Show HN: A generator of Fake Italian Coffee names
real-italian-coffee.herokuapp.comUX suggestions:
- make the "Give me a Coffee name" button 5x larger
- place the button and generated name in the middle of the page, not at the bottom
- remove the pink border from the secondary title ("Create your own...") because it looks like a button.
Yes, if not for your comment I would have never found it. I thought it was the "buy me a coffee" donation type link at first glance.
same -- i thought it was just broken on mobile
Yes please, it took me over 5 secs to figure out what to click, felt like ages.
The first title box increases also in height with page width - on my laptop I get quite a huge stamp, while on the mobile it's same size as the button below. Ah, and on my Samsung Galaxy the button doesn't get the special cursive font, no matter which browser I use.
The paragraph text is also difficult to read on top of the page background pattern. Maybe add a white background to the text?
Finding the button seems so hard this even seems a feature rather than a bug. Sort of a game.
Very nice, these fake works upset me as well.
As a foreigner I do not understand how those made up nonsensical words (common in coffee, car model names, appliances, websites), or that stereotypical "mamma mia i speak-a english-a language" intonation aren't considered on par with making fun of the Asian stereotypical pronunciation or making up words like "Ching Chong Pling Plong" to sell something.
Any native American can help me understand the difference between making fun of Asians/Blacks/other groups and italo-americans?
This is a rabbit hole. You probably didn't mean it this way, but:
> Any native American can help me understand the difference between making fun of Asians/Blacks/other groups and italo-americans?
You know what "native american" means in (American) English, don't you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United...
It’s just a phrase that has two meanings and is understood with context. It’s like saying we sanctioned Jesse for his behavior.
I understand this, but given the _context_ of the question it might be (deliberately) misunderstood.
That is not a rabbit hole, it's child's play.
To use your own words: I wrote native American and not Native American, didn't I? Do you know what "native" with a lowercase lettee means, don't you?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/native
As a side note, an unrequested advice: As you said, you probably didn't mean it this way but you sound detestable.
Cheers and thank you.
Sorry. I did not mean to offend you, but your response clearly show that I did it somehow. Sorry again for any intended or unintended meaning that my comment could have conveyed to you.
To offer a counter perspective (American here!), I did not see it as poking fun at Italians or Italian language. I saw it poking fun at coffee stores in America, as some have a tendency to make some sort of drink and give it have a name that sounds similar to the ones in the website.
If it makes you feel any better, the Italians enjoy making fun of American lingo as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisencolinensinainciusol
Yeps. I love this.
In China there is a proverb:
> Don't treat others in the ways you don't want to be treated.
How others treat us is irrelevant to how we should behave. There are many craps we get but it is not a excuse to unload the same craps back.
In my lifetime, I've witnessed first hand a lot of racism, and just outright violence towards Asians and Blacks, including institutional racism. I believe that's the difference.
Italian Americans don't have to worry about this sort of institutional racism (at least not in generations), so it's easier to assume these jokes are honest attempts at humor vs bigotry.
I’ve been to Mexico. Sometimes people there try to mimic your accent and poke fun at how you sunburn so easily.
Back in the US if you were to do similar to a Mexican, you’d be accused of racism for mimicking their accent or making fun of some part of their physiology they cannot change.
Punching up versus kicking down. They're different things.
That’s bullshit. They don’t know my status nor you know if they are the seaside peddlers or the upper class Mexicans.
It’s a hard sell to say you feel like your heritage was cause for grief when you come from a superpower, and the richest country in the world. You may individually be not well off, but we’re talking about group properties.
Oh, now it’s about group power and not individuals?
See, people keep on redefining things. So a Mexican-American being from a “super power” what, they can be made fun of by white Mexicans because?
What about Chinese from China, now that they are super power, does everyone get to pile on any individual because as a group they are powerful (based on PPP they are on par or surpassed us).
It all bullshit. If it’s not for me or it’s not right for them, then it’s not right for anyone.
It's always been about group power. The idea that it's about individuals is, to use a term you might be familiar with, fake news.
