If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Goat-dom

kiligirl (66)in #africa • 5 years ago

Those of tender age might not remember the classic 1969 film "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium", but I was reminded of it most soundly today as I was driving back to our office earlier and saw this excellent sign.

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It's Tuesday. That's goat. Ergo: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Goat-dom.

The film "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" told the story of a group of American tourists haplessly making their way around Europe, so confused and uninformed about the places they were visiting that they often didn't know where they were...thus the title.

It was one of those satires which worked not only because it (gently) made fun of a most lampoonable subject, the American Tourist, it was also kind to those characters and didn't present them as cringeworthy know-nothings. Granted, I probably saw the movie in the early 1970s and it may have softened in my memory, but one of the lessons I remember taking away from it is that we too easily stereotype people, in that case the American Tourist, and once we get to know them we can see past the stereotypes. Is that what I'd take away from the film nowadays? Not sure!

So - goat shawarma for lunch?

Why not? Goat is meat. Many cultures and cuisines enjoy goat meat. But I've got my ideas about goat, just as I've had stereotypes about certain types of tourists over the years (you know, the ones who either yell louder when the locals don't understand them, or the ones who travel in multi-coloured packs, or the ones who like to get naked in sacred places and offend the locals...how many stereotypes did I just hit?).

I've had goat, in stews and in inedible chop form from buffet lunches somewhere in Africa, and I must say that billboard does a heckuva job of getting me past my stereotypes. Love that "Greatest Of All Tuesdays" acronym - it does a great job of balancing out the anti-appeal of "goat offals". I've never even thought of offal in the plural.