Come on baby, tell me what's The Word!

So says the Magic Hate Ball: All signs point to "Chipotle."

Apparently, I'm a little behind the times on this one. About 534,000 hits behind the times, (give or take) it seems... but who's counting?

The word chipotle has taken America by storm this season. There's a burgeoning chipotle overload in pop culture that's rising to Bubba Gump levels. To Wit: Chipotle Mexican Grill... Chipotle Tabasco... McDonald's chipotle dipping sauce... chipotle soup... chipotle gumbo... grilled chipotle... fried chipotle... Chipotle Johnson (I think he went to high school with one of you guys. If not, he should have.) You get the idea. Ad agents have chipotle-adopted a chipotle adjective and are chipotle-hammering it home.

Think back a bit, and you'll recall that the chipotle of 1998-2000 was "cilantro." Hey, I'm right, aren't I? It was an exciting time back then - Hully finally hoisted the Cup, Clinton was teaching us all what "is" was, and damn near everything had cilantro in it. You couldn't even get a glass of water in a restaurant without them sneaking a few leaves of it in the ice cubes. Cilantro was "all up ins," as the cool kids (and me) say.
Now? Good luck. With a little poking around, you can find it in the produce section of your larger stores, and for three times as much you can find it in local specialty shops. It's a good day if you can find it in the spices aisle.
As far as products that feature cilantro in them... I think Pace still has a con-cilantro version, but that's about it.

Cilantro as a fad waned when Asagio Cheese was dubbed the new prettyboy flavor. Thank God that flopped bigger than New Coke. I still get nightmares of those Gilbert Gottfried commercials from Subway. Seriously... I get a nervous tic if I hear "Next stop: Skoozy!"

After that, there was a brief (like 3 hour) attempt to bring back "What'chu talkin' 'bout Willis?" followed by my failed bid for MacGuyver.
After lying low for a few years, the fad is back, and it's begat chipotle. Could be worse though; the flavor of the month could have been "ecru" or "scatalogical." In light of those options, chipotle's not so bad. If only because all the fucking half-wits here have no idea how to pronounce it. "Chi-poe-tull." "Cheapo-le." "Chuh-pot-lee."
It's entertainment all on its own.

Chipotle, baby.