The Spanish word “menudo” has several meanings. It is not only the official soup/stew
of Cinco de Mayo, it also means “small change.” Of course, the term is probably best
known in the non-Hispanic community as the name of a certain Boy Band. Here is a
handful of “menudo” blurbs for the Fifth of May, which prove that small can be priceless:
The history of Cinco de Mayo gives an ironic twist to the week that saw
much sturm und drang across the nation over the May 1st activities supporting immi-
gration (prior post) As the folks at VIVA! CInco De Mayo (San Marcos, TX) point out:
“So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well?
Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army
of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May
5, 1862.
“… When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their
cavalry was being chased by Diaz’ superb horsemen miles away. The Mexi-
cans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confed-
erate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest
army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at
Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the
Civil War.
“It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those
brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?
” . . .Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans.
That’s why Cinco de Mayo is such a party — A party that celebrates freedom and liberty.
There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder
to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!”
Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow posted “Another unsolicited testimonial” at his
This Modern World weblog yesterday (May 4, 2006). Regular readers of f/k/a surely know
already how much we appreciate TT’s insightful (and painfully humorous) commentary —
see, e.g., this post and that one. But, Tom probably doesn’t. So, we want to add one more
unsolicited [does fishing for compliments count?] testimonial about Tom’s This Modern World
comic strip.
“Every week, Tom Tomorrow finds a way to (a) insightfully lampoon
the inept-amoral Bush Administration and/or the cowardly and
self-serving Democrats; and (b) make me smile and want to share
the newest strip with all the thoughtful and/or witty people I know.”
david giacalone, editor, f/k/a
This week, my copy of Tom’s newest book-compilation, Hell in a Handbasket, arrived
and it has made my long sessions in the f/k/a Bathroom/Library most enjoyable. His
October 3, 2002, strip would have been a wonderful adjunct to last weekend’s post
“a question for True Majority,” and I wish I could link to it. The strip starts with Senators
Clinton and Daschle voting to give Pres. Bush the authority to go to war, but threatening
to spring into action after the election. After a few more years of Democratic waffling, it
ends in 2143, with the cryogenically preserved brains of the two Senators considering
whether to issue a statement supporting the restoration of democracy.
Note: you can find each week’s new TMW strip at Working for Change.
It’s TMW archive goes back to Feb. 4, 2003. If the strip is not available in
one of your local newspapers, complain about it.
great, I can always get some sustenance from my “Referer Page,” which reminds
me just how often Mr. Google and Ms. Yahoo! send their little querists to our humble
website. For example:
May 5, 2006
As happened in November 2005, a Google search today for democratic morality>
placed our post towards a “democratic morality” and majority in the #1 spot.
There are more than a 9 million results now; last November there were 4.6 million.
meaning of virtual firm> The first result out of 13 million in this Google search
was our post decrying the loose use of language by the first-user-techies. See
Can We Talk About “Virtual” English?
legally insane Kentucky> Okay, this is rather inadvertent, but still fun in a Prof.
Yabutty kind of way. Our Kentucky says every blawg post is an ad is the first
Google result (out of 1.2 million) for this query.
May 4, 2006
how to spell goombah> This Google search led directly to our educational post
“goomba goombah gumba gumbah,” where — as the title suggests — we equivocated
(with explanation) on just how to spell this Sicilio-American slang term, but gave
a great lecture on its meaning.
mph900> Our discussion of this leading edge bit of police gadetry was the #1 result
(out of only 28) in this Google search. See Old Dorp: less backwards! less appealing?
In case you forgot:
Mobile Plate Hunter 900 from RemingtonELSAG. MPH900 is at the leading
edge of license plate recognition technology. What does that mean? Mounted
atop a police vehicle, the device can:
“scan 20 license plates a second and then feed the information into
a computer database to determine if the owners are wanted for any-
thing from unpaid parking tickets and lapsed vehicle registration to
murder and robbery.” [“Plate Hunter 900 has your number,” Times
Union [Albany], April 20, 2006 (reprinted here) ]
entry on our TISK! pt. 3 page:
August 10, 2005
+”new jersey” +soup slurping> #1 out of 856 results in this Google search
was the May 4, 2005 dual posting of omertaEsq? gagged in new jersey (about
N.J. lawyer disciplinary procedural rule 1:20 – 9(a), which has been interpreted
to bar anyone filing a complaint against a lawyer from making the complaint
public) and cuatro de mayo – soups and sticks (about Mexican Menudo soup),
which included this haiku from Kobayashi Issa:
plum blossom scent–
slurping it in
with the vegetable soup
translated by David Lanoue
We tried this same Google search today, and had slipped to the #2 slot, behind
Dumb.com‘s listing of dumb New Jersey laws — which says that soup-slurping is
unlawful in NJ (a Commentor there disagrees). There were fewer than 900 returns
last year, but over 10,000 today.
Don’t forget, there are dozens of additional examples of strange, silly or supurb search engine results on our Inadvertent Searchee pages.
Mexican dinner with friends) won’t be until Sunday. Whenever yours may happen,
may it be with much menudo and many amigos.
Heaven’s River
of stars
in my soup
David G. Lanoue from his novel Haiku Guy
dusty cookbooks:
his soup can
in the sink
