Over the 4th of July weekend I went into a good old American Target store to pick up some stuff for the family. Hot dogs, buns, soda, that kind of thing. Practically as soon as I walked through the door, I was confronted by an incredibly offensive wall of piñatas.

Piñatas at Target=bad

I get it that some people might want to buy piñatas for their kids. They don’t understand the potential dangers. Fine. But selling these atrocities on one of the most important days of the year, when we celebrate Americaness? Come on Target? Why not just start selling French stuff too? Make a mockery of what the 4th of July stands for?

I went to the manager and asked him what our Founding Fathers would think about him selling piñatas on the 4th of July. Mister Gutierez (did I spell that right?) barely listened to me, even though I very calmly explained to him the dangers of piñatas and how inappropriate it was for him to sell them on this particular holiday. He just kept looking at his watch and finally made an excuse to go do something else.

All I can say is I will now be taking all of my business to Walmart, where they truly understand what it means to be an American company!

My next door neighbor Pam has a daughter attending a local university here in Northern California. I have known this neighbor for years, although we are not close. After the piñata incident she brought over a green bean casserole and was very nice to us though. 

Drugs

I had not really seen Pam much since the block party a few months ago, but she came to our house yesterday very upset. The university had sent a letter home to parents warning them about a new “piñata party craze” that is sweeping campus nation wide this fall. 

According to this letter, college students are filling pinatas with joints, acid tabs, condoms and sex toys. These young adults, who should be studying, get drunk, bash the “goodies” out of the piñata, and then have sex and drug filled all night parties. 

Sex Toys

The letter goes on to say that the university where Pam’s daughter is attending has had to break up several of these sex and drug parties in the dormitory where her daughter is staying. This school mandates freshman to live on campus. I think it goes without saying that Pam is very concerned about this activity.

Whether or not you agree with my position on banning piñatas, I hope you will agree that this is a very disturbing development. If you have children in collage, please speak with them about the dangers of sex and drug piñata parties.

Just got an iphone. I downloaded a piece of blogging software that let’s me post from the phone.

I love it! I should be posting more piñata related stories now.

This bit of news caught my eye. And gladdened my heart. Major Hollywood studios are finally cracking down on the illegal use of their intellectual property in the creation of unlicensed piñatas! Here’s the story from the LA Times…

Disney and the other companies, in what experts said was an understandable move to protect their popular cartoon and character properties, filed copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits against Santoyo and another nearby shop owner for allegedly selling the counterfeit pinatas.

Although Santoyo settled last month for an undisclosed sum, word of the legal action against these two small Los Angeles vendors — who peddle their wares in an informal pinata district centered along Olympic Boulevard and Central Avenue — has reverberated through the garages, backyards and warehouses of pinata makers as far away as Santa Ana, who worry that they too will be targeted. But will they stop making the images of Cinderella and Dora?

“Without that, we don’t have much of a business,” said South Los Angeles pinata maker Marta Garcia. “We need to be careful, but it’s hard because the demand is for the characters on television and in the theaters.”

While I can certainly sympathize the retailers who just want to earn a living, stealing is stealing. And if Disney isn’t being paid for the use of their characters, this is clear cut theft, that hurts a lot of people from the janitors at Disney’s offices to the creative people who come up with the entertainment we love.

I was informed today that the proper name for a store that primarily sells pinatas is a “pinataria.” Now I’ll be sure to describe it correctly when asking others to join me in picketing a pinataria.