I went to a Catholic elementary school, and one St. Patrick’s Day the nun sent me home for forgetting to wear green.
The next year I forgot again, but, thinking quickly, I took a dollar bill and folded it into a bow tie and wore it. That was OK so I did it again every year.
I prefer the Wearin’ o’ the Orange, but nobody ‘gets’ it . . .
“I prefer the Wearin’ o’ the Orange, but nobody ‘gets’ it . . .”
I made that joke once. … They get it… they get it… They seethe and stare daggers but … they get it.
I’m not sure I get the Bizarro one. I figure if we abbrieviate “mushrooms” to “‘shrooms” to indicate that the psychodelic mushrooms, it’d be logical to abbreviate “marshmallows” to “‘shmallows” to indicate the psychodelic ones. But as to why we would have psychodelic marshmallows and what either marshmallows and/or psychodelics would have to do with leprechauns was a bit beyond me. Except that there is a fairly irrelevant and mostly forgettable breakfast cereal that has a leprechaun as its mascot and has dehydrated marshmallow pieces as accents.
Seems a stretch though. Certainly not concepts that flow together anywhere if the forebrain.
Woozy wrote: “Seems a stretch though. Certainly not concepts that flow together anywhere if the forebrain.”
What? Associating leprechauns with marshmallows is perfectly natural to me. But then, I’m a child of the 1980s and grew up thinking that marshmallows for breakfast were perfectly normal. I even remember a Lucky Charms cereal promotion where they had rainbows as a special marshmallow (for a limited time!).
So instead of “tasting the rainbow” (which I think was a Skittles slogan; not a Lucky Charms one), you can be the rainbow. That doesn’t really make sense… unless you put it in the context of substance abuse. Which is indicated with the caption of ‘Shmallows.
(At least I got a good chuckle out of it.)
I’m with J-L. I’m pretty sure that Lucky Charms guy is the most leprechaun in the world.
I have never heard of being pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s day. Is this universal? I grew up in Canada and this is the first I’m hearing of it. Am I alone?
I once had a student who tried to pinch me for not wearing green. I schooled him on Irish history and culture, informed him that Patrick was not Irish, not a saint, didn’t drive the snakes out of Ireland, and was probably not even named Patrick. It’s disgusting that Irish history has been whittled down to drinking green beer until you barf and pass out. Preferably in public.
My Irish side dislikes the trivialization, and my English side has no trouble at all putting the trivialization to rights.
There ARE people in America who came from that other part of Ireland. Do they wear orange or do they just identify as English or something?
I’ve watched so far one of the four episodes of Bloodlands https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11285548/reference a police drama set in contemporary Northern Ireland, and of course the first thing that happens involves abduction of a businessman whom the news media immediately identify as “rumored ex-IRA leadership”. And the second scene involves a citizen angrily interacting with the police and exclaiming “But I suppose those rules don’t apply the same to Catholics!” . So we aren’t meant to think the troubles are forgotten.
Andréa, you reminded me of the Heinlein novel Double Star in which there is a world government in the form of a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, and the royalty are the House of Orange somehow!
The House of Orange is what I would call a ‘Benign Monarchy’.
Here in my corner of the US the “other” side of Ireland is never brought up in the usual predictable TV coverage of St. Patty’s Day.
Honestly, I find St. Patrick’s Day to be as applicable to me as Valentines Day…
A friend of a friend of a friend, not at all Irish and not knowing much about Ireland, dressed up all in green to go to an Irish bar on St. Patrick’s day, and innocently asked for Bushmills Irish Whiskey..
The experience was bad enough that he never had anything to do with St. Patrick’s Day again.
Comics I Don't Understand 
There have been others. Breaking Cat News has had leprechauns for a week. Here is an evergreen..
Hmmmm, bizarre!
Today must be “Bob and Beer” Day . . .
How ’bout an OY for the day . . .
