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Perhaps another name might have been better?
By adamg on Fri, 04/15/2016 - 11:46am
Miel Brasserie Provencal is advertising, in blue and yellow, a Pasta Strong dinner on Sunday.
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Comments
Demonstrating exactly what's wrong
with "let's feel good" concepts like Boston Strong and One Boston Day. The fact that commercial entities look for ways to exploit these things to make a profit for themselves.
the ____ strong
convention has been around far longer than it has ever applied to boston. i think the whole concept is an utter load of shit, personally.
frankly the more people/organizations/companies that use it, the better. dilute the living hell out of it until it disappears.
lets not forget that as far back as 10 years ago (longer maybe?) the army was using the term "army strong" as a slogan. you could with minimal effort find other examples as well, i have no doubt.
boston borrowed the phrase from popular culture, and nobody else is any less entitled to do so.
get over it.
edit: this is a general post really, and not strictly a response to what you wrote, roadman
Over it
My "over it" moment came Marathon weekend 2014. I was in the lobby of the Sheraton Back Bay for a meeting and all of the out-of-towners sporting "Boston Strong" t-shirts just filled me with a sense of "enough already". I also think about the outcry when rival sportsball (or sports puck?) fans started chanting "Philadelphia(?) Stronger!" when the Boston team was losing. A "strong" city would have accepted this as a typical "sportsmanship" and not indulged in handwringing.
I will always remember with gratitude the outpouring of support for our city (remember the memorial in Copley Square?) on 4/15/13. Three years later, I think "Pasta Strong" is a healthy acknowledgement that it is time to move on.
awesome man
you get it. also, i think that the X City Stronger stuff was really hilarious and deserved.
oh well, i guess we'll just have to agree to agree
Not quite....
Have to disagree with you on the "man" part of your headline :)
Boston Strong had meaning for about 30 minutes.
Boston Strong had meaning for about 30 minutes. Then the boston sports yahoos took it over and ruined.
The last thing my city needed was some bruins fans from new hampshire who were no where near the bombing yelling "boston strong!".
..and what the Red Sox did was downright shameful. A day after the city was on lock down, these money grubbin a-holes throw a party with guest musicians .....after 4 people died. the party was for a bunch of people from who were safe in their living room in the burbs during the whole bombing and manhunt.
..and David Ortiz - this is not your f'n city. you see, you need to actually live in boston (not Weston) for this to be your city. retire and go away.
I suppose I might be more offended if Miel were
anything more than a mediocre, overpriced hotel restaurant, the kind that management is happy to see 25% full all the time because its real purpose is to serve as a convenience to the InterContinental's well-heeled hotel guests, not a restaurant that anyone who lives in Boston gives a shit about.
Carbo-loading pre-marathon dinner
seems like a fine idea to me.
How to advertise 101
Create controversy.
Stand back and watch.
There is a whole political campaign based on it.
Just call it a "pasta dinner" for
crying out loud.
How about
Shells In Place?
Or...
Or... did you ever think this is something for people to come together and enjoy? Who cares what the name is. Also, it's there third year doing this pasta dinner the night before the marathon. Why the criticism now, oppressors. Lot's of places do pasta dinners to support marathon runners and families.
Since you don't understand the issue
Let me try to explain:
It's not that they're holding a pasta dinner. That's great and it's a hallowed pre-Marathon tradition.
However, the NAME is the problem: It's obviously playing off "Boston Strong," right down to the blue and yellow. If you're not from around here, you might not realize that "Boston Strong" is a phrase that came up immediately after the bombings and refers to the resilience of Bostonians in the face of tragedy. And riffing off it for some light-hearted commercial enterprise might just rub some people, especially those who lived through those days, the wrong way.
boston strong as a phrase
is viewed by many as insulting and cliche at best,or manipulative carpet bagging at worst.
ive been here the entirety of my life, lived on the marathon route when the bombs went off, and think that any outcry over this is ridiculous.
boo frickety hoo, a restaurant is borrowing off of a phrase, to make money, that other people borrowed, to make money
they've appropriated our appropriation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUARDS SEIZE THEM
Trolling A Troll. God Bless the Interwebz.
What I'm hearing is over sensitive Americans. I believe someone already stated here that the Army were the first to come up with the phrase, so if anything Boston Strong just supports militarization by mimicking the Army and their tag line.
Let it go. If anything support it as it is more than likely using it as a way to support the community. What if Forum didn't close? What if Forum held a dinner and called it Pasta Strong?
What about that concert that happened right after the bombings? They called that Boston Strong? Did that offend you as well?
What if Forum didn't close? What if Forum held a dinner and called it Pasta Strong? Would you be offended by that?
As someone else stated that no one in Boston cares about Miel. So if no one cares about Miel, why are you making a mountain out of a mole hill?
Oh and I am from here. Aside from college, I've lived on Arlington Street in Watertown all my life.
*Their
Sorry, had to do it. Even on One Boston Day.
I'm not surprised that
I'm not surprised that someone tried to feed this to the internet outrage machine.
I am surprised it was you, though.
Call Them Up 617-217-5151
Flood them with calls. I talked to Phil. He seemed not to understand that they are making money off of people being blown up. I inquired if their NYC location was going to have a 9/11 Sandwich.
He said the hotel sees it as a coming together. I think many of us see it as a way to make money off of people whose idea of Boston Strong is a t-shirt.
Hit them up. This is the same chain that is mostly Holiday Inns; higher thread counts, same tackiness.
Or, you know, just get on
Or, you know, just get on with your life.
Some Of Us Have Standards
Some of us have the username of what provides the highest percentage of Weymouth's GDP.
So don't eat there.
Problem solved.
Link Is Down
Looks liked they pulled it.
Pasta Strong still happening
Still listed here. Also, they had it in 2015 (and probably earlier years as well) without any protest.
Hey man
I may have 43 BOSTON STRONG T-shirts (in the colors of all our local sports teams), 11 Frisbees, 10 keychains, 19 hats, 3 dog leashes (don't even have a dog!), 2 steering wheel covers, 9 bumper stickers (don't even have a car!), and I may have a big tattoo of Rajon Rondo wearing a BOSTON STRONG T-shirt (that one may have been a mistake), but I have to draw the line somewhere
bingo
bingo
was his name o
was his name o
Metaphor for why this is irking people:
Not the same
Your "metaphor" appropriates the specific tragedy of 9/11 to sell sandwiches, down to the configuration of the two sandwiches to evoke the twin towers (clever, I have to admit). The thousands of people affected by the 9-11 attacks would doubtless be deeply offended. I am also certain that a large number of people would take advantage of the deal being advertised.
"Pasta Strong" does not reference the specific tragedy of the marathon bombing, rather it is an appropriation of a slogan that, while it had meaning for many in the wake of the marathon bombing, has long since been appropriated by numerous other commercial/media/non-profit institutions, as a catch-all feel good phrase. For example, WGBH 44.3 (Create TV) is showcasing the slogan today to advertise the fact that it is airing all Boston-themed programs. I caught the tail end of an old "Ciao Italia" episode this morning featuring none other than Mayor Menino. I am assuming there will be a huge number of Ming Tsai - hosted shows aired throughout the day. Does that also irk people?
Meanwhile
One of the pushcarts down by the Old Statehouse was doing a fairly good business vending Boston Strong stocking caps to tourists who probably were not expecting such chill temps on Wednesday and Thursday.
next time anyone
promotes anything like One Boston Day, on a Friday evening Marathon weekend no less, for the love of God, make sure the effing MBTA can handle the CROWDS it produced. I left work after a LONG day around 9 and the greenline D was especially a shitstorm. Inexcusable and not funny.