A month ago, Target had huevos on its face after failing European history by selling a shirt featuring the flag associated with (still dead) Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Well, now Target is in danger of failing Architectural History and Common Sense 101 with a shirt that manages to lift up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and transplant it to Rome.
Consumerist reader Jeff snapped this pic of the questionable shirt at his local Target. As you can see, it’s purportedly for a 1964 cycling race in Rome, but the most prominent design element is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is located in, well… Pisa, some 200 miles north of Rome.
While some will inevitably say “Who cares? At least it’s Italian,” this would be like using the Sears Tower to advertise the Indy 500 or the Liberty Bell to promote the New York Marathon. Is it too much to ask the hack T-shirt design houses of the world to use more accurate clip art?
At least it didn’t feature Mario and Luigi…
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Juevos?????
Spanish for eggs.
but it’s spelled HUEVOS.
with a J, you pronounce it as an H-
but everywhere I have been (mexico Spanish), they pronounce it WAY-vos…
which notes it’s spelled with an H, which is silent in Spanish.
Agreed. Way-Vohs
As in Kah-hon-ess (Cajones)
or
Tea-airra Ah-mah-rree-ah, New-wayvo Meh-hi-ko (Tierra Amirilla, New Mexico)
Which is why Texas bugs the bejeebus out of me. They pronounce the “LL” as an “L” sound, not an “Y” (phon. “eee”).
So Llano, Texas which should be pronounced “e-yano” is call “Lane-oh”.
If you are gona use a furrin’ language to name your towns and streets, at least pronounce them right.
However, we pronounce “Llano Estacado” correctly, “ya-no”.
I’m a native of San Antonio*, home of the Alamo, located in the county of Bexar (correctly pronounced “bear/bare”; non-natives often either say “becksar” or hispanicize back to its original “BEH-har” if the county name comes up in conversation at all), which is in the state of Texas (from the Caddo word “tayshas” meaning friend. Back when Texas was colonized by the Spanish, the Spanish x represented the English sh sound, not its current Spanish j sound, hence the x in Texas. When the name was anglicized, the x remained and became a ks sound. The linguistic shift is evident in the novel title Don Quixote, which is now spelled Don Quijote in Spanish-speaking countries and pronounced as such in anglophone countries too, but it retains the original sh sound, in French and Italian, where it is Don Quichotte and Don Chisciotte, respectively.)
Linguistics aside**, it’s a place name; place names are always weird. Chiswick, England is “chiz-ick”; Keighley, England is “keethlee”; Cairo, Illinois is “carrow”; Kuykendahl Road in Houston is “kirkendoll”; Boerne, Texas is “burnie”, plus the “Las” in Las Vegas and the “Los” in Los Angeles are pronounced identically, despite being “lahss” and “low-ss”, et cetera, et cetera. It’s not just English changes pronunciation of foreign-origin names, though; every language does.
*Despite relative proximity to Llano, I have never been there.
**I am also often annoyed by similar foreign translation mispronunciations, and by stupid things like “nu-cu-lar”. The English language is quite irregular, I know, but it still irks me.
fuckin’ a. Etymology rocks.
It’s spelled Huevos. Not Juevos. Just because you get the “h” sound from the “J” doesn’t mean that you spell things wrong.
How bout some Halipainyo’s on your poy-yo Kaysadeeya?
Sheesh.
DARN! The change was already made by the time I read the post. “Epicly Later’d”
Lean on that silly gringos.
Uh, hey guys, you failed too at Architectural History and Common Sense 101. Sears Tower changed names in 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_tower
Err, rather 2009. Fat-fingered that.
Yeah, because no one calls it the Sears Tower anymore…
Shouldn’t it be “Ron White’s Big ol fu**ing Building”? Just saying Chris…
2005 was fat fingered from 2009?!?
Those are some seriously fat fingers…
The Consumerist refuses to recognize the name change.
I still call it the Sears Tower.
I think “Big Willy” (Willis Tower) is more classy!
