Pizza!!! que? Pizza!!! que? Pizza!!! que? Tostada Italiano!!! Ay, muy bueno!!!

[MiddleFingerMom]

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"Pizza Patrón, a 104-unit, carry-out pizza chain headquartered in Dallas, is raising eyebrows both inside and outside the Latino community with a planned promotion to give away thousands of large pepperoni pizzas on the evening of June 5 to folks who order in Spanish."
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"It can be broken Spanish. It can be first-time Spanish. But it has to be Spanish."
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"One conservative group doesn't like it, either. "It seems to punish people who can't speak Spanish, and I resent that," says Peter Thomas, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, which advocates English as the nation's spoken language. "In public areas, people should be speaking English, and that includes pizza parlors.""
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"Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the advocacy group National Council of La Raza, says, "For people to get offended or upset at this seems a little bit silly. It doesn't preclude anybody. Anyone can say, 'por favor.' ""
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Ay, Lisa... you underestimate the ignorance!!!
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http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-05-22/free-pizza-order-in-spanish/55143404/1
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[lunatica]

1. LOL!

Give it another generation and we'll see how much Spanish is spoken. Here in California our ballots are in various languages. Spanish being quite prominent. Our cities and parks and streets are named with Spanish names.

It's Moctuzuma's real revenge baby!

[Raine]

16. Yup, I live on a street with a Spanish name and here in my area of Los Angeles County

Last edited Thu May 24, 2012, 04:20 AM - Edit history (1)

it's considered elite to live on a street with a Spanish name.

[lonestarnot]

21. Is the name of that "spainish" street Takeco?

[Raine]

26. Uh no

I posted fast and my spelling was off, shame on me. I guess I'm not up on the latest snark, you kinda lost me.

[lonestarnot]

27. Soright Bobalouie.

[Retrograde]

23. I live in a Spanish-named town in a Spanish-named county

in a (sort of) Spanish-named state that used to be part of Mexico. But an English-named street.

A couple of miles down from me in a neighborhood populated largely by people of Mexican and Central American ancestry there's a new business: a Chinese/pizza place with signs in Spanish.

[surrealAmerican]

2. These people are too much.

Last edited Wed May 23, 2012, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)

When a business wants to deny service to non-English speakers, they are a private business, and it's up to them who they serve. When they want to run a promotion that requires a few words of another language for a discount, they're suddenly "public areas", and "punishing" people who don't want to speak Spanish?

[JHB]

3. Easy: you have to order it in Italian...

...because no one could possibly confuse per favore and por favor

[jberryhill]

4. It's all about "liberty" with these guys...

...until someone they don't like exercises it.

[gratuitous]

5. Somebody wanna call the whaaaambulance for Peter Thomas?

He has a sad.

[MrScorpio]

6. Peter Thomas' reaction is instructive here

It's cleary resentment from the perceived loss of advantage as a singularly English speaking white person.

Motherfuckers like this are being the "English as an official language" movement in this country. That movement is nothing more than an attempt to codify white privilege and discrimination against different ethnic and cultural groups in America. So, now that he's seeing that the tables are turned he wants to cry foul. Of course it's nothing of the sort, Pizza Patrón is a private commercial enterprise that has absolutely no influence on government policy.

The company never stipulated that only Latinos are eligible for this promotion. There are many whites living in Texas who are fluent Spanish speakers, as well as many Latinos who can't speak fluent Spanish.

So no harm, no foul.

La Raza is right, this is silly.

[alp227]

31. Remember the Philadelphia restaurant owner with the English only sign?

That would be Geno's Cheesesteaks. Thomas would've applauded owner Joseph Vento over this, but when a Latino restaurant turns the tables, Thomas goes into a panic with teary eyes.

I discovered this pizza restaurant story when I peeked at my local station carrying "The Savage Nation". Guest host (and Edmund Burke Institute president) Jeff Kuhner was HYSTERICAL, even calling the promotion an attack and insult on Middle American values. It seems that English as the True American (TM) language is a RELIGION to people like Kuhner and Thomas, even though the constitution never said a damn thing about an official language.

[MineralMan]

7. You'd really have to try not to learn at least a little basic

Spanish if you lived in Texas, or any of the other southwestern states. Spanish is everywhere. To keep from learning any Spanish at all, you'd have to make a deliberate effort, it seems to me. From place names to ads on stores all over the place, Spanish is everywhere.

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. I am VERY disappointed in myself for NOT learning much more than restaurant Spanish. VERY.

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I visited here at least annually since '81 and have lived here for 14 years.
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I was FLUENT in German after living there for 4 years (and really applying myself).
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I've decided to start learning Spanish as of this week. Shame on me. Shame, shame.
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Waiting for the bus today, I "spoke" with an extremely nice Mexican woman in her 50's(?) who
spoke almost no English whatsoever, but was hoping (less and less) to find work. She said if
you don't speak SOME English, Tucson was a hard place to find work.
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(????????)
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She also had lived in Texas and said they did NOT have that problem
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We "talked" about the weather and I was able to, ahem... voice my displeasure with Texas
summer humidity over Tucson's by flicking my fingers in my armpits and crying, "AGUA... AGUA".
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We both laughed our asses off over that (and agreed with it, too).
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[MineralMan]

12. It doesn't take much language skill

to communicate to some degree. Anytime I've traveled to a place where I didn't know the language, I've taken the time to learn to be polite in that language. Greetings, goodbyes, counting, pleases and thank yous. And then I learn one important phrase that seems to make up for my ignorance: "I am sorry I speak {language} so poorly. I am a beginner." That usually triggers a fun lesson in the language that teaches me something. If I'm in that place long enough, I get better.

