I remember when I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s there was a Mazola Corn Oil commercial. I searched Google to see if I could find that old commercial.
I was, of course, successful, and I learned some things that I had forgotten, and other things that I did not know.
There were several of these commercials. Most featured a really pretty female. I remember as an adolescent thinking she was very attractive, and I still think, though now I’m older, that she was indeed pretty. When I was young, she would have been called an Indian, and the term for the time was politically correct. I believe that the accepted term now is “Native American”. This would explain all the disclaimers that are seen before classic episodes of television Westerns, the notice that the episodes feature outdated cultural “somethings-or-the-other”.
Nevertheless, I did a Google search on the Mazola commercials. Once again, thanks to the technological advances via Google, I got to hear the beautiful young lady say those words that have stayed with me almost half of a century, “We call it corn. You call it maize.”
It turns out there was more than one of those commercials that featured the pretty young lady. For the curious, it is possible to find out her name through a Google search, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
There was also another Mazola commercial that featured a group of “Indian” runners and the pretty lady. There were other Mazola commercials that did not feature Indians/Native Americans at all. One of the YouTube selections is a video titled, “Another Native American Exploitation Ad (1976) – Vintage Ads”.
Honestly, the world is so confused today that it’s hard to know what to call anyone or anything. I am sure that the farthest things from anyone’s mind in the 1970s and 1980s was the exploitation of a group of people. All the company wanted to do was sell corn oil. I’m sure all the actors participating in the commercial wanted to do was work and get paid. I can’t hardly imagine that the actors in the commercials were forced to participate in these ads, nor do I think that they were made to work for free.
A colleague of mine was talking to me the other day about his visit to the Jack Daniel Distillery. At one point he mentioned the “back room” where, though the distillery is located in the midst of a dry county, a person can go and sample shots of whiskey in “communion cups”.
I hastened to point out that the world called those vessels in the back room “shot glasses”—the church calls them communion cups. Can’t you picture me dressed in clerical garments, starring in a commercial that says, “You call them shot glasses. We call them communion cups.” Wonder what kind of controversy that would stir!
What seems to be missing in today’s society is a tolerance of the differences among people. It seems everything is offensive to someone somewhere at all times. There was a wonderful theme in one of the old Coca-Cola commercials when I was young:

“I’d like to teach the world to sing,
In perfect harmony.
I’d like to buy the world a Coke,
and keep it company.”

I think Coca-Cola had it right, that’s “the real thing”—the ability for different groups of people to get along in spite of the differences between them. A person doesn’t have to like everyone or agree with others, but all should be respectful of the rights of others to their ideas and opinions. I don’t believe anyone has the right to force their opinions upon anyone else.
And that, as the iconic Forrest Gump would say, “is all I have to say about that”.
Thank you for sharing, Dear Reader. Until next we meet via the printed word, I leave you with some thoughts from that (sometimes) most interesting land of email.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air,
the person died in battle.
If the horse has one front leg in the air,
the person died because of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died
of natural causes.
(If the statue is on the ground it is because of political reasons!)

Each ear of Corn has an even number of rows.

To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world,
except exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
--Oscar Wilde

I'm responsible for what I say,
not for what you understand.

Turns out that being a "senior"
is mostly just googling how to do stuff.

"It’s important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle." – Unknown

"I complain that the years fly past,
but then I look in a mirror
and see that very few of them actually got past."
- Robert Brault

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.