Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Simpsons Pizza



The Italians love American culture. Just look at this small business flier as an example. Not only is the name straight from an American cartoon series, but even the owner's listed name is American, "Ricky". This man probably has Riccardo listed on his birth certificate, but growing up, it probably became irresistible to don an English version of his Italian name.

At my gym, the owner goes by "Larry" but his real name is Stefano. I can't see the connection, so maybe there's a story.

The theme of our brochure for a pizzeria per asporto/bruschetteria/piadineria in Rubano is even located on a square named after a famous American. Of course, his name was spelled and printed incorrectly: P.zza M. Luter King. Notice the "h" is missing. Although I myself may not be great when it comes to spelling, I find this typical and funny about Italians. They misspell English words all the time since our spelling rules are much more complicated than theirs. They don't bother to verify spelling on internet or in a dictionary before printing hundreds of copies of something. I've even seen cities make street signs in misspelled English, such as Via Pensilvania in place of Pennsylvania.

As for the Simpsons menu, the "dedicated" pizzas offer tastes assigned to specific Simpsons characters including Homer who piles grilled vegetables, ham, brie, mushrooms, pepperoni and more onto his selection, Krusty with hot dog, french fries and onion on his and Lisa featuring Philadelphia cheese with speck. At least, the American cheese was spelled correctly!

Also this place is down the street from "Big Bowling", another adopted American hobby and locale with an English name. It wouldn't be cool if it were in Italian.

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