Finally, laughter is the same in all languages, as are smiles. They speak volumes.

I first started this practice when I found out I would be stationed in Turkey while in the USAF. I went to the base library and got records that taught basic Turkish and studied them right there at the library. It worked great, and by the time I left Turkey, 15 months later, I could carry on most normal conversations. It's easy, and it's fun, and you get to meet real people where you are.

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. A SMALL minority of the troops in Germany gained real fluency in the language...

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... despite the 3-1/2 year tours. In Japan (where the language is even HARDER to learn)... very, very few
gained fluency).
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I worked for a Physician's Asst in Germany whose wife was Japanese and he was VERY fluent. Riding the
bus home one day, he gave up his seat to an elderly woman and stood near two young Japanese women.
They started giggling and, assuming ignorance on his part, one asked the other, "I wonder if all Americans
smell so badly."
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He smiled and said, "I wonder if all young Japanese women are so rude."
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Beet-red embarrassment and he said the elderly Japanese woman was laughing so hard that she almost fell
out of her seat.
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[MineralMan]

17. People almost never think Americans know any language

but English. They are sometimes surprised.

[MiddleFingerMom]

19. Sometimes... but there's WAY 'Murrcans" out there who will say...

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... "They're in MY country... let them speak MY language" while at the same time saying overseas, "I'm here,
let them learn English."
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I think most European countries (at least) STRESS learning one (or MORE) additional languages. It's not much
more than a degree requirement here (sometimes).
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I don't think nearly enough of our countrymen/women have discarded the Ugly American model.
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[50 shades of grey]

30. I am so glad you agree!

Because, of course, you are also applying this sentiment to HISPANIC, no? Or is it only the Ugly Americans who have to respect the country they're in?

[nykym]

8. Hey Pete

Peter Thomas es una puta conservadora
CAn you hear me now?

[Solly Mack]

10. What an idiot.

[hifiguy]

11. Pizza Patron is gonna have a hell of a lot of new

customers if their 'za is any good. Silly baggers.

[MiddleFingerMom]

14. I HOPE that's true. I admired their accepting pesos (Michiganders have been been accepting...

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... Canadian dollars for decades in Michigan -- though they're not known for an abundance of "brown" people,
now are they... hmmmm, Mr Thomas?)
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But the PP marketing exec(?) in the article said that people see their $4.99 large 1-topping price and wonder
about how good it could be. We have a 3.99 all-you-can-eat pizza buffet (with a salad bar and dessert
pizzas) that is probably not worth every penny you paid for it. And how Little Caesar's, which is indistinguishable
from, not frozen pizza but CHEAP frozen pizza has survived all this time is way beyond me.
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I applaud their efforts. If I were in the area, it would definitely entice ME into trying (and becoming a VERY
loyal progressive customer if their wares turned out to be good.
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[OriginalGeek]

15. lol, i like Little Ceasar's

I mean, for 4 bucks? hell yeah. That shit will soak up a LOT of beer. I am by no means suggesting it's good pizza - I am saying it is a good 4 dollar round thing with some cheese like stuff on it.

But even then, I like them better than Dominos, Pizza Hut and Papa John's.


If I want Pizza, I call my guy at Bronx Pizza. THAT guy knows pie.


I wish I lived in Dallas still though - I'd try those Pizza Pronto's fellas JUST to piss off that glue sniffing racist. Drive by his house hollering MUY BIEN!

[MiddleFingerMom]

18. You know, I've heard enough people sing their "praises" in the last few years...

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... to suspect that they may have upgraded their product considerably. It used to be $3-4 for the equivalent
taste, etc. of a $1 frozen pizza.
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Pizza Hut? Blech. The other two, I like -- especially Domino's.
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[OriginalGeek]

24. lol well I'm not sure "praise" is the right word..

more like drunken acceptance that this 5 dollar bill will get me filled up in a few minutes with a pizza shaped food substitute.

That probably won't poison me.

Probably.

I do rely on the existing alcohol to kill off the meaner bits.



I liked Dominos when I worked for them 20 years ago but I think they've changed something. It just ain't the same. Maybe I'm looking through rose colored tonsils.

[Aerows]

28. I love Little Ceasar's

I wish we had one where I live now. I used to get it all the time when I lived in New Orleans.

[jtuck004]

20. What a great way to get hundreds of adults to study another language. Even a little. n/t

[Bolo Boffin]

22. Can the tantrums get any more childish than this? n/t

[fishwax]

25. saw this story earlier -- seems like an awesome promotion

No surprise that the chairman of the Conservative Caucus would object

[EFerrari]

29. When Latinos do it, it's discrimination. When they do it

it's the invisible hand of the free market.

lol