Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

He really is that stupid.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

A consequence of cucumbers

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

This really is a full service blog.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Not all heroes wear capes.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / President Biden / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Irish Diaspora Festival Day

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Irish Diaspora Festival Day

by | 150 Comments

This post is in: ,

If you’d asked my high school-aged Bronx self when a St Patrick’s Day meeting between a Black female Vice President (with her Jewish husband) and an Indian-Irish Taoiseach (and *his* husband) might happen… I’d have guessed maybe 2075, and that’s only because I was a science-fiction-reading optimist.


Speaking of deft footwork at a fundraiser… here’s the paywall-free AppleNews link to the Washington Post — “Biden needles Trump on age, mental fitness, finances at D.C. dinner”:

After sitting through hours of jokes about his age at Saturday’s Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner, President Biden turned the tables on the journalists putting on the skits.

“The big news this week is, two candidates clinched their parties’ nomination for president. One candidate is too old, mentally unfit to be president,” Biden said. “And the other is me.”

The joke landed well with most of the 650 journalists and politicos who gathered for the annual white-tie event, which features skits ribbing Republicans and Democrats, stand-up sets from actual Republican and Democratic officials and a whirl of schmoozing…

“The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” Biden said. “I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

The $400-a-plate dinner, held at the Washington Grand Hyatt, also featured speeches by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D)…

“I truly can’t believe I’m here tonight — and neither can you,” Cox said during his speech. “It really is such an honor to be at the famed Gridiron dinner. See, they don’t usually let farm kids like me into rooms like this.”

He paused.

“Unless you count January 6th.”

The room roared.

“And even then, we had to really push and shove our way in,” Cox added.

Whitmer’s speech followed a set of skits poking fun at Democrats for seeing their political prospects with rose-colored glasses. “Nothing is coming up roses for deee-mocracyyy,” the Gridiron members sang, donning actual rose-colored glasses…

Our mainstream media, as has occasionally been noted here, is wired for Republicans and wants them to win.

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Biden is hilarious.

    As to the J6 jokes, I’m sure the audience would have laughed just as hard if Biden had joked about BLM protests.

  2. 2.

    Ken

    Good morning all!

    “Taoiseach” is one of those words that I regard with great suspicion, knowing that it can’t possibly be pronounced the way it’s spelled. (My reading vocabulary is much larger than my spoken vocabulary.)

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    he’s a Republican, so it’s hard to trust in his humor.

    True enough, but it sounds like an event where both sides of the aisle are heavily represented and trying to have fun together.  If the Democrats even thought the jokes were in favor of J6, they would raise a big, big stink.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    Via reddit, a true patriot

    This Bar Is Closing During the RNC So It Doesn’t Have to Serve Trumpers
    The owner of Milwaukee’s The Mothership says that even though the bar is having its “Bud Light moment” with Republicans, it’s going to be fine

  10. 10.

    Spanky

    @Ken: TEE-shuch, where the “ch” is aspirated. TAYee-shuch is also acceptable.

    I hope I’ve sufficiently confused you.

  11. 11.

    TBone

    I commented here the other day about wearing my rose colored glasses to keep my spirits up and I followed up with “have to clean spittle off my rose colored glasses from yelling invectives” about the SDNY.  I LOVE Big Gretch and my cousin in Michigan and I frequently crow about and celebrate her and all the Michigan Dems. And PA Dems. This is a wonderful story that has reenergized me and inspired me to talk to my cousin today about more than our Irish great grandmother, Alice Cunningham.  Thanks to all BJers and Thanks Anne Laurie!

  14. 14.

    satby

    @Spanky: 😂 An island the size of Illinois, and three dialects of Irish pronunciation, depending on where you are.

    Today is my younger son’s name day, and we pronounce it as “Pawrig”. He told me the guys at work call him ” Steve”. Sigh

  15. 15.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    One of my YouTube addictions is “The Try Channel” which is Irish people sampling and reacting to things. Often unpleasant things. Their humor has me rolling on the floor, and then of course there’s the accents.

    Anyway the most recent was “Irish people try traditional Irish dishes”. I knew about and love Full Irish Breakfast though I learned they associate it with after a night of drinking. But now I’m going to have to find someone who serves “coddle”. And also “chicken fillet (pronounced “fill it”) rolls” where apparently they traditionally offer dozens of possible toppings.

  17. 17.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Spanky: We were at a party recently where somebody tried to teach me the rules of Irish pronunciation. It didn’t reduce my confusion.

