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You are here: Home / Open Threads / St. Patrick’s Open Thread: O Muppet Boy

St. Patrick’s Open Thread: O Muppet Boy

by | 125 Comments

This post is in: 

Looks like we could use a fresh thread.

I saw this video this morning, and now you all get to as well. It’s been nourishing me all day.

Damned if I don’t tear up a little bit even though it’s complete gibberish.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  2. 2.

    sab

    So clearing out the pantry for St Patrick’s day. Boston Brown Bread in a can. That means also baked beans in a can because they go together always. Also the cabbage that survived winter. And fish sticks because my Protestant mother (whose grandfather was an Irish Catholic) associates fish with Catholics.

    My Irish American husband approved the menu, and thinks the fish sticks are hilarious.

    No soda bread, because I do that all the time anyway, so not special.

  4. 4.

    Miss Bianca

    Ah…I needed that. I don’t remember that one from back in the day!

    Just sent the link to my band mates. They’ll all be jamming in Salida tonight in honor of the day. I, on the other hand, am staring out the window at 6+ inches of snow and still coming down, so I’ll be reduced to playing my fiddle all by myself. Oh, well – I’ve at least got a home-brewed cyser that we’re going to decant and bottle up tonight – our first home brew in two years! So, there are consolations.

  6. 6.

    theturtlemoves

    My sister and brother played that song at my dad’s funeral several years back (flute and guitar, respectively). He loved the song and he would have found this hilarious. Thanks for posting it.

  7. 7.

    Keithly

    Soda bread, corned beef, colcannon, and a pint of stout for the feast at the undisclosed location.

  8. 8.

    raven

    We watched Belfast the other night and Van Morrison’s soundtrack made it hard for me to like much.

  9. 9.

    sab

    @raven: My however many greats grandmother came from Tralee in County Kerry. We always thought her husband came from Belfast, but he actually came from County Mayo. She was nostalgic about Ireland. He thought he had been lucky to make it out of there alive

    They left about a year before the Famine started.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I’ve no Irish ancestry, but Animal is one of my two favorite Muppets (Cookie Monster is the other).

  16. 16.

    sab

    @Miss Bianca: I loved the movie. My Irish American husband did also, and he did not want to watch it at all  because he did not think he could understand the Belfast accents. He had no problem.

    I am an Outlander fan so I love Caitriona Balfe. I also love Ciaran Hinds and Judy Dench. Husband had no particular attachment to anyone. The kid was adorable.

  17. 17.

    Uncle Cholmondeley

    For no particular reason, other than I wanted to, this year I have been observing a sober Lent.  However, St. Patrick came to me in a dream and said it was fine to have a Guinness this evening, so who am I to say no?

  19. 19.

    S. Cerevisiae

    Sipping a Guinness at the local tavern, they made a corned beef and cabbage soup that was excellent. Later when I go home I will need to crank up my blue ray of Rory Gallagher Irish Tour ‘74.

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

    I could go for some really good corned beef. A friend (now deceased) made the best corned beef I have ever put tooth to. Firm enough to bite into, tender enough to melt in your mouth immediately thereafter. I think he was patient enough to cook it, slowly, for however many hours it needed. Another friend of mine consistently and chronically never lets it cook long enough, so it’s always tough and still fatty.

    I think the cut is brisket..? Then it should be cooked like a brisket!

  21. 21.

    sab

    @NotMax: Of course not. Historically poorest county in Ireland. Everyone is lucky to get out of there alive. Also, it looks like a damp Ohio. Not all that scenic.

  22. 22.

    evap

    My Irish husband (born and raised in Ireland) hates all the hoopla around St Pats Day in the US.  In Ireland, it’s a religious holiday and was nothing else until they started with the parades and so on for American tourists.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Finding myself in the mood this week for something simple and ludicrous, the now ancient in streaming years series Deadbeat on Hulu fills the bill.

    ;)

  25. 25.

    evap

    Also, the music to Danny Boy is an old Irish tune —  Londonderry Air — but the lyrics were written by an Englishman in 1910.  He actually wrote the lyrics for a different tune, but then adapted them for Londonderry Air.

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    @S. Cerevisiae:

    Bought a Rory Gallagher boxed set a couple years back and it was like revisiting an old friend, a REALLY talented old friend.

    This has been another chapter of Gone Too Soon.

  27. 27.

    Jesse

    Is it just me or has St. Patrick’s Day kind of diminished somewhat in status? When I was younger, it was definitely something most people knew about. Many even did the corny green outfit stuff. As I’ve gotten older, though, it seems to be fading somewhat. I mean, normally, there would be a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” message, e.g., on this very nearly top 10000 blog, *right away* in the day. Now, it seems like it was almost forgotten. This meshes with my spidey sense that it may be declining. Could just be grumpiness. Is that your impression? I don’t mean that the pandemic has diminished it; I’m referring to a slow decline over the years.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    @evap: Perhaps not unlike Cinco de Mayo, which is not a thing in Mexico, per se, but here? Yeesh.

