An Open Letter to Kuntry Kitchen,

Dear Kuntry Kitchen,

I drove by your establishment on our way home from a weekend trip with the family. I saw your sign and was completely disgusted. I was driving and hubs was playing a game on the iPad, so neither of us could take a picture of your offensive restaurant sign. Below is a sign I found here, which concerns me because this means you might be part of a chain.

Here's why it was offensive to me: first of all, the first syllable, kunt, is very close to a word that is extremely offensive to all women. Just because the first letter is different does not make it okay.  The thought of this ugly word is not appetizing, so how you think you're going to get business is beyond me.

Second of all, you're probably not a teacher (or educated at all, for that matter), but there is a thing in literacy education called "print awareness." Basically, this means that when a child is first beginning to read, he or she is aware of the print around them and using the familiarity of said print is able to understand what the word says. Therefore, a child can "read" words like McDonald's, Snickers, Stop and other words that they see in their physical environment. This is an extremely important step in their literacy development and you, my friend, are messing it up.

Here's why: you are on the access road of a busy highway. Many children are gazing out the window due to sheer boredom when they pass your establishment. They see the word and ask mama and daddy what that says. They tell the child Country Kitchen. Child now associates the word kuntry with country. Child now has to relearn (in a sense) the word country.

This is not hypothetical; it happens in real life. I blame Winnie the Pooh, that chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff, for my misspelling of the word honey. You see, Pooh labeled his beloved honey pot as "hunny," therefore causing me to think that hunny was the proper spelling.

It's not and neither is kuntry.

I'm going to wrap this up but I need to throw in one more reason this sign offends me. You, good sir, by misspelling the word country, are inferring that people who live in the country can only spell phonetically and thus would not be able to understand the word if it were spelled correctly. As someone who was raised in the country, this offends me. I am offended on behalf of my family in the country, who don't need to spell anything phonetically before they grace your establishment with their presence.

I imagine your food is not great either, with it's beens, stakes and gravie. And let's not forget the biskits.

Good day,
gin