Breaking Cat News has had an arc running for a bit with Leprechauns. Begins:
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2021/03/08
If nothing else, Panel 1 of this episode is worth it:
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2021/03/13
And a St. Pat’s Day Pinching SYNCHRONICITY . . .
I went to a Catholic elementary school, and one St. Patrick’s Day the nun sent me home for forgetting to wear green.
The next year I forgot again, but, thinking quickly, I took a dollar bill and folded it into a bow tie and wore it. That was OK so I did it again every year.
I prefer the Wearin’ o’ the Orange, but nobody ‘gets’ it . . .
“I prefer the Wearin’ o’ the Orange, but nobody ‘gets’ it . . .”
I made that joke once. … They get it… they get it… They seethe and stare daggers but … they get it.
I’m not sure I get the Bizarro one. I figure if we abbrieviate “mushrooms” to “‘shrooms” to indicate that the psychodelic mushrooms, it’d be logical to abbreviate “marshmallows” to “‘shmallows” to indicate the psychodelic ones. But as to why we would have psychodelic marshmallows and what either marshmallows and/or psychodelics would have to do with leprechauns was a bit beyond me. Except that there is a fairly irrelevant and mostly forgettable breakfast cereal that has a leprechaun as its mascot and has dehydrated marshmallow pieces as accents.
Seems a stretch though. Certainly not concepts that flow together anywhere if the forebrain.
Woozy wrote: “Seems a stretch though. Certainly not concepts that flow together anywhere if the forebrain.”
What? Associating leprechauns with marshmallows is perfectly natural to me. But then, I’m a child of the 1980s and grew up thinking that marshmallows for breakfast were perfectly normal. I even remember a Lucky Charms cereal promotion where they had rainbows as a special marshmallow (for a limited time!).
So instead of “tasting the rainbow” (which I think was a Skittles slogan; not a Lucky Charms one), you can be the rainbow. That doesn’t really make sense… unless you put it in the context of substance abuse. Which is indicated with the caption of ‘Shmallows.
(At least I got a good chuckle out of it.)
I’m with J-L. I’m pretty sure that Lucky Charms guy is the most leprechaun in the world.
I have never heard of being pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s day. Is this universal? I grew up in Canada and this is the first I’m hearing of it. Am I alone?
I once had a student who tried to pinch me for not wearing green. I schooled him on Irish history and culture, informed him that Patrick was not Irish, not a saint, didn’t drive the snakes out of Ireland, and was probably not even named Patrick. It’s disgusting that Irish history has been whittled down to drinking green beer until you barf and pass out. Preferably in public.
My Irish side dislikes the trivialization, and my English side has no trouble at all putting the trivialization to rights.
There ARE people in America who came from that other part of Ireland. Do they wear orange or do they just identify as English or something?
Because I’m Dutch, I consider myself an ‘Orange [Wo]man . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Order
I’ve watched so far one of the four episodes of Bloodlands https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11285548/reference a police drama set in contemporary Northern Ireland, and of course the first thing that happens involves abduction of a businessman whom the news media immediately identify as “rumored ex-IRA leadership”. And the second scene involves a citizen angrily interacting with the police and exclaiming “But I suppose those rules don’t apply the same to Catholics!” . So we aren’t meant to think the troubles are forgotten.
Andréa, you reminded me of the Heinlein novel Double Star in which there is a world government in the form of a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, and the royalty are the House of Orange somehow!
The House of Orange is what I would call a ‘Benign Monarchy’.
Here in my corner of the US the “other” side of Ireland is never brought up in the usual predictable TV coverage of St. Patty’s Day.
Honestly, I find St. Patrick’s Day to be as applicable to me as Valentines Day…
A friend of a friend of a friend, not at all Irish and not knowing much about Ireland, dressed up all in green to go to an Irish bar on St. Patrick’s day, and innocently asked for Bushmills Irish Whiskey..
The experience was bad enough that he never had anything to do with St. Patrick’s Day again.