    Doesn’t hurt that the first week of May is nice pretty much everywhere in the States.

  29. 29.

    trollhattan

    @Jesse: I don’t think you can any longer have the holy hell pinched out of you in grade school for not wearing green, as was definitely the case when I was a yoot. Maybe that had an effect (not an unwelcome one).

  30. 30.

    Barbara

    @evap: I had a friend who suggested to her Irish husband that they could name a baby girl “Shannon” and he said he would agree to that only if she agreed to name a boy “Potomac.”  Some things get distorted over time and distance . . .

  37. 37.

    Almost Retired

    I wish St. Patrick’s Day was a bigger thing in Los Angeles, but it just isn’t.  There’s not even any point in dyeing the Los Angeles River green for the holiday because it usually is.

  39. 39.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jesse: For me, no longer having a kid who is elementary school aged has made all the holidays quieter. No one celebrates like teachers, not to mention the holidays they made up like “Wear a Tee-shirt with Your Favorite Cartoon Character on It Day.”

    Ohio Son and I are having a simple supper of mac and cheese and fish sticks (his idea). Ohio Dad, poor fellow, is prepping for his colonoscopy tomorrow. At least that menu shouldn’t arouse too much envy.

  41. 41.

    delk

    @raven: I was taking a nap earlier. When I woke I was trying to decide if I wanted to get up or roll back over to sleep. The radio was on and the dj said “we’ll be right back after the commercials with some Van Morrison.” I got up.

  48. 48.

    Layer8Problem

    Corned beef and cabbage for me today courtesy of my partner since I’m the one with ancestors from Galway and Roscommon, to follow with a visit to our local public house for their “shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade” and music.  And they’re fundraising for World Central Kitchen and Ukrainian refugees.

  50. 50.

    satby

    @theturtlemoves: My father’s name was Dan, so of course the organist at the church for his funeral assumed we wanted that played. We did not, and finally got the point across to her. It is a funeral song for a young Irish soldier killed during one of the endless rebellions after all, but it would have broken us during the service. We were home free… until the bagpiper from Shannon Rovers played it as they took the casket out of the church. We hadn’t told him, because my cousins had arranged to have him there.

    Edited: my kindle is just substituting random words now when I type.

  51. 51.

    Spanky

    @sab: Are we related? My Great Great came from Castlebar in ’42.

    Prolly not, since the County was emptying out even then.

  53. 53.

    raven

     

     

    @Miss Bianca: I dunno, I thought it was ok. I mean the leads are so incredibly good looking it’s good eye candy. “In the Name of the Father” is a lot better but, I get it, this is from the Protestant point of view.

  55. 55.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Everyone take special care if you venture out onto the roads or are within vehicular curb-jumping distance of one. Old friend, recovering alcoholic, told me long ago that the two days of the year he & his former comrades in ethanolic excess would “go to ground” were New Year’s Eve and St. Paddy’s Day. The likelihood that the roads would be full of cars driven by people soused to the gills who under any other circumstances would never overindulge, and thus had no experience driving while under the influence, scared the bejeezus out of them.

    And now for a classic Oyrish joke:

    Stranger walks into a Dublin pub and orders “t’ree pints”[1]. Publican offers to draw them one at a time – “they’ll keep fresher.” “No,” the fellow says, “you’ll draw them all at once, and I’ll have you know the reason why.” Fifteen minutes later[2], when the pints were drawn and lined up in front of him, he says, “Now look: This pint’s f’r me brother in Boston, this pint’s f’r me brother in Sydney, this pint’s f’r meself. T’ree brothers, t’ree pints!”

    Fellow becomes a regular at the pub, ordering the same whenever he comes in…

    …until one day he says to the publican, “I’ll only be havin’ two pints tonight.”

    In dead silence[3] the publican draws him two pints, and setting them before the patron says, “I don’t mean to intrude at this time of sorrow, but allow me to express sincere condolences for your loss.”

    The customer looks at him, looks at the pints, and then laughs. “No, no, nothin’ like that! Me brothers are fine! It’s just that I saw the doctor today, and he said I have to quit drinkin’…”

    [1] Irish pronunciation of “three.” If you have to ask, pints of what?, you can leave now.
    [2] Pints must be drawn deliberately.
    [3] He has become a regular, after all.​​​

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    Hm. Just checked and Puckoon doesn’t appear to be streaming anywhere at present. Maybe it’ll return next year. Weak adaptation but has its moments.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    Couldn’t figure out why the music at physical therapy this morning had switched from the usual Chi-Lites and Beach Boys to jangly Chieftains. Took me a while.

