Happy Army Day!

In California we celebrate Army Day today (at least that is what it is in San Francisco - in Sacramento it is Plaza Day). You see, Army Street in San Francisco has a very peculiar spelling: "c-e-s-a-r-space-c-h-a-v-e-z", yet everyone knows that it is Army Street. Same with Plaza Park in Sacramento. A tricky thing, this language.

So, we have Army Day off, and are at the secret hideaway in Sacramento, where spring has sprung with glee. Ah-choo!

Seriously, though, I don't know enough about Cesar Chavez to be fer or agin. I certainly admire anyone who would stand up for the migrant workers, but I have heard that he was also into animal rights, vegetarianism, and whether or not he was a Marxist or a Catholic concerned with the social teachings, I am not sure. One thing that turned me off to him was when, back towards the end of his life, he renewed the grape boycott, even though he conceded that they were a lot better. "We need a symbolic statement to keep the movement going," he said.

If I were a grape farmer I would have probably told him to stick his symbol where the...never mind. Anyway, I think the impact on table grape sales was minimal. In high school there was a girl who was activist spawn, and she made a point of letting everyone know that she did not eat grapes. Naturally, I made a point of eating double the grapes I would have. Then I realized that I don't really like the tasteless, watery table grapes out there, so I stopped doing that. Especially when I could get good, organic grapes with loads of flavor from my grandparents' backyard.

So, no comment on Chavez for now. My mind is just not made up on him.