Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Be Careful What You Say!

Good advice for anyone, don't you agree?

Be careful what you say in Spanish!

Once while grocery shopping in Spain I told my friend I needed to find some "gusanos con helados." She gave me the strangest look! In Spanish she said to me, "What? You Americans are so crazy!" I said, "What's the big deal?" Then I picked up the package of frozen peas I was looking for. I thought that's what I told her. She laughed so hard. She told me I said I needed to find "worms with ice cream!" You see, I should have said, "guisantes congelados", which kinda sounds like "gusanos con helados." Frozen peas or worms with ice cream, which would you rather have?

Be careful what you say on TV!
Daughter #2 worked on a commercial for American Idol many years ago. It was one of those commercials that featured the finalists promoting the show's big sponsors. It was a Subway commercial. I don't watch American Idol, but looking at the official American Idol website, I see it was Season 3. (I think a girl named "Fantasia" won that season.)

Anyway, when you work in the entertainment industry, one way they pay you is by how many words you say. There's a pay rate for 5-words-or-less. And there's a pay rate for more-than-5-words. (Note: I'm sure Angelina Jolie doesn't get paid by how many words she says!...these pay rates are for budding actors.) Anyway, on this particular commercial, my daughter was to say:
"Can't wait to see 'em!"
Let's see how many words is that? It's 5. That's what the contract said she was to say. Now if she had decided to say:
"I can't wait to see 'em!"
then her pay would've gone way up. Let's see how many words is that? It's 6. That wouldn't have happened because the director would've yelled, "Cut!" Oh well. That's showbiz.
Here she is with one of the finalists. I looked her up. It's Jasmine Trias. Cute girl!

Here she is with another finalist. His name is John Stevens. To be honest with you, I thought he was a real Subway worker!

(A little side story: While waiting for my daughter film this commercial, I sat and chatted with one of the producers of Fox Television. I asked her questions about the American Idol show; how it worked, who was on it, etc. etc. Her eyes got all big and she asked me, "What? You don't watch our show?" I said, "No." She asked "Why?" I answered, "Because I'm just not interested." I think I'm the only person in America who's never watched Amercian Idol. Sorry.
Again...I need to be careful what I say. It probably wasn't the wisest thing to say to a producer while my daughter was doing a commercial for them!)

Be careful what you say to a University of Oregon alumni!


The other day a lady brought me lots of fleece to make her some fleece blankets with my longarm. There were tons to do. One by one I worked to get the blankets done. I had just one more to do and the fleece was still in a bag. She called and asked how the blankets were coming along. I said, "Oh, fine. I just have one more. I have that John Deere blanket left."She gasped, "What? I didn't bring you any John Deere fleece!" I pulled it out of the bag and looked. "Oh sorry. I guess it's University of Oregon." She seemed a little offended at my mistake. Oh well. Perhaps other U of O fans would have taken offense too! My mistake. Green and Yellow, Yellow and Green, that's all I noticed.

The Purse Dog didn't notice. I made her this little scarf with a scrap.

Have a great day and be careful what you say!

2 comments:

SS said...

Did you notice how much Green was in your blog? Green Peas, Green Subway shirts, and Green for the Ducks!
I think the Poopie would have prefered a John Deere scarf, its more her style.

Becky said...

Tee Hee. All I could think after reading your post was that you must have been having one of the "cheerleader" moments you have referred to in previous posts.

The purse dog appears to enjoying the new scarf.