"No, the WHITE phone"

Sorry, couldn't resist the Airplane quip.

Follow-up questions...

"Where do I find the best watermelon and fried chicken for Black History Month?

"Which is the best way to celebrate Mexican Independence Day on the 5th of May? Corona or Negra Modello?"

Sorry. I needed to vent a bit. This is a pet peeve of mine and I couldn't pollute the AskMe thread.

But I still like the Grisman/Garcia version of Whiskey in the Jar best :)

* yes, I know it isn't Mexican Independence Day, but many assume that, which is another reason it bugs me.

*Me too.

You know, it's unreasonable of me but I get really het up when people assume that "Dirty Old Town" is an Irish song. It's a song sung by Irish people sure, but it's not a traditional Irish song.

In fact, given that it was written in 1949 I'd argue it isn't even a traditional song.

terrapin, flo, this prroud (half) Irish-American is unoffended by the question, since, well, the wtereotype is true. We really are a bunch of drunks.

I think we share the same ethnic background, jon. I am half Irish and half Italian. Still don't like the stereotype even if you find it is true in your vast research ;)

*hits terrapin over the head with shillelagh, then downs pint of Jameson's and gets job as a crooked policeman*

(Honestly, if this was 1900 and I was fresh off the boat from County Cork, these jokes and stereotypes might bug me, but at this point Irish Catholics are so thoroughly assimilated into American society that there's really no sting anymore, and it's more good natured teasing)

I was metooing the tiresome misidentification of Cinco de Mayo as Mexican Independence Day. As for St. Patrick's Day, I'm ambivalent. On the one hand, it encourages unhealthy stereotypes and ostensibly celebrates a religion I don't support. On the other hand, I'm Irish, I love to drink, every Irishman I've ever met loves to drink (with the single exception of my father), and at least we have a day set aside to engage in a bit of Irish pride. So I also kinda dig it. I mean - I like Octoberfest, too, but that doesn't mean I have to support the concept of men in lederhosen.

I'm working on a double disk of Irish teetotaling songs for Paddies Day.

Jon, you've started early I take it? A wee sniff of the barmaid's apron, just by way of being sociable?

(actually Pips took a mental health day and we're going into the city soon. We'll be at Bull's later. I'll call you)

Would that I could brother. I am actually on the wagon, we'll see if I fall off on Saturday, despite my long standing feeling that the day is for amateurs only.

Well, I'm Irish too and the stereotypes don't really bother me either (be a bit hypocritical if they did, given my own fondness for tipping the bottle, not to mention the hordes of my drunken relatives.) Hell, I'm Irish enough to have actually recently gotten into a fight, a nearly even physical fight, at a bar over Queen Victoria's handling of the Irish Question - and the asshole in question said I wasn't Irish if I didn't know any Yeats but fortunately I have three poems at least in my memory and was raised on a good Catholic diet of Irish martyrs and the famine. However. I avoid St. Patrick's day like the plague, I mean, eeeesh, amateur night. It's worse than bloody New Years Eve and the kitsch offends me, so it's like the only night of the year when you really will not find me in a bar. If you want to kiss me or buy me a drink because I'm Irish, well, it doesn't fade away like Tullamore Dew the other 364 days of the year.

Still. I will always chime in on a Pogues thread.

I KNOW that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

Just don't hit me with Donna Shalala! That would hurt.

I avoid St. Patrick's day like the plague, I mean, eeeesh, amateur night. It's worse than bloody New Years Eve and the kitsch offends me...

mygothlaundry covered it well for me.

I'll leave it at that. Thanks for letting me vent :)

Although one of those Geico caveman ads just came on. "How can it be offensive if it's true?"

Luckily folks in rural Vermont don't do kitch :)

If you give up drunken carousing just because the amateurs are out & about, then the terrorists have won!

Oh I'll be carousing, I'll just be doing it at a friend's house who was smart enough to have a baby on St. Patrick's Day some 11 years ago, thus giving us all a nice alternative party. Also, I am giving her a Smoke Ring Gun! Yes! And it's unfortunately not as cool as I thought it would be but still, it's a gun. That lights up blue and shoots smoke rings.

I'll celebrate by chasing the leprechauns around the yard. Naked, natch.

You knicker-waisted pansy-gits! YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. This is jonmc were talking about. Watch.

AYE SHUT YOUR FUCKING SLACK-JABBERING MOUTH YOU UGLY STUPID DRUNKEN WOP-MICK ITS YOUR ROUND ARE WE FUCKING DRINKING OR PLAYING FUCKING HOUSE OVER HERE JESUS HOWARD FUCKING CHRIST HAND HIM A DOILY ALREADY AND CALL HIS MOM

It's probably a good thing jon and I are on opposite coasts and not regular drinking buddies. Not only would there be vast, insurmountable liquor shortages it would also be such a magnitudinous confluence of stupidity we'd set the world clock back 50 years.

Wow. So many St. Patrick's Day-haters here. I'm in good company.

I know that I am Irish by blood but I don't have much of an emotional bond with the country or with any kind of Irish-American "identity." It was just too friggin' long ago. Like, five generations, at least. And I don't have all that much in common with the REAL Irish people in my neighborhood. So I call myself an American.

I will celebrate St. Pat's Day in my own way. I'm gonna dodge the hordes of Long Islanders coming in to Woodside to show off their fuzzy green-and-white hats and to test-drive their fake IDs. Instead, I shall go to the gym and then go watch some artsy flick.

It's probably a good thing jon and I are on opposite coasts and not regular drinking buddies. Not only would there be vast, insurmountable liquor shortages

Not to mention a lot of violated health codes and morals charges, probably.