  59. 59.

    Stuart Frasier

    @Cacti: Corned beef was a major Irish export in the 17th and 18th centuries, although it wouldn’t have been affordable to the locals.

  61. 61.

    Layer8Problem

    @raven: When you’re producing, writing, and directing the story of your own family you get to choose the best-looking actors for your parents.  I thought the kid did a great job.

  62. 62.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Just spent the evening in a bunch of English pubs celebrating Paddys Day which is quite absurd when  you think about it.   Still had a great night with my sis and bro in law,  with my sis telling me “you must get the surgery” so whatever.  Lancaster at night is truly magical.  I willl never forget.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @Layer8Problem: Yea he did and I thought all of the cast was really good. I didn’t know until after that it was the story of the Branagh family. Ever see Nil By Mouth?

  65. 65.

    sab

    @NotMax: Bad link. If it was Cuyahoga then you deserve whatever life dumps on  you. Normal pretty river, undeserved bad press.

  71. 71.

    Tony Jay

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    You were on the piss in Lancaster? I went to University there! Does it still have an ungodly number of pubs? The only one I can remember the name of is The Waterwitch, where there was a 2 pint limit on the sale of Old Tom that I never once saw honoured.

  72. 72.

    raven

    @Layer8Problem: It’s really wrenching. I thought of it because it is Gary Oldman’s story of growing up in East London. Ray Winstone is a horrible, abusive nasty drunk and the film is the most brutal thing I’ve seen since “Once Were Warriors”.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    Did anybody think Oklahoma could not replace Inhofe with somebody worse, and specifically horrific on the environment? Please hold Oklahoma’s beer.

    March 17, 2022 at 6:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Scott Pruitt (R), the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is weighing a run for an open Senate seat in Oklahoma, CBS News reports.

  78. 78.

    sab

    @NotMax: Last post of yours. No response to your bad link. Breaks my heart but very long term pie filter for you, unresponsive asshole. I think you dissed my people. Don’t knospw and your link was bad so assume worst since that was assumable and apparent

  80. 80.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Muppets make everything better. This is a known fact. (And I assert that any song is made better when it is covered by The Electric Mayhem.)

    I took it as a very loud warning when, a decade ago, the Republicans declared that because the villain of the then-latest Muppets movie was an oil man, that made the Muppets un-American.

  82. 82.

    LeftCoastYankee

    IIRC “Boiled Bacon and Cabbage” was what the dish is in Ireland, using Pork not Beef.

  84. 84.

    Anotherlurker

    Totally off topic: Is it just me, or does Marjorie Taylor Green look like Rodger Stone in drag.?

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    HSPD!

    ObOpenThread: ICYMI, a fascinating new thread from Kamil Galeev, with receipts:

    How to sabotage Russian war efforts?

    There are ways to sabotage Russian war capacities by focusing on its three major bottlenecks: demographic, economic & institutional. Let's start with demography. Russian started this war suffering from the shortage of young draftable males? pic.twitter.com/p8gqhpJZDB

    — Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) March 17, 2022

    A taste:

    […]

    XX century put end to this. Death toll of collectivisation, purges, and the WWII was devastating. Consider this photo of public street dances in late 1940s. Girls are dancing together, cuz boys are dead. From the high school class of 1941 only 3% were alive by the end of the war pic.twitter.com/mqvwkWw9IZ

    — Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) March 17, 2022

    Click on over.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Layer8Problem

    @raven: Oof, sounds lacerating.  Maybe in a more upbeat year.  I’m nearly at the point of watching nothing more challenging than Doris Day movies.

  101. 101.

    raven

    @Bex: Yea, mine were in Chicago as well. There was always more of an emphasis on the Norwegian side of the family until recently.

  102. 102.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Another Scott: I remember reading an essay by Robert Heinlein about visiting the USSR/Russia in the 1960s, and how the Soviets were lying about population size (exaggerating it) even back then. Virginia Heinlein was quoted as saying that they weren’t even replacing themselves.  So are the figures accurate now, or are the Russians still lying about their population size?

  103. 103.

    CaseyL

    I have not a drop of Celtic blood, yet have such love for all things Celtic that I occasionally wonder if one of my ancestors had a secret fling with some bright-eyed, flame-haired lad or lass (who would have had to wander into Russia or Poland to pull it off, so maybe sometime in the 17th-18th Century).

    It’s not the strangest idea I’ve ever had about my ancestry.  There’s the one where I thought I might be a claimant to the Tsarist throne….

  104. 104.

    Sure Lurkalot

    It is a cold day with about 5″ of wet, rapidly turning to slush snow. I’m making corned beef and cabbage for the first time and I will live with the fact that it isn’t Irish at all. It should be good for this kind of day.

