Marketing to Pedophiles?

Traveling east of MoPac on 5th Street, it is impossible to miss the marquis that serves as mouthpiece for the owner of El Arroyo Mexican Restaurant. Over the years, I have been amused rarely and disappointed often by the personal politics and tasteless insults “hawked” from the street on a sign, but recently I was shocked to the point of contacting the restaurant immediately.

“Show us where on the doll El Arroyo touched you” was the message Clay McPhail felt would benefit his business that day, but it remains a mystery to me to whom he was marketing with the line used to interview children in cases against child molesters.

It was painful to imagine a young child with a history of speaking out against a molester seeing the marquis and wondering why their experience was being shared with all the world to see. Who would be motivated by the sign to stop in for a margarita or a meal? A call to the manager resulted in my being told the owner had a right to post any message he chose and a call to the owner was never returned.

However, the following day the marquis read “The devil called and said we were being mean.” For some people, any kind of publicity will do. Perhaps McPhail feels indebted to me now, for having again brought his message to the public eye. My appetite for Mexican food will take me anywhere but in “the ditch” with him.

Belinda Howell
Austin, Texas