A few years ago, the right was blowing up about "reverse racism" or racism against white folks (I'm speaking exclusively about the US now, because that's really all that I know) but that's not possible in America because whites are the most privileged race. Are there some poor white people? Absolutely. BUT (and this is the integral part) the systems of power don't work to keep poor white people poor in the same way that they work to keep poor black people poor. There's no assumption of guilt when it comes to white folks. Despite equal rates of drug use, white people are less likely to wind up in prison/jail for drug offenses than are black folks or other minorities.
Racism might be different in China, I'm not sure.
Also, while I'm on the subject (this isn't directly related to what you said, but it's related), the reference to race isn't racism. I've seen the attitude that to acknowledge race is racism a lot here on HN, and it's just false. I've seen it used to essentially silence people who say "as a black person, I perceive this as..." which is an extension of racism: the false idea that the victim of racism can't identify the racism because to identify the racism requires that they bring up race in a conversation in which race wasn't overtly called out.
Racism is simple to Id: if the decision is based on the perception of race, it’s racism whether positive or negative. Positive racism is : “I see you’re [race] come over here, you get to eat right here”. Negative racism “I see you’re [race] you get to eat over there. Where + and - aren’t value judgements but effect on the recipient.
Nope.
Racism is a power-dynamic and a set of systems to maintain that power dynamic.
All you are saying is the same I’m saying except you’re using different language to say it.
No, you're saying that racism can be bi-directional and/or against those with power (or "positive racism").
So you’re saying some people cannot do racism?
Can someone from LatAm be racist against a North American black, what about against an Caribbean littoral black? A Guatemalan vs a Belizean? Or vice versa? A Chinese from China in Mexico vs an ethnic Chinese in Mexico vs, have your pick.
Now that's just racism on another scale: you're saying Mexicans are below Americans?
Yes. Mexicans have not installed institutions that create and perpetuate widespread discrimination, prejudice, and harm to Americans but the opposite is true.
Punching up or down isn't about the relative superiority or inferiority of groups, it's about the human made power dynamics that exist between them.
This is weird, you're saying the only racism is institutional racism (tho you must recall the motto Mexico is for Mexicans' as well as a history of slavery in Mexico) that attitude used to keep out legal foreigners (LatAm and NAm) from some types of jobs.
Never the less, it's ridiculous to think that a Mexican cannot be racist against an American or a Honduran or whatever.
Mexico imported slaves from Africa and that wasn't abolished till the 1830s though there was an exception that allowed importation of slaves from Texas.
It is either racist or it isn't. The now-popular punching direction catch phrase is just a way of excusing hypocrisy.
Many Hollywood movies with a plot that clearly takes place 5 decades after WWII have evil German characters named Fritz and Hans. Racism? You can certainly still experience anti-German sentiments as a 20 year old abroad right now.
I don't mind these movies at all, but there do seem to be double standards.
Die Hard is not the same thing to German Americans as is a rise in violence against Asian Americans [0] or institutional racism against Blacks for their respective groups.
There doesn't seem to be a double standard.
0 - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/21/one-third-o...
Italians aren't discriminated against en masse in the US, so poking fun at the language is seen as "punching down".
At least anymore. There used to be a time when discrimination against Italian Americans was quite the norm
See: https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/italian/...
Punching up and punching down are idiotic concepts. Either something is wrong or it isn’t wrong.
This concept is basically a get out of jail free card people can use when they cross certain lines that is based on made up pretense that there exists a universal scale of power and weakness.
It’s a manipulative tool that some people thought up to control conversation.
I think you mean punching up, or "isn't seen as punching down."
Whoops, meant isn't. Too late to edit.
Italians aren't discriminated against en masse
Neither are Asian Americans? Despite what the media wants you to believe
The simple answer is that any group that is considered to be “white” whatever their level of integration is fair game. I’m not sure it’s an accurate answer or why it maps to my experience but, you don’t need to look very hard to find similar stereotypes of Irish, Russians and other distinctive European ethnicities.
The difference is always "laughing at you" vs "with you." It's not that certain groups are "fair game" but that among equals poking fun has a default interpretation of "busting a friend's chops." Anyone can absolutely cross the line when making fun of white people.
If you're non-white and making fun of white people it can also be light mockery of your oppressors depending on the context. It has "court jester making fun of the king" energy.
Why it's almost always not kosher for white people to make fun of non-whites is because the default interpretation of jokes among non-equals is bullying and mockery. It can be done but it has to be done with extreme care.
