Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day (#1002)

Topics/tags: Miscellaneous

On most days, Anthony dawdles on his way home from school. But on Wednesdays, Anthony races home because, in Boston’s North End, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day.

A few months ago, soon after I started taking a water aerobics class, one of my fellow students and I were talking about our backgrounds. We soon realized that we were both from the northeast, she was from Rhode Island and I’m from the Boston area [1]. I can’t recall which of the key regionalisms we discussed: frappes [2], jimmies, candlepin bowling, wicked, Necco Wafers. But it was Wednesday in class, and when one of us said Wednesday is, the other said Prince Spaghetti Day. At that point, I repeated the phrase that was imperfectly etched into my brain cells [3].

We left it at that. I did wonder how many times I’d seen the ad and why brain cells were still devoted to that narration. But I accept that we have no control over our brains.

A bit later, my fellow student said that she’d heard a report on the advertisement on NPR. It has a lot for a three-minute piece, including a note on how important it was for Italian Americans to feel like they were represented on TV.

Listening to the piece allowed me to check my memory. It includes the following bits from the advertisement.

[Mother calling] Anthony. Anthony.

I remembered that part. I just hadn’t considered it central to what I should recite. But what about the announcer’s narrative.

[Announcer] Anthony Martignetti [5] lives in Boston in the Italian North End.

Forget his last name. But it’s a familiar one. There was a Martignetti Liquors near where I grew up, by the former Sammy White’s Brighton Bowl, down the road from the International House of Pancakes. Mom shopped there regularly; I recall her saying something about good prices and good wine.

I miss Sammy White’s, which has been gone for decades. I’m surprised that there’s not an NPR piece about that; I believe it closed soon after some murders. I see that Martignetti’s has closed, too. Mom would be sad. I wonder if the International House of Pancakes is still there. It’s a chain, there’s probably one near my home in Iowa. I suppose I could visit the one in Coralville or Des Moines.

Back to NPR.

[Announcer] And as every family in the North End of Boston will tell you, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day.

There’s that catchphrase! But it’s not in the context I recall. And I’m pretty sure there’s more than what’s in the NPR piece. Fortunately, a one-minute version of the advertisement lives on on YouTube.

[Mother calling] Anthony, Anthony.

[Announcer] Anthony Martignetti lives in Boston on Prince Street in the Italian North End, the home for more than fifty years of the Prince Spaghetti Company. Anthony knows a lot about local Italian customs and he knows a lot about Prince because that’s a local custom too.

[Announcer] Prince is more than just authentic, it’s something that grows you with wheat germ energy other pastas leave out.

[Announcer] Most days, Anthony takes his time going home, but not today.

[Announcer] Today is Wednesday.

[Announcer] And, as every family in the North End of Boston will tell you, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day.

Nope, I don’t recall all of that. Perhaps it’s because it’s longer than the thirty-second versions that were usually on TV. Is there a thirty-second version out there? Yes, there is.

[Mother calling] Anthony, Anthony.

[Announcer] Anthony Martignetti lives in Boston in the Italian North End, the home of the Prince Spaghetti Company.

[Announcer] Anthony knows a lot about Prince because it’s something that grows you.

[Announcer] Most days, Anthony takes his time going home.

[Announcer] But today is Wednesday.

[Announcer] And in the North End of Boston, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day.

Yup, that’s much closer to what I remembered.

Did I really need to use brain cells remembering any part of that? At least I don’t seem to have spent cells recalling the visuals. I wonder why not.

I think of Barilla Pasta as Iowa’s equivalent of Prince. Did they have have a similar ad? As much as I’d like to ad-lib an Iowa version of the Prince ad, I must admit that I don’t know enough about my new home state.

Am I correct in associating Barilla with Iowa? There’s a big factory up in Ames. But it looks like their home office is in Italy. Imagine that.

Prince Pasta still seems to be around, even though it’s now part of the New World Pasta Family of Brands, which is part of Riviana Foods, which is itself "a wholly owned subsidiary of Madrid, Spain-based Ebro Foods, S.A.

I hope they still use wheat germ. I’ve heard it’s something that grows you. If not, there’s always Kretschmer’s.

Postscript: I’d recommend listening to the NPR piece. It presents some useful cultural context that I had not recalled or not understood.

[1] Newton, Massachusetts, to be precise. Former home of the National Biscuit Company and namesake of Nabisco’s Fig Newtons.

[2] Or Fribbles.

[3] Yes, there are likely other advertisements imperfectly etched in my brain cells.

[4] The YouTube auto-translate says Anthony Martin Yeti.

Version 1.0 of 2020-01-29.