9 Responses to “Latte and Liberty”

1. #1 |  CC |  April 8th, 2008 at 10:30 am

   Companies don’t like foreign languages on personalized stuff because they really don’t want to pay for somebody to make sure you’re not writing dirty things in Swahili.

   I’m vaguely recalling hearing that Nike was defining pig latin as a foreign language for the purposes of their personalized sneakers.

   My guess is “yes, yes, we can” is sufficiently famous or they allow allow phrases in Spanish. But probably a computer caught that “laissez faire” didn’t appear to be English and whoever was checking over the list of rejections didn’t know what it meant and that it was commonly used in English.

   CC

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2. #2 |  Raidsmith |  April 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am

   How is “Si Se Puede” more famous than “laissez faire”?

   How many United Farm Workers are lined up for a half-caf soy latte?

   I think it’s, unfortunately, just what it appears to be. They don’t want free market slogans printed next to their logo, lest the populist masses think they want to BBQ puppies, which all free market proponents secretly desire.

   It is a real shame that the ideals that this country were founded on are considered so controversial today. I recently told a co-worker I was libertarian-leaning. He yelled at me that I had no faith in mankind before slamming the door behind him in a huff. I guess thinking people can govern themselves to a large extent betrays some lack of faith in them. And this is a coworker I am friendly with, not one I just tolerate.

   If you want to sound like a raving lunatic, go around quoting the words of the founders.

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3. #3 |  CC |  April 8th, 2008 at 11:40 am

   ((How is “Si Se Puede” more famous than “laissez faire”? ))

   Si Se Puede: 22,200,000 Google hits.

   Laissez Faire: 2,010,000 Google hits.

   Also,

   Spanish speakers in America according to Wikipedia:28.1 million
   French speakers in America according to Wikipedia: 1.6 million

   CC

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4. #4 |  Scooby |  April 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

   Starbucks, as a private concern, has an absolute right to control what is printed on it’s personalized coffee cards.

   Scooby, as a private concern, has an absolute right to have yet another reason to avoid Starbucks’s foul, overpriced swill.

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5. #5 |  Raidsmith |  April 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

   I don’t think the number of French speakers correlates to how well known the term “laissez faire” is compared to “si se puede”. Not in any meaningful way. It’s not really French speakers who use the phrase so much as talking heads and economists.

   As for the number of Google searches, that surprised me. At least some of that could stem from Obama’s recent use of the English translation of that phrase, although I doubt it contributes much. I live on the Left coast, and I have heard “laissez faire” far more often than “si se puede”. Of course, that is most likely because of what I choose to read.

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6. #6 |  Buck |  April 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

   ((Scooby, as a private concern, has an absolute right to have yet another reason to avoid Starbucks’s foul, overpriced swill.))

   Amen brother.

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7. #7 |  CC |  April 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

   I put the Spanish speaker numbers up because there are enough Spanish speakers in America that Starbucks might allow Spanish entries as it wouldn’t be a problem to find a spanish speaker to vet the personalized cards in Spanish. They would be unlikely to do that with a less popular language.

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8. #8 |  Frank N Stein |  April 8th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

   I think I’ll try MOLON LABE

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9. #9 |  Andrew Williams |  April 8th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

   They burn the beans when they roast them, so, yes, they’re just that f***ing dumb. My wife loves ‘em. Go figure.

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