The topical example of jokes among more complicated non-equals going extremely poorly is Chappelle's treatment of the trans community. It's not that trans folks are "off limits", you can find plenty of comedians and people on social media that make tasteful jokes at the expense of trans folks, but Chappelle's jokes just came off mean and weren't things that any trans person would react like, "haha that's so true!"
You’re on point, there is no difference.
It's easy to miss the "Give me a Coffee name" button at the bottom.
Edit: I expected it to automatically generate a coffee name. So when I first viewed the page, I assumed it was broken due to the HN "Hug of Death" and left. I only viewed it again because I was surprised about the number of upvotes.
Same. Mentally I thought this was a "buymeacoffee" donation link, and just left the page confused.
Fake foreign words can sometimes take a life of their own, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudo-French_words_in... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudo-German_words_in...
My favorite coffee name so far is definitely Urino Decaffeinato
The first link is terrible. “Voir dire” is not pseudo-French, it’s an archaic expression from old Norman French (a lot of such phrases ended up in English legal language). Also, “nom de plume” is used commonly in French.
>Urino Decaffeinato
I think I was drinking that this morning.
that doesn't sound very tasty, but to each their own I guess.
I clicked the link, read the copy, and was laughing/enjoying myself so much that I had to come back to drop a comment.
100% worth the time. This was a wonderful way to start the day.
I agree. It was a great lunch time past time. I loved it.
Reminded me of "Tech Names as a service" from Vincent Warmerdam on pyData 2017 (Berlin) [1].
I'm glad it made you laugh! :)
We somehow came out with AI (Angered Italians) with the Americano:
The term "caffè Americano" specifically is Italian for "American coffee". There is a popular, but unconfirmed, belief that the name has its origins in World War II when American G.I.s in Italy would dilute espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee to which they were accustomed."
As an Italian I had to try it, of course. Luckily none of the 30 or so generated names could fool a coffee drinking Italian. Our tradition is safe ...for now:)
After having had a similar discussion about that with a colleague from Italy last week, I just had to forward this to her and her Data Science team.
Especially the "Angered Italians (AI) Recurrent Neural Network" made me (and hopefully her) crack up.
Effusione Urina. I can make my own uric infusion at home - is that the next unicorn?
Just a quick thought, while I'm sipping my Schiatondont Lungo Decaffeinato: You could make the "give me a coffee name" button larger. Also some space after the button would make it look nicer, I think.
As a native Italian speaker I think that the tradition is safe from AI for now... Uussimanto or Dantentandim doesn't quite sound like Italian ;) And there might be a bit too many "Effusione" names :)
Yeah, 90% of the ones I generated start with Effusione. Must be a popular technique in fake-Italy.
Effusione is wide spread in the world of fake Italian Coffees. I can not name the brand :)
I like this. I'd like similar for pizza as well.
The real joke is the fact that most Italians look at US coffee with a sense of either vague or specific disappointment. Does not matter what fancy name you come up with.
On the other hand you could try asking an Italian barista for a Latte and see what you end up with.
You could generate ideas for domain names with this too.
Many people work backwards from a domain name to build their business/project/whatever. That is, the domain is dreamed up first before the name, instead of having a name for a project and then looking for a corresponding domain.
My favourite coffee is called Lobster Butter Love, so these names don't seem quite out of the ordinary for me!
(Lobster Butter Love is from Roos Roast in The People's Republic of Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Thank you, OP, for making this site, it made me laugh :)
Yep, this seems to be pretty much how Nespresso pods get named- both the "official" ones and "compatible" ones from Target, etc.
I remember someone to nice wrote a perl script that generated a random, but possible coffee based on all ingredients and such. Loved it.
I shit you not, first click was Schitunato Lungo.
Next one was Effusione Mortando, possibly available at the Pastaway Cafe over by the Piazza di Spagna.
Diffusione Urino
Sure it's delish, very appealing.
Is the Erenzione Lungo blue?
I love that the call to action button is the smallest thing on the page.
I'd probably never try Fartica coffee.
I want more word generators!
Haha this is quite clever
oh sure, break away from the thiscoffeedoesnotexist trope
doppio venti mezzo litro