Word-o-phile: Spanish Popeye

Spanish Popeye describes a loophole in New York City law regulating the adult-entertainment industry. The law permits a business to operate outside adult-entertainment zones if at least 60 percent of its merchandize is not X-rated. The Times explains that the term is a coinage of Robert Sacklow, a buildings inspector who once found eighteen thousand copies of Popeye cartoons dubbed into Spanish, in a sex shop with “only” twelve thousand porn videos.