“Their food smells!”
I am seeing this sentiment being expressed more and more on blogs where immigration is a topic. I just have this to say: food is supposed to have a smell. What the hell kind of boiled cardboard are my fellow “our family’s been here for generations” citizens been fed on all their lives? Maybe it’s because I was raised in Miami, a “multicultural” town as long as that culture is Hispanic. Frankly if I don’t smell garlic in your house I’m not sure you know how to cook. Also? A few sprinkles of black pepper from the shaker do not make your dish “spicy.”
Huh?
Where the hell are you reading that people’s biggest complaint about runaway immigration, is the *food* of the newcomers?
I’m going to assume for a moment that you’re still with the “there are too many foreigners” crowd on the points of wantonly breaking our laws w/o consequence, draining our social services dry, eradicating the native culture, and the usual other (correct) complaints. In short, I’m going to assume you’re still on board with the “it’s not the immigration, it’s the ILLEGAL immigration that bothers me.”
I’ve gone back and read a dozen or so of your postings now, Andrea. See my comments. Feel free to delete anything that offends you – and I do respect your position on the business of trolls. (I don’t tolerate crappola in my front yard either, and I don’t make a virtue out of such tolerance. For that matter I wouldn’t see a reason to give progressives yet another bullhorn by allowing them to comment on my blog, if I had one. There are already plenty of places for them to spew nonsense.)
You’re clearly a smart cookie, but you complain about the darndest things. Some of your rants could be likened to hating manhole covers, telephones, or calligraphy. I found your “graveyard of Internet cliches” especially…uh…interesting. There are a few memes I’m pretty sick of myself but unfortunately you didn’t mention any of them.
Greetings, Cylar! Welcome to Castle Spleenville. I notice you seem to have some trouble with some of my posts. Various sorts of trouble. Let me see if I can help you out:
I think the trouble here is called “reading comprehension.” Because of course, I didn’t say that “people’s biggest complaint about runaway immigration is the *food* of the newcomers.” I mean, if they want to eat raw meat and sour milk, let them. (Wasn’t Alien Nation a great tv show? The movie was okay, but I really liked the tv series.) Okay seriously — what I said was, “this is where I and the anti-immigration people part ways” — in other words, I don’t share this dislike of foreign food odors. I love all sorts of food, and it’s one thing I don’t mind dealing with. Another thing that doesn’t bother me which bothers most others — and I know this not from blogs but from having people tell me this all my life — is for foreign people to talk to each other in their own language in my presence even if it’s a language of which I know not a word. I really don’t care — even if those Brazilians or Arabs or what-have-you are talking about me and making fun of my appearance or planning to blow up the airport or whatever they are talking about, they have a perfect right to talk to each other in their own language. I do have an issue with people moving here who plan to 1) stay here, while 2) not bothering to learn English, and 3) complain about nothing being in their own language. Try that in France and I think they feed you to those geese whose livers they make paté out of.
But notice: at no time did I say anything about this being “people’s biggest complaint.” It’s actually a small complaint that’s sort of added on — “and their food stinks!” Anyway, I realize I didn’t link to any of these blogs, and I really should have said “blogs and columns” or “websites” but I had to go to work, but it’s sort of just been something I’ve been seeing more and more over the years, and anyway all you have to do is Google and you’ll get all sorts of articles about ethnic food and their smells causing conflict. (That’s Google.com. Glad to help.)
That’s pretty much implied by the title of my post. If lawbreaking, social-service-draining, etc., wasn’t a concern of mine, I’d have titled the post something different — like “Anti-immigration people are racists who also? don’t like exotic food.”
This is just a personal quirk of mine, but I don’t know why people do this: address me by name when it is obvious that I own this blog and if you’re commenting on a post here you’re talking to me. It’s kind of annoying. I also don’t like it when people keep referring to my name when they are talking directly to me. It’s not like I don’t know my own name and need constant reminders. Yet.
*scratches head* I don’t understand why this sentence is even in here. It’s one of those compliments that isn’t a compliment really — “You’re smart, but” — you know, one of those. But let’s pass this by. You’re astonished that I “complain about the darndest things” — by which I suppose you mean things that don’t bother you or anyone you know — on my own website which is a place where I write about things I am interested in writing about. You need to read more of my posts, is all I can say. You’ll find a lot more of those darned things in here. (And as a matter of fact, I love — or used to, I’ve fallen off the practice lately — calligraphy, hate telephones — I consider them a necessary evil, but I don’t love them, and am indifferent on the subject of manholes.) Anyway, as to the page where I list all sorts of what I call “internet clichés,” I used to have a sentence in the introduction inviting people to send me more, but I took it out as they might send me some that I in fact like. Anyway, the best way to get the world to know what memes and so on you are tired of is to put up a webpage or blog with them listed. It’s better than stewing in silence, anyway.
I’ve addressed your other concerns in the comment threads they appeared in.
You know when they say that what they mean is, “It doesn’t smell like the food my Mom used to make and I tried to sneak to the dog under the table because I couldn’t stand to eat it.”
I think the objection boils down to the complainers being unable to get anything that smells that good at home.
I love spicy food. Mexican food, especially. I could eat that 7 days a week for every meal for the rest of my life. I really could. People actually say “their food smells”??? Gah. People who say shit like that wrinkle my dress.
Love the food,in the case of Mexicans,hate the violence.
Well, it all depends on whether they’re a Mexican, or a Mexicant.
The food-that-smells that I can’t stand, tends to be Brussels sprouts. If it has to smell like garbage it should at least wait until it’s been thrown away.
Tell those damn Brusselians to go back where they came from and take their sprouts with them.
The Belgians call Brussels Sprouts “McGehee Sprouts” …
No, the McGehee sprouts are the ones they keep, while they send us the ones that smell like garbage.
I like brusssels sprouts, but they do stink pretty bad. And actually the food that tends to smell awful is food from those northern European countries what all the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in this country are descended from. Lutefisk, boiled cabbage, sauerkraut, something called mutton that they eat in England that I’ve never smelt but must be horrific from the way it’s always used to invoke something horribly suffocating and dreadful about British life… keep all that stuff away from me. Send me a curry instead.
Actually, in Belgium they just call ‘em “little cabbages.”
They still stink, though.
Impossible, since Belgium is a myth.
Aha! I knew it.
I think “their food smells” really means not “I can’t comprehend that any food has a smell because mine doesn’t”, but “their food smells unusual“.
I’ve noticed that a lot, myself.
The difference is that I don’t think it’s a problem, just a difference in ingredients that I’m not accustomed to.