On August 2nd, 2006, the House cafeteria changed the menus back. We are not working on potatoes.” She then delivered the ultimate burn and pointed out French fries originated in Belgium anyway.Īll good things come to an end, even “freedom fries”. Was France upset, though? Did we put french fries through this ordeal for nothing? In response to freedom fries, French Embassy spokeswoman Nathalie Loiseau told The New York Times, “We are working these days on very, very serious issues of war and peace, life and death. Either a third of the country is made up of idiots, or two-thirds of the country is made up of traitors. Now, those are soul-crushing numbers regardless of where you sit on the issue. Two years later, a Gallup poll offered the following numbers: 66% of Americans thought renaming french fries was silly, 33% thought it was patriotic, and 1% couldn’t be bothered to think about it. French fries – or rather, “freedom fries” – were the face masks of 2003. Several restaurants followed the House’s example, and, suddenly, what you called your fries became indicative of how you felt about the war. So you shouldn’t be surprised that the “freedom fries” protest expanded beyond the Capitol cafeterias. ![]() We take a catchy concept and run with it. Would you like to upsize to mega freedom? In a statement, the representative actually called the renaming “a small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure many on Capitol Hill have with our so-called ally, France.” So he just made it happen: freedom fries for everyone. Ney was Chairman of the United States House Committee on House Administration, which has authority over House cafeterias. To be fair, the whole thing wasn’t even put to a vote. Congress, in the middle of the War on Terror, took time out of their busy agenda to photoshop the Capitol’s menus. Still, it’s hard to believe that the U.S. So let’s cut Congress a liiiiiittle slack, maybe. ![]() ![]() At this point, we were only two years removed from 9/11, and the United States was still grieving. Grief makes people do all sorts of things, many of them irrational. Jones, two men with the perfect idea to stick it to France: renaming the french fries served in the House of Representatives cafeteria as “freedom fries”. Something had to be done! Enter Republican Representatives Bob Ney & Walter B. The United States was caught up in war fever, and the story pitched to the country was that those French cowards had betrayed us. Not that it stopped the United States from going after Iraq anyway – or from calling France a bad friend. And France wasn’t necessarily unreasonable: the UN eventually determined it couldn’t find evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. jumped on a desk and said, “Who’s coming with me?”.įrance said, “Not me.” The French, stereotypically known for their aversion to military conflicts, wanted to hold off on military actions until the UN said it was okay – go figure. The United Nations went, “um, wait a minute,” but the U.S. Bush promptly declared a “War on Terror” ( there’s another catchy moniker ) and proposed an invasion of Iraq as part of it. In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Let’s speed-through the heavy political stuff so we can get to the silly stuff regarding fries. The 2001 terrorist attack remains one of the biggest tragedies in United States history and one of those key moments you can point to on a global timeline. Fear not, we’ll get to it.Įven if you don’t know what “freedom fries” are, you know what 9/11 was. If you’re a young’un, you’re just eager to find out why “freedom fries” was trending on Twitter. If you’re old enough, you’re already cringing & nodding. ![]() Today, we’ll be talking about “freedom fries”. Welcome to “Yes, this really happened”! In today’s special installment, we’ll be traveling back to the year 2003, a dark & confusing time for fried potatoes in America. By: Julio Olivera Remember freedom fries? The bizarre tale of cancelling French fries
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |