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Last updateFri, 17 Jul 2015 4pm
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A Midwesterner moves to Mexico: Things I Google

I ran across an old blog post recently where I had written about the things I googled on a random day. I was in the United States back then and consumed by thoughts of things like New York weather, naps of three-month-olds, and how many Republicans would announce for president in 2015. 

Google may have gotten that last one wrong. But it hasn’t stopped it from being my go-to place for answers. 

These days are different though. Most of my googles are about translating Spanish words into English. Or peso prices into dollars. But not always. I have an inquiring mind. Take yesterday, for instance. These are the things I absolutely needed to know. Google to the rescue.

Q. What is 325 degrees fahrenheit in celsius?

I don’t do a lot of cooking, but every once in a while I’ll cook something (like box mix brownies) that I really want to get right. Time has taught me it’s best to check with Google. Before I started doing this I tended to cook everything at 250 celsius, which seemed a reasonable choice, but turned out to mean I was cooking things at, wait just a minute ...

Q. What is 250 degrees celsius in fahrenheit?

Hmm. That probably explains the smoke.

Q. What’s on sale at J.Jill?

What with my confusion about pesos, I do a lot of shopping online and check the J.Jill site nearly every day to see if certain shirts or dresses are finally reduced to a price that I find reasonable. I was excited yesterday to find one of my shirts on sale for US$19.99 with another 30 percent off. I was less excited to discover it was only available in size 4X.

Q. Does 4X ever run small?

Followed quickly by ...

Q. How do you say damn in Spanish?

“Maldito!”

Q. Are Sabritas and Lays chips the same?

I’ve been wondering about this for some time. Because, really, the bags look the same, the delivery trucks seem to have the same catchy slogan, and Mexican trademark laws are a little confusing to me what with the IDEA store and all. But, alas, it turns out that the chips are indeed the same, even though I betcha I can eat just one Sabritas.

I think it might have something to do with churro stand on the corner.