- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK SMART TALK by Dr. Ced Riley
CHAI TEA: Like most spoonerisms, chai tea is something silly; this time, redundant. Commit a spoonerism with 'tai chi,' and you get tea twice. Chai means tea in several languages.
The joke gets even sillier: The linguistically impaired among the crowd in the beverage business have embraced chai tea and actually use it as a legitimate name. Reminds me of Yogi Berra’s hilarious faux pas 'deja vu all over again.' Many now use it without a clue to how ignorant they sound.
Chef Ptomaine offers chai tea with great pride at his restaurant, Eat Here Diet Home. The waitress, Shirley R. Slowe, will bring it to your table as she always does, a little stainless steel pitcher of rapidly cooling water that never boiled to begin with, a cold, empty cup, and a bag of chai tea on the side.
But we at the Center for English as a First Language are not surprised. We located here in Underbelly, Texas, because we could see the need right there in the town’s name. Not to be outdone by Mexicali and Calexico, across the California-Mexico border from each other, here we have Underbelly and Overback, across the River Rio from each other. On our side, we also have Summit Peak, so we’re inspired every day.
And we don’t serve chai tea in the Fowler Lounge. We’re trying to set an example here.
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