Comments on: Get your Country out of my Happy Meal!: Liberty cabbage, Freedom fries and other Product Renamings

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:17:36 +0000

Sorry, Eli, but “The Redlegs” was the original official name of the Cincinnati Reds, dating back to the 19th Century. The original franchise later relocated to Boston, becoming the Red Sox.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:10:30 +0000

I love how the “religion of peace” can’t even handle drinking Coca Cola. The religion of perpetual outrage is more like it.

By: NerdFury

NerdFury — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:39:23 +0000

@kate:

Protip – stating you ‘don’t want to get into an online arguument’ whilst using the word ‘merely’ a lot and telling your internet opponent they ‘clearly misunderstood’ your intent (when your intent was to make a vague accusation at other commenters) just makes you sound like an online douchebag.

By: phineas

phineas — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:47:16 +0000

oooh… star spangled pudding snacks! Where can I get those?

By: Kristyn

Kristyn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:28:22 +0000

There’s a lot.

Like Coon Chicken Inn changing to Cook’s Chicken. There are so many more, but I don’t feel like revitalizing Black Americana.

Also, in LA County there are parts where they changed Compton Blvd, to Marine.

By: Sydney

Sydney — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:29:23 +0000

Prof. Reka Benczes (of the American Studies Department at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest) who has studied these kinds of linguistic matters pointed out that “french fries” didn’t just become “American fries,” but rather “freedom fries.” (not just erasing the word “French” but injecting more meaning into the metaphor for the fried potatoes)

Also, towns and streets across the globe have been renamed during and after wartime.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:14:45 +0000

agh, Josiah you stole my thunder! French fries originated in Belgium, but we wouldn’t let that stop us from propagating the stereotype that Americans are ill-informed and temperamental.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:06:54 +0000

Who can forget Liberty Cabbage? (That’s sauerkraut for you Hun-lovers out there.) I still use that term on occasion. I’d use it more, but most people don’t know what I’m talking about.

By: Blitzen

Blitzen — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:03:44 +0000

Also the town of Swastika, Ontario. During WWII the Ontario government tried to change the name to Winston, but the people of the town insisted they had been using the symbol long before Hitler did.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:46:40 +0000

I couldn’t get through this without saying, “We had to use the word dickety because the Kaiser stole the word twenty.”