Practice Safe Snacks!

March 17, 2003 12:36 PM

Don't like Bush? Send him a pretzel!A French website is urging people unhappy with the Bush Administration to buy a pretzel ("bretzel" in French), which will then be sent to the White House. Part of the pretzel's cost also goes to charity.
posted by Vidiot (30 comments total)

(Would this count as an assassination attempt?)
posted by Vidiot at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2003

History. while the three holes represent the Christian Holy Trinity.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2003

A food fight. Freedom Fries and Pretzels. How mature.
posted by fried at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2003

I didn't think people would be that eager to see President Cheney...
posted by stifford at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2003

Further proof that France and Germany are allied as the Axis of Weasels.

All kidding aside, 1 euro for a "bretzel," shipping and a charitable donation is a good deal.
posted by Frank Grimes at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2003

et dégustait le contenu d'une cannette de bière.

That would be sans alcohol I assume.....
posted by brettski at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2003

I didn't think people would be that eager to see President Cheney...

naw, you could take him out with a cheesesteak.

Actually, it's not that great a deal -- they're selling the pretzel for 7 euros, one of which goes to charity.
posted by Vidiot at 12:57 PM on March 17, 2003

Anybody who ever lived with a drunk knows how credible the pretzel story was in the first place.
posted by 2sheets at 12:58 PM on March 17, 2003

I didn't think people would be that eager to see President Cheney...

what's even funnier is, the Senate nowadays could approve anybody as VicePresident for President Cheney, even Ashcroft or Wolfowitz or Richard Perle
posted by matteo at 1:02 PM on March 17, 2003

Anybody who ever lived with a drunk knows how credible the pretzel story was in the first place.

I don't get it.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2003

ufez, 2sheets is implying, -- if I may? -- asserting -- that Bush's falling down and hitting his head while watching football was due to drinking, and not to choking on a pretzel.
posted by luser at 1:18 PM on March 17, 2003

Do we get to send Chirac a bar of soap?
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:24 PM on March 17, 2003

My mistake, Vidiot, you linked to the French site and I guessed that the big Euro on the pretzel was the price.

Now that I've read the English site, the pretzels come from Alsace, which gets traded back and forth between France and Germany, but for the time being is French.
posted by Frank Grimes at 1:35 PM on March 17, 2003

MrBaliHai : send em Freedom Fries?
posted by mkelley at 1:39 PM on March 17, 2003

Sorry. Here's the English version.
posted by Vidiot at 1:51 PM on March 17, 2003

The debate on whether there will be a war is over, folks. All the pretzels in the world won't change that now.
posted by Durwood at 2:37 PM on March 17, 2003

Debate?

International law is about to be shamefully crushed, as if a large boot was permanently impacting on a single defenceless pretzel.
posted by skellum at 3:20 PM on March 17, 2003

Durwood's just jealous nobody's sending him a pretzel.
posted by ook at 3:23 PM on March 17, 2003

A pretzel? That's it? That's the best they can come up with?

They should come and take back their nice statue in New York Harbour. I haven't heard when the esteemed senate will start dismantling her.
posted by drinkmaildave at 3:30 PM on March 17, 2003

Durwood's just jealous nobody's sending him a pretzel.

The whole "send Bush a pretzel" campaign is nothing more than mean spirited Bush-bashing disguised as humor. In that there appear to be thousands of Frenchmen and Germans that would like to see him dead, I can't say that I'm jealous that no one is sending me pretzels.

I will say, however, that I prefer peanuts to pretzels any day. One of the most distressing things about air travel in recent years (in addition to the increased security, cramped seating and restricted fares) is the fact that many of the airlines have replaced the bags of peanuts with pretzels or pretzel-based "snack mix." It's hard to get peanuts even on Southwest. Oh well...maybe in our next lifetime.
posted by Durwood at 3:53 PM on March 17, 2003

even I'll admit this is a pretty whack idea.
posted by mcsweetie at 3:59 PM on March 17, 2003

I would rather they send something with a bit more dramatic impact myself.
posted by madamjujujive at 4:20 PM on March 17, 2003

"Janie, schedule more events where someone gives me a really big fish."
posted by Vidiot at 5:36 PM on March 17, 2003

Bush's falling down and hitting his head while watching football was due to drinking, and not to choking on a pretzel

Actually, I always attributed it to autoerotic asphyxiation. I wonder why.
posted by troybob at 5:41 PM on March 17, 2003

Oh my god they can't spell pretzel ! Maybe they don't have "nucular" weapons too.
posted by elpapacito at 8:13 PM on March 17, 2003

Can we set France and America adrift somewhere so they can stick their tongues out at each other all the like? Maybe we can just put Bush and Chirac on a raft in the atlantic and let them kick each other's shins for all eternity.
posted by Summer at 2:13 AM on March 18, 2003

About "Bretzel" (scroll down):

Both stories ignore the fact that in German the word is "bretzel," not pretzel. In medieval Old High German, it was even less like pretiola - it was brezitella. Linguists think brezitella probably came from the medieval Latin brachiatellum, meaning a little brachiatum, which would be a bread baked in the form of crossed arms. Not that anybody has found the word "brachiatellum" in any manuscript; the linguists only claim their explanation is less unlikely than the others.

In any case, the pretzel belongs to a German family of breads that are moistened before baking to give them a chewier texture. In a bakery, pretzels are sprayed with a solution of lye, and the resulting alkalinity encourages their familiar dark brown color (fortunately, the caustic lye combines with carbon dioxide during baking and becomes harmless). Bakery pretzels are then baked for about half an hour to make them absolutely dry and hard.

posted by ugly_n_sticky at 2:24 AM on March 18, 2003

About elpapacito's "Oh my god they can't spell pretzel ! Maybe they don't have "nucular" weapons too."

Sure. And next Murkins will be lecturing the French how to pronounce entrepreneur and the Germans on how to write Kindergarten.
posted by ugly_n_sticky at 2:31 AM on March 18, 2003

Summer: You'd better put John Prescott out with 'em...
posted by i_cola at 3:52 AM on March 18, 2003

i_cola: gladly
posted by Summer at 4:11 AM on March 18, 2003