    This isn’t as weird as it sounds. I love languages but am not fluent in anything and he’s a polyglot who actually speaks them, so language is a frequent topic when we meet.

    We were in Dublin in September and at a music performance, one of the performers was introduced as a native Irish speaker who learned English as a second language. I didn’t realize there were any one those.

  18. 18.

    satby

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There are. The singer Enya was one. The region is in the far western parts of Ireland and the Aran Isles and is called the Gaeltacht.

    My ancestors were from there originally. When I was very young my great aunt showed me her Irish language readers from her childhood.

  20. 20.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I’m making lamb and Guinness stew and soda bread. The cherry trees here in the DC area are coming into full bloom. Lampooning TiFG for being flat broke is sure to get under his skin and though I can’t claim to have much insight into the minds of MAGAts, being broke seems like one of the things that might dampen their enthusiasm for him so it seems like a good avenue of attack.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Don’t know Cox, but he’s a Republican, so it’s hard to trust in his humor find him funny. 

    Fixed. :)

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    Oh yeah, there’s all that green stuff going on today. :-)

    Fifteen years ago today, we brought a 19 month old boy out of an orphanage in Samara, Russia, and into our lives forever. When the kiddo wakes up and gets moving, we’ll take him to Dream Weaver* for brunch to celebrate.

    Excuse me, the screen’s getting kinda blurry right now.

    *Spanky, do you ever eat there? We really like it.

  25. 25.

    Chief Oshkosh

    I plan to wear my kelly green O’Bama  t-shirt all day today, if I can find it!

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    My dad’s family is from Ireland, and we have a recognizably Irish last name. But those ancestors came to this country many generations ago and lost their religion along the way, so I’ve never felt more than a notional connection to the “Old Country.”

    My mother-in-law, who is from a Northern U.S. city where ethnic group membership seems to be a much bigger deal, makes more of my Irish heritage than I do. She’ll call to wish me a Happy St. Patrick’s Day later. I find it all faintly amusing.

  36. 36.

    Freemark

    @Ken: There are many a time I’ve gone to use a word vocally then realizing that I have never heard it spoken.

  37. 37.

    Princess

    Whatever you think of VP Harris, you can’t deny she’s pretty much a perfect VP. She’s in lock-step with Biden in public, amplifying his achievements. She can do the difficult things like visiting universities and clinics that do abortions. He can send her flying around the world (which, frankly, I prefer for him to avoid).  And she’s fine with all this ceremonial stuff.

  38. 38.

    Layer8Problem

    My local public house is serving Full Irish Breakfast (vegetarian option available, somehow), Shepherd’s Pie, Bacon and Cabbage, Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips, with all the Chef or HP sauce and malt vinegar you can swig.  Which, actually, is almost the normal brunch menu.  It will be flooded with the Irish-for-a-Day crowd, the We’re-of-Irish-Extraction-We-Gotta-Do-This-Today crowd, and the I’m-Told-There’s-Excessive-Drinking-Today crowd, along with the responsible upstanding citizen regulars like myself.  Music all day, Irish trad and otherwise.  The staff, Irish and American, will have their thousand yard stares firmly in place by late this evening.

  39. 39.

    Uncle Cosmo

    A recovering-alcoholic friend told me many years ago there were two days of the year his drinking crowd would “go to ground” – i.e., never venture out: New Years Eve and St. Paddy’s Day. We were drunks, he said, and we knew we were drunks, and comported ourselves accordingly – but those people are amateurs! The fact that social drinkers in great numbers would use ancestry and/or the calendar as justification to get blind roaring drunk, and then climb into a couple tons of metal capable of traveling at high velocity and attempt to navigate it amongst others similarly impaired, terrified them.

    If yinz can’t go to ground, be safe out there today!

  41. 41.

    evodevo

    @Ken: ​
      Yes..I could never figure out WHY the spelling is so bizarre…Celtic was originally transliterated by monks, using a Latin alphabet. Why all the unvoiced vowels? Why isn’t Sean spelled Shawn? etc. etc. Evidently Irish Celtic had a lot of unique vocalizations they couldn’t indicate with the extant Latin letters, but seriously…

  42. 42.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Robmassing:

    J6 jokes are as funny as W’s “where are those WMDs?” jokes.

    I concur.​ ETA: About as funny as jokes about a lynching, which is what it basically was for some of the Capitol police.

  45. 45.

    EarthWindFire

    @satby: Many years ago, my spouse and BILs’ music were featured on an all-Gaelic radio show on the Dingle peninsula. The host has since died and the show with it.

