Comments on: Cinco de Mayo

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 08 May 2015 01:55:36 +0000

In reply to Steve Bates. Three types of mustard is not a lot, but there is nothing remarkable about people having ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, as well as mayonnaise in the fridge. For some salads I mix mustard and mayo to achieve a particular flavor. I'm not a fan of mixing ketchup and mayo, and avoid both Russian and Thousand Island dressing. My point was that among Jews in New York, mayo is quite common.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 07 May 2015 23:30:20 +0000

Bryan, my music thesis advisor’s wife was (still is, I’m sure, wherever she is today) a Russian(-American) Jew by birth; I admit I didn’t have too many opportunities to observe how she decorated a sandwich, but maybe the rule doesn’t apply to people who become Unitarian Universalists later in life. Most of the Jews of my personal acquaintance… and there are more than a few, thanks to all the years I performed early Jewish music with Isabelle Ganz… are serious mustard fans. Stella (whose full nom de blog is Stella Einstein) typically has no fewer than three flavors of mustard in the house at any given moment…

(Personally I detest “Russian” dressing, but nobody ever asks me 🙁 )

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 05 May 2015 21:46:59 +0000

In reply to Steve Bates.

Steve, you really need to spend some time with the Jewish communities in New York. Mayo is not exactly an unknown condiment in the vast majority of them. The ubiquitous Russian dressing found in delis is basically mayonnaise, ketchup, and horseradish.

The Culture Ghost dropped out of the Blogosphere after multiple issues all reached critical mass at the same time. It was sad, but it happens. I hope he finds peace at some point.

To the best of my knowledge, CG was the originator of the concept.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Tue, 05 May 2015 21:12:58 +0000

Steve, clearly you’ve not met Jews of Russian descent. Mayo is not their God, but if they did not worship Yaweh, they would worship mayonnaise.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Tue, 05 May 2015 19:02:15 +0000

I went looking for CultureGhost’s “Sinko [sic] de Mayo,” found the photo but not really the site (its direct descendant appears to be commercial in nature), and learned that… before or after CG; I don’t know which… dozens of people have taken and posted similar pics.

IMHO, any holiday that allows the perpetration of a painfully awful pun is on its face a good holiday! Hope yours is a happy one.

———-

(What do Jewish Mexicans do? I’ve never known a North American Jew who actually liked mayo as a foodstuff…)