Athlete’s Foot and potato fetish?
These are a couple more random observations on Spanish culture.
First of all, when Sarah and I were here last, we certainly noticed that our host mom served fries with every single meal (except breakfast.) Without fail. But we thought, hey, she’s busy, she’s got three young kids, fries are quick and easy and relatively healthy if you make them from frozen and don’t boil them in oil or something. So we didn’t ask.
But it now seems that this was not simply a that-one-host-mom thing. Because the cafeteria at my dorm also serves fries with every single meal, without fail. Even and including when there are other major potato dishes included in the meal. (They call them “potatoes,” by the way. No special term.) And everybody eats them. Always. The cafeteria at the university also serves fries with every meal. So. It would seem the Spaniards…really like their potatoes.
It’s really fun because there’s only one bottle of ketchup for a cafeteria that seats about sixty at full capacity. It makes the rounds a lot.
The other funny thing I noticed was, as I was walking to the grocery store today to buy more toothpaste (I have just about decided, by the way, to stock up on at least a year’s worth of Spanish toothpaste before I come home. I don’t know what they put in the stuff, but my teeth have never been whiter,) and I happened to notice an athletic shoe store that I’d never really noted before. The store was called: The Athlete’s Foot.
Now, there are two really obvious explanations here. One is, Spaniards are practically the only Europeans that speak practically no English. The average Spaniard speaks about as much English as the average American does Spanish. So you can imagine how they might come up with a name like “The Athlete’s Foot” in an attempt to be cool, and…miss something. (The logo was a little winged foot, by the way. If that helps.)
The other possible explanation is that they know perfectly well what it means, and they’re trying to be funny. And that got me thinking: if you saw a store named “The Athlete’s Foot,” and you were shopping for sneakers, would you laugh and go in…or would you steer as far away from it as possible? Please, I really am interested in knowing.
By the way, I’m now meeting twice a week with a botany teacher at the university who wants to improve her English. We speak for half an hour in Spanish, half an hour in English. She really doesn’t speak that much–I have to go almost word-by-word–but hey, that’s how you learn, and she actually corrects my Spanish when I make a mistake, which most people don’t do. So I think it’ll be a good arrangement.
יוחנן רכב said,
November 17, 2007 at 3:53 am
Dear Niece.com,
There is a third explanation for “The Athlete’s Foot” … barring a really massive coincidence or something, the correct one.
I recognized the name at once; I’ve seen outlets in several major malls in Houston. The logo sounds identical to what I’ve seen, and to what’s on the Web site (which lists the Houston locations, among all the others in the U.S.):
http://www.theathletesfoot.com/
“The Athlete’s Foot® is the world’s first franchisor of athletic footwear stores and is recognized today as the world leader in athletic footwear franchising. Robert and David Lando opened the first The Athlete’s Foot® store in 1971 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first athletic footwear specialty store of its kind in the United States. Soon thereafter, The Athlete’s Foot® began franchising domestically, with the first franchise store opening in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
“The first international franchise store opened in 1978 in Adelaide, Australia, the beginning of The Athlete’s Foot® expansion into over 40 countries.”
Apparently you ran into a Spanish franchise of an all-American retail chain. Either that, or the European Commission (or whoever) needs to start looking at a major ripoff.
Who knew that the Spanish loved potatoes so much (or imported so little ketchup by proportion)? Oh well, they encountered potatoes first, right in the hands of the very Indians they conquered. I wonder how the French like their “pommes de terre (frites ou non frites)” by comparison? But I’ll bet even the Spaniards are no match for what the Irish were in the bad old years; potatoes were about all the poorer Irish had, which is why the Great Potato Famine was so hard on Ireland (and a big reason why there are so many of Irish descent over here).
Save some of that Spanish toothpaste for me. (I think. Who knows what kind of abrasive they put in it? Maybe you’d better find out.)
Love,
Uncle John
יוחנן רכב said,
November 17, 2007 at 4:33 am
Another reason why you may not have noticed “The Athlete’s Foot” before: they have no franchise in Arizona, anywhere. There is only one franchise in all of neighboring California, in Reedley (wherever THAT is). There is one in Vernal, UT., two in all of CO., quite a few in TX. … hordes of them in GA., for some reason …
manveri said,
November 17, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Fine…but that still doesn’t answer my question…the _point_ is, is naming a shoe store “The Athlete’s Foot” incredibly stupid or rather clever?
Dad said,
November 17, 2007 at 5:58 pm
It’s clever. There used to be one on Park Mall.
יוחנן רכב said,
December 2, 2007 at 7:47 am
Just my opinion, but I thought it was clever. But it wouldn’t have worked (for me) without the winged foot with its reference to Hermes/Mercury.