Did you mean: huevos
Is it possible that the 1964 bike festival included a race from Pisa to Rome?
that’s what I was thinking
I was thinking the same thing.
Is it even a real festival? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen lots of other “vintage” shirts at Target that advertise events that never actually happened.
Good Point.
I am actually Consumerist Reader Jeff. I did a little Googling on that and found that it’s not a real festival, or at least it isn’t on record as ever happening.
Reminds me of this:
http://www.bustedtees.com/greece
lol!
If 200 miles is that big of a deal, why do I have to tell people from other countries and down here in the south that I am from Boston because they don’t know what NH is? (and still sometimes get asked if that is near NYC)
Maybe the race goes through Pisa?
Also, why does Target even have a shirt like this?
I lived in the rural south for a while. When I told people that I was from Maine, people asked where that was, I told them way up north, north of boston, I had many ask me if it was in canada.
It’s sad that geography is one of the first subjects to go in our public schools. I don’t care if you never graduated high school – knowing what region the freakin states are in is one of the things you learn in middle school.
Aww..all those east coast states are so tiny they may as well all be NY.
/I kid
Yeah, Pisa is basically known for being right near Rome. So, if you were from/visiting another part of Italy, you would go to Rome and then take a bus or something to Pisa. If the OP ever went to Italy, he might know that…
I love this shirt. It says so much about America.
That we buy shirts that were printed and manufactured in Vietnam?
that we know shit about geography
Unless someone is actively checking in on Francisco Franco, there’s really no way to be sure about his living status.
I just talked to Chevy Chase. He’s got some good sources on Franco.
This breaking news just in:
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead.
I’m more bothered by the terrible kerning in “Roma.”
God, me too!
I hadn’t noticed that. Now I can’t un-see it.
Like me, how many people had to go look up “kerning,” and now that they know what it means, can’t unsee it either?
Well, obviously Rome doesn’t have any landmarks that would be easily recognized on a t-shirt. I mean, the Colosseum is in Los Angeles and the Vatican is it’s own country…
Well it was all part of THE EMPIRE at one point, right?
It’s not called the Sears Tower anymore. It’s the Willis Tower, thank you very much.
No. It will never be the Willis Tower, thank you very much.
Whatchu talkin’ about? Willis?
The Wesley Willis Tower. Come to our observation deck or &$&* a &$&$$’s &&&&.
I bought this shirt a few days ago too just thinking it was cool and only $10.
/History major, too. Ugh.
They might not actually be Mario and Luigi but they cyclists ARE red and green…
“Is it too much to ask the hack T-shirt design houses of the world to use more accurate clip art?”
Yes
In defense of design houses, I would’t be a bit surprised if the designer had to quickly throw some generic “Rome” design together with little or no time to consider details. I speak from experience. If you really want to look for a scapegoat, go after weasel sales teams that promise next-to-impossible turnaround times to their clients, and then go and breath down the designer’s neck asking “Is it done yet? Is it DONE yet? I need it, like, yesterday!!”
Why do they call it the Tour de France when it has three stages in Belgium? Who effing cares. It’s a $10 t-shirt. Get over it.
Hey Jeff, are you OCD? Austistic? WTF? Pisa is Italian so why does it matter? This isn’t an algebraic equation we’re dealing but a t-shirt: Pisa + Rome = Italy. Now if the t-shirt had a picture of the Effel Tower, then something would be amiss: Rome + Effel Tower ≠Italy.
Why is this on Consumerist?
Perhaps it is this bike in the picture. Roma Sport Riviera Cruiser bicycle
http://www.bikecult.com/works/archive/04bicycles/romasportCRAB.html
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?78278-Ever-heard-of-Roma-Sport-bikes
I don’t understand the problem. Pisa is right by Rome. You have to go to Rome to get there…
Perhaps there is some new law in Italy I’m not aware of, but when I lived in Italy, one did not “have to go to Rome” to get to Pisa. Do you need to get a visa or something?
blah blah blah no one cares. its all Greek to us.. ha