Sour Cream: A Political Harbinger?

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at one of my favorite local food stores: European Mart. In Denver at least, "European" is code for "Russian." There's also the St. Petersburg European Deli, among other Russki markets in the area.

What did I espy in the dairy cooler but a plastic container emblazoned СМЕТАНА on the (red) logo of a black-and-white, flower-garlanded cow's head with a flower in her mouth, marked RUSSIAN STYLE SOUR CREAM and proclaiming ЗТО ВКУСНО!

Ooh! I had to buy it. When I got home, I found out that it was as good as it looked, and tasted just like the sour cream of my (not that long ago) childhood. I was hooked.

Today was my first real outing by car since my surgery on the 13th (not counting the trip to the surgeon for rebandaging last Monday). Darling Husband drove and we took Jenny for a walk along (and in) Cherry Creek, then stopped off at European Mart for supplies.

I headed to the dairy case for more of that fantastic sour cream. On a shelf were the same clear plastic containers filled with thick white stuff, with the same cow logo and Cyrillic type.

Only this time the label was marked CANADIAN STYLE SOUR CREAM. I think it's an omen.

P.S. Thanks to Wiktionary, I've learned that СМЕТАНА is a Russian (not Canadian) feminine noun, pronounced "smetána," meaning "sour cream." And according to Google, ЗТО ВКУСНО is Russian (not Canadian) for "extremely tasty."