost as furious as:
- "Cheese quesadilla" ("Quesadilla" being a word based on "queso," this is not unlike saying "hair wig" or "iPod mp3 player.")
- "Tortilla roll" (Taco. It's a taco. With a few glaring exceptions you can probably think of on your own, anything in a tortilla is a taco.)
- "Tortilla wrap" (See above.)
6) Because it's as asinine as that one fruit vendor on Flight of the Conchords who wouldn't sell fruit to Bret and Jemaine because he thought they were Aussies. Only like totally not funny!


Thanks.

Love,
Emma

3 comments:

Erica said...

I loved that episode of FotC! Can't wait for the next season.

P said...

This is brilliant. Arriba!

Emma said...

Erica -- me neither!! And did you hear Jemaine's wife just had a baby boy, whom they named Sophocles? Er...

P -- A sus órdenes.