Sunday School

[jakelafortParticipant]

It is kind of amazing that there is not more resentment of Brits as it relates to the Irish. The shit during the famine was so damn cold.

Then again it seems like new generations sometimes just go on without the enmity carrying forward. I see Japanese/Chinese restaurants quite often. Having spoken to Filipinos and Chinese did not discover hatred or resentment. Similarly Vietnamese seem welcoming to French and Americans.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

jakelafort wrote:

It is kind of amazing that there is not more resentment of Brits as it relates to the Irish. The shit during the famine was so damn cold.

If you’re English and you go to Ireland, it’s well to mind your manners.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Simon,

I’m quarter Irish, actually more genetically, and half Jewish. Which identity English or Jewish is more likely to cause a problem?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

If you’re English and you go to Ireland, it’s well to mind your manners.

An English friend of mine came to visit me in Ireland one summer (circa July 1991). We had shared a squat house together in London. He was looking forward to drinking a “skinful of real Irish Guinness”. I brought him to a traditional Irish bar (not a tourist one 😊) which was colloquially known as “Nuts Corner”. Full house if 15 people were in the front bar.  I had informed some other guys that he was going to be there and as they all knew him from times they also spent in South London, they all showed up.

Nigel (how English can one get!) insisted on getting the first 2 pints in. The barman refused to take his bloody foreign money and told him to take a seat. Nigel watched for 5 minutes as the Guinness settled, and the barman dropped over 2 perfect pints of the black stuff! “Welcome to Ireland Nigel, we never believed this bollox (nodding towards me) actually had friends”!

At about 2:30 in the morning I asked Nigel if he wanted another. “Does the Pope shit in the woods”, came the reply. Everyone in the pub glared at him. “Everyone here is a Catholic, Nigel”! He looked freaked out, like he just had a freak off in public. (Thankful Diddy wasn’t there!). We fell around the room laughing. Someone passed him a joint of top-quality Thai stick (a rarity, only produced among old friends) and the barman dropped us over some smoked salmon sandwiches “on the house”. You’re in a den of iniquity mate, full of atheists, smoking weed and drinking nectar imbued ambrosia!

At this point some local wit stood up and called for silence; He did a recital of “Ode to a Nightingale” in a flawless RSC voice. Nigel, having had a classical British boarding school education, was once again floored. So much that he missed the hiccup at the end of the verse;

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

         Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green,

         Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

         Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

                With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

                        And purple-stained mouth;

         That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

                And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

         What thou among the leaves hast never known…..(hiccup)

At 4AM he asked the barman if it was okay to order another round. “Of course it fucking is. Do you think I am here for the good of my health or to listen to those fools with their stinking weed. They should be smoking this shit” and handed Nigel an overly stuffed joint of black hashish.

What time to you close at? About the middle of November came the reply.

And a word of advice…pay no attention to the band when they start singing a song just for you!

Nigel and his big dirty grin sat down just as the 2 man band began telling us why their guitar gently wept before taking Springsteen’s stolen car for a spin.

A little later the mood changed, and they started singing IRA rebel songs about how ‘armored cars and tanks and guns came to take away our sons’.  Everyone started looking and pointing at Nigel (at about 5AM). In unison everyone started chanting; “We don’t pay no poll tax, We don’t pay no poll tax”**. He looked at us and roared “Oh fuck you all, you bastards”. We replied don’t call us bastards, y’ bastard.

OK, Nigel said to me…I think I am beginning to understand ye fuckers!

Great, but you will definitely need a few more Guinness to fully grasp it. As your attorney (channeling the great Hunter S) I advise you to move on from the fear and join us in the loathing 🙂

Anyone need a pint before I cook your breakfast?

Nigel stayed an extra week. He said it would be telling that story for years. Of course you will Nigel, everyone leaves here with good memories. They make the best stories.

**poll tax

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

That’s one thing I love about the Irish, they love reciting poetry and singing songs.

jakelafort wrote:

Which identity English or Jewish is more likely to cause a problem?

English.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

It is kind of amazing that there is not more resentment of Brits as it relates to the Irish. The shit during the famine was so damn cold.

I don’t recall ever hearing an Irish person bearing any ill will toward “the Brits” over the famine. There have been incidents involving “soccer hooliganism” but no reason is ever needed by the perpetrators to justify their behavior. Most Irish people are very open minded and just get on with life. Generally we just don’t care about race, color, creed or “what country” you are from.  By not caring, I mean it is just not on our radar when we first meet somebody. If you don’t appear to be an ass, then we just get on with it. We tend to understand that everyone is more or less the same as us. Of course there are exceptions, and they tend to be vocal enough to sound like they are not the tiny minority of shitheads that they actually are. They think being an ignorant bully boy is the same as being a tacit and wise real man and we like to teach bullies a lesson. We just don’t make a scene when we do 🙂

[jakelafortParticipant]

Keats, Thompson, Thai stick and you can keep the guinness. A few good shots of irish whiskey with beer chasers. Sounds like a great time. And lox sandwiches, yes!

Poll taxes have been an issue in USA as well.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

A lot of lox for sale…..and maybe some tariff free whiskey’s on sale in the USA? Go on, make the horses pay for it 🙂

[jakelafortParticipant]

Reg, that lox looks outstandingly outstanding.

Am surprised that top tier irish whiskey is inexpensive. Now i know what to get my Irish whiskey drinking bro in law for next birthday. Thanks.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

that lox looks outstandingly outstanding...

Yes, absolutely. It is the “real deal“. To the point of making you miss it any time you have lox from any other source. With lemon, freshly milled black pepper….and maybe a few drops of Tabasco (yes, the one at the back of the shelf). I have a friend who gets it shipped to his house in Alameda, CA on a regular basis. The local population have been eating it for over 6,000 years so that is good enough for me 🙂

 

 

[jakelafortParticipant]

I gotta lox in the next race so it’ll be overseas slammin salmon cuisine for me. Have Irish lox. It will set you free.

I knew Scandinavians were into lox. Not Irish. I bet it is quite different from the lox i know. Sodium content on Murican lox is around one third. Next opportunity gonna get the traditional jewish bagel, lox, onion, and cream cheese dream.

I wonder if you did an experiment for salmon loving bears when the salmon are on way to spawn and put freshly caught salmon whole and lox which they would prefer. Inquiring minds need this kind of info.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

I imagine that city bears are too preoccupied with avoiding road-kill status so they don’t end up in RFKJR’s trunk.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco,

I remember the first time i saw a bear in the woods. Was hiking and there he was on a switchback and we noticed each other bout same time. Picked up his pace a tiny bit. My pulse picked up a great deal. Have run into moose, bobcat, porcupine and other critters in the woods also. Thing is i would see bears every year in the woods. It has been idk 5 or 6 years since i last saw a bear in the woods. In neighborhoods? Dozens of times. Weird inversion.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

….traditional Jewish bagel, lox, onion, and cream cheese…..

Lox arrived today so I will get some fresh bagels on the way home…..You might consider trying it with Masala Chai?

I will make them for my walk tomorrow. It might not sound the most appealing but when you sit down after a few hours walking (hiking) and taste it, it will be the aperçu to fill in the lacunae of your thoughts while admiring the view. 🙂

[_Robert_Participant]

If a seagull flies over the sea, what flies over the bay?

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