Seriously dude - I have no idea what language you are speaking but it is not something I am familiar with. Butterfinger? Dick Candybar? OK, the candy bit says to me that Nevernever land is in the US - we call them lollies over here in OZ.

Mon Americane ne pas bon - parlez vous Anglais et Francais?

(translation - My American is very bad - do you speak English or French)

Hmm - let's try another tack - "Parda da bonapalone?"

BORK - hmmm - sounds like something the Swedish chef on the muppets would say - Wolfie, can you help me out here?

Sorry Groj...I only addressed it to you as you were the originator of the thread. I assumed(and wrongly so) that you supported the protest. My apologies for assuming. [img]smile.gif[/img] The points I raised were actually meant for everyone though. [img]smile.gif[/img]

AFA the protest itself...like I said, if it were addressed differently, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Heck, I even offered an idea for renaming American Cheese. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Erm, I didn't actually *say* that I thought it was violent. Just mean spirited and in poor taste. [img]smile.gif[/img] Violent would be actually trying to shove the pretzel down his throat. [img]smile.gif[/img]

And yeah, I tend to agree. None of them will improve our relations. But that's not really the point. The point of a protest isn't really to *improve* anything, it's to express displeasure.

I happen to think that the symbolic protests are a bit over the top too. I'm of the opinion that, if you're going to protest something, you should make an *impactful* statement. A boycott of French Wine, for instance. ;) That's something that actually has *impact*, and means something. This is just petty, small minded bickering, and, in the long run is kind of silly. But hey, like I said, people are entitled to their opinion. Some people should just express it a bit better. As has been pointed out, at least the proceeds are going to charity, and that's always a good thing. [img]smile.gif[/img]

For me, pouring wine is vandalism, not protest. Do you see us pouring coke or squeeshing hamburgers on the ground ?

Changing name of french fries is a linguistic attack. Trying indeed to erase the "french" word, just as if it was an insult in your mouth.

Those both things can be viewed as attacks toward french in general.

The bretzel incident on the other hand, is an attack, I agree a bit mean, toward Bush himself. And only him. And thaz really protesting against him, his policy or his ideas.

On a side note : If the poor guy actually died from it, we wouldnt make fun of that so loud for sure.

And BTW, very important : Bretzels are from Austria/Germany, not from USA.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but, after having witnessed some of the things, and being subjected to some of the things I was subjected to post 9-11(and I'm not just talking about here on IW, I'm talking about life in general)...I have to say that I think you're wrong about your first point. You weren't here to see the garbage and hate that was spewed on this very board.

LOL...Yep, I know that they weren't from the US. Erm, I though they were from Bavaria...or, is my lack of culinary geography showing again?

EDIT: Because I'm an idiot, who cant seem to handle simple HTML. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 03-19-2003, 09:26 AM: Message edited by: Nachtrafe ]

Hey c'mon guys!
First do you really think that the guy who made this thought: "if we send him enough pretzels he'll surely choke again and die".
Nobody wants Bush death (at least the normal people). And to die from eating a pretzel, let me think ... i dont believe it.
I must say I took it as a joke, not very kind but a joke.

Back to the issue protests: at least in France no politics try to do some sort of protests except with demos.
What shocked me was that it was senators or other politics that proposed boycotting or changing names of french fries and so on.

The US politicians didn't come up with the idea of changing the name to Freedom Fries. Several businesses across the country started doing this, and the politicians saw that it was popular and decided to change the name of the Fries in the House of Representatives cafeteria. You know politicians. They never miss any opportunity to be in the lime light. [img]smile.gif[/img]

It isn't something they are trying to change around the country, they simply changed the name in their own cafeteria after the individuals doing the same had received lots of publicity.

Seriously dude - I have no idea what language you are speaking but it is not something I am familiar with. Butterfinger? Dick Candybar? OK, the candy bit says to me that Nevernever land is in the US - we call them lollies over here in OZ.

Mon Americane ne pas bon - parlez vous Anglais et Francais?

(translation - My American is very bad - do you speak English or French)

Hmm - let's try another tack - "Parda da bonapalone?"

BORK - hmmm - sounds like something the Swedish chef on the muppets would say - Wolfie, can you help me out here?</font>[/QUOTE]Yo hablo Espanol un piccitto y parley moi Fracasis a pettite. No comprendo? Que no?

Butterfinger is a chocolate bar. I remembered that there was some type of confectioners treat by the name of Dick in Oz but wasn't sure what type. We have lolly pops here too. (Tries to ignore childish thoughts... [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

I was just responding to your suggestion of silliness with silliness. I agree ... these tit for tat "protests" are just silly.

That and it's a full moon out, and Spring is approaching in Nevernever Land.

Soooo ...... BORK! Bork borkborkbork ...... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

PS Much good is English mine. [img]graemlins/erm.gif[/img]

I'm sorry, but if you take the pouring out of wine as a personal insult, you have really thin skin. And how can if be vandalism? Vandalism involves destroying someone else's propery. The wine has already been paid for. It belonged to private citzens, or liquor store owners that allowed it to happen. I do not know of any burglaries just to protest French wine.

Also, if you want to boycott Coke or McDonalds .... go right ahead. Pour it down your drains (Coke is a useful cleaning agent [img]tongue.gif[/img] ).In light of the "protests" on this side of the pond, that makes more sense in this tit fot tat childnessness. It would not be insulting though.

This "pretzel protest" implies that Bush should die, hopefully by eating the "gift" pretzels. That is much more sinister than pouring out some wine or renaming some products.

That said, I think all of this is just plain petty.

Side note: While pretzels may have orginated in Germany/Austria, they were perfected in Philly! "Yo! Pretzels here! Right here! Pretzels!"

There is a HUGE difference between boycotting and destroying. I hope you can see it.

Actually, that's the conclusion you draw from it yourself; there's not an excerpt on the website claiming anything of the sort, as far as I can tell... What's this about a symbolic protest that people take it far too literally?