August 4, 2006 - Tie One On At Fiesta

There is a commonly held belief among the local sombreros in town that Fiesta is not their celebration, but instead just a ploy to bring in out-of-towners to fill the restaurants and hotels. Well, at least that’s what many of our subscribers said when we asked them to tell us, on a scale of 1 to 10, if they care about Fiesta. “Fiesta is for tourists” was a common comment from people who responded with a one (or less).

So if Fiesta is for tourists, then who were all those people we’ve seen wearing ties at the El Mercado in De La Guerra Plaza? Everyone knows that tourists wear shorts and loud shirts, not pressed button-downs and ties. The only logical conclusion we can draw is that the tourist reasoning doesn’t hold agua, lemonade, cerveza, or margaritas. Many of the people wearing ties around their necks, cracking cascarones on heads, and watching the tiny Spanish dancers on stage are loco locals from our own local pueblo.

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com was at the De La Guerra Mercado to count the number of men in neckties eating lunch on the humid lawn. Our initial indication of the non-tourist-ness of the event was that the first person we met was the Mayor, taking a chilidog back to her office. Of course we took a picture of the mayoral feast. And, as usual, she graciously obliged our silliness.

We ran into a lot of other familiar faces. With the exception of Holly the Wonder Dog, it seemed like the most of the staff of AMEC Earth & Environmental was there. They were not wearing ties, but there were plenty of others who were. And, we took pictures of them as well. After we took pictures, we got some tacos for ourselves and sat on the nearby green curb to watch the people passing by. We checked out ties as we sat. We didn’t see any with Fiesta themed ties. Most of them were just the run-of-the-loom department store/Men’s Warehouse variety.

One tie was decorated with pictures of $100 bills – maybe a Fiesta connection because that is what it cost to get into the Dignatarios Party at the zoo last night.

Our noontime count of 100 men eating tacos found 14 of them wearing ties and 86 of them not wearing ties. For the percentagely challenged that’s 14%! A previous survey found 17% of men on State Street wearing neckwear. Our In House Statistician (IHS) informs us that, in light of our small sample size, these percentages are similar – the El Mercado crowd and the normal State Street crowd could be the same folks.

For some reason our subscribers guessed much higher numbers in yesterday’s contest. Not only were there ties at Fiesta but there was a tie in our contest as well. Big Wave Dave, Sarkenrim, and Las Vegas Rio each guessed 14. Enter the Edhat Dog ... Three dog treats were balanced carefully on her nose. On command she dropped them to the floor and carefully chose which one to eat first. Big Wave Dave’s treat was the one she chose. Dave wins a t-shirt! Today is the Fiesta Parade where Edhat will be doing our 3rd Annual Fiesta Parade Horse Count. There will surely be many ‘waves’ there from the people on the floats.

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