    I’m trying it in a Dutch oven, about 4 hours all together, low and slow. Hoping for the best.

    Are we no longer raising money for Ukraine? If not, I’ll just send some cash to World Central Kitchen. I’ve been donating to that fine organization for a few years now.

  106. 106.

    Tony Jay

    @Anotherlurker:

    With that chin? Nah. Now post boxing career Mickey Rourke, that I can see.

    Dude does know his method. It’s not entirely out of the question. And if he convinced Lacey Chabert to glam-down and get elected under the name ’Lauren Boebert’ to back him up…

  107. 107.

    MomSense

    I worked through lunch today so I finally decided around 4:00 to take a walk for about 20 minutes around my office.  I was wondering why there were so many drunk people outside loud talking with beer breath and why the fuck I kept hearing the Drop Kick Murphy’s.
    Then I saw a really drunk guy in a silly leprechaun hat trying to help a woman cross the street.  It wasn’t going well.  I realized it is St. Patrick’s Day.  I’ve got enough Irish that I felt like an idiot for missing the whole thing.
    Oh well.  I did my walk at the rec center and then we had grilled cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner.  Oops.

  108. 108.

    Tony Jay

    The only time I’ve had the American version of corned beef was at a Paddy’s Day party somewhere in Seattle when I was offered it and thought, okay, cold sandwich would be nice.

    The hot, soft, delicious miracle I found in my bowl was considerably better than I was expecting. And I’m a lover of British corned beef, which is tinned and pink and really, really good.

    Well done  America. Seriously. That’s a genuine unexpected treat you came up with there.

  109. 109.

    theturtlemoves

    @satby: It was a little tough for me because my name is actually Dan and only my mom, dad, and sister ever called me Danny.

  110. 110.

    Stuart Frasier

    @Cacti: I grew up in Ireland and my mother made corned beef.  It’s a bit perplexing when Americans claim its not Irish, especially as it was a major export of Ireland before the US existed.

  111. 111.

    Calouste

    @CaseyL: One of your ancestors was a Viking prince who while plundering Ireland married a local princess. One of their descendants was then involved in the Kievan Rus’, which is where your claim to the Tsarist throne comes from. Straightforward really.

  113. 113.

    Tony Jay

    @Calouste:

    Do you think you could write that up as a 30 episode Netflix series spanning the whole family saga from 8th century Eire to 10th century Ukraine, with stops via Orkney, Alba and Constantinople? Because I’m pretty sure I’d watch the hell out of that.

  115. 115.

    sab

    @sab: Saw linky 66. Very sorry to have been so touchy. Blame Randy Newman who doesn’t even live around here.

    Still, very sorry.

  117. 117.

    sab

    @sab: Embarrassing. I went all out defending the wrong body of water.

    Sorry Notmax. Very sorry.

    But a generation has laughed at our river. EVery week on SNL, and Randy Newman wrote an iconic song.

  118. 118.

    sab

    @sab: Notmax did not respond. I forgot he was on Hawaii time, which is half a day off from us. He posted and went to bed, which I do every day. I am so embarrassed to have taken umbrage.

  119. 119.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Kayla Rudbek: ​
     

    That article sums up the it’s not Irish part, but “Boiled Bacon and Cabbage” was something I saw on menus alot. Not sure if that’s what was originally popular, or if they said, “F it, the Yanks keep asking for something like this, so….”

    I thought it tasted a bit better, but it was a cold rainy late summer evening. Hot and filling? Yum!

  120. 120.

    JoyceH

    I guess I should have known that a St Paddy open thread would have a lot of food discussion. Anybody really want to know that my dinner is going to be a turkey burger on cauliflower thins? (But hey – WW week 1 – 7.2 lb down.)

    But what I really came here to mention – I was out running errands today and saw a pickup truck flying a big ol’ Ukrainian flag. Made a nice change from the big ol’ Trump flags I usually see around here.

    And a question for the more knowledgeable – if four Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine, how many generals do they HAVE in Ukraine? I just don’t know how many generals are common practice for an invasion force of that size, but dang.

  121. 121.

    zhena gogolia

    @sab:
    haha, this is the funniest Bj dustup ever. I’m sure NotMax will forgive you tomorrow. I have no idea what this was about.

  122. 122.

    Calouste

    @JoyceH: I read an estimate, I think it was from the British Ministry of Defence, that there would be about 20  Russian generals involved in the invasion. So they lost 20% by that estimate.

  124. 124.

    columbusqueen

    I know this is late, but if you want to talk about bad baby names in Ohio, what about Scarlet Ann Gray? Yes, it’s real. I think she even arrived at OSU Hospitals.

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