    Gaelic is a dying language, so it makes me happy to see the PM still referred to by his Irish title.

  46. 46.

    satby

    @evodevo: here’s why, if you’re really curious. It’s a much older language than English and the alphabet really doesn’t match.

    You could use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and get more accuracy, but that would be a nightmare.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Lately on a jag of airing lesser, marginal and/or, frankly, crapola cinematic output mostly unfamiliar to me whose titles have popped up while idly perusing streaming services. But there’s some paths upon which even yours truly won’t tread.

    Which is why I’ll seek out clips or trailers online first.   :)

  51. 51.

    EarthWindFire

    @Layer8Problem: Sounds like my local public house, except I’ll be the taxi for spouse’s gig as one of the musicians. He’ll have the same thousand yard stare as the staff when I pick him up tonight.

  53. 53.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Baud: English isn’t that phonetic either.​

     “Though the tough cough and hiccough, plough him through.”

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    I’m stuck on the Taoiseach and the Second Gentleman being doppelgängers. Is it just me or do they look alike?

  60. 60.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @evodevo: On Friday, we went a great concert by an Irish duo (Switchback). They introduced a song about whiskey (of which they said there were many) by saying that the Irish word for whiskey is uisce beatha. “Uisce” means water. The English apparently couldn’t pronounce it and wrote it as “whiskey.”

  61. 61.

    MomSense

    Assuming this move goes well and I end up with a little extra cash I’m thinking I would like to go to the Aran Islands for a week and just wander, knit and be.

  64. 64.

    Eyeroller

    @Baud: English has undergone some major pronunciation shifts, but the spelling still reflects to some degree the older pronunciations. “Gh” stood for a sound represented as “ch” in modern German. (“Through” and “durch” are cognates.) The pronunciation of vowels changed drastically in the late 1400s. Plus all the borrowings–the “ti” as “sh” generally occurs in words of Old French origin.

  69. 69.

    TBone

    I know she’s Scottish but I’m thinking of Janey Godley today for some reason.  She’s such a hoot, and put the C-word on a big sign for Rump’s arrival. Her voiceovers are hilarious.

  70. 70.

    SteveinPHX

    @Princess: And she can represent the US at International conferences/meetings where a sophisticated understanding of our positions is called for. Doing a great job!

     

     

  73. 73.

    Jackie

    The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” Biden said. “I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

    I spewed coffee!

    Happy St Patrick’s Day! ☘️ ☘️ ☘️ ☘️ ☘️ ☘️

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    The local Republican Party contacted me recently about using our theater for an “election comedy event” in October. It was my duty, as well as my privilege, to inform him that we would only host a bipartisan political event.

    I did *not* offer to round up local Democrats, of whom I am one of the few, the proud, etc, to provide a “bipartisan election comedy night.” Mostly because I shudder to imagine what the local MAGAts would consider “comedy”.

  75. 75.

    Jager

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    A pal of mine in Boston and I took his Irish grandfather’s “baby brother” (he was in his 60s) out for a night on the town after a week or two of good behavior while visiting his American family. We were sitting at a bar in Cambridge. After the old boyo knocked back two mugs of Guinness and three shots of Bushmills, he turned to my pal and said, “Tommy you’d better chain me to the fookin radiator because you’re about to see another side of me!”

  79. 79.

    Eyeroller

    In rereading that bit about the Gridiron Dinner, I couldn’t help but notice the “hours of jokes about his age.”  How long was this dinner?  Also if it’s the journalists putting on those “skits,” do they have any inkling how stale those jokes sound?  (Probably not.)

    I hope we see more pictures of Trump released like the one in a previous thread.  People need to get it through their heads that they aren’t far apart in age and Trump appears to be in much worse condition.

    I’ve seen several pictures of Trump without orange hair so I assume he uses water-soluble (“shampoo out”) hair coloring for public appearances.  Biden looks no older than his age, whereas in that photo Trump looked easily 10 years older than his.

  86. 86.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: Yeah, that was kind of what I was afraid of.

    Also, what might happen if *we* started telling jokes that were,.you know, actually funny. About them.

  89. 89.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax:

    Accompanied by the brooks babbling?

    As long as they stay in their place, they can babble all they damn well please!

  91. 91.

    lowtechcyclist

    The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” Biden said. “I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

    Very good, Mr. President, but a ‘Sir’ in there, and maybe some tears, would have been the cherry on top.

    As in:

    “The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Sir, I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” Biden said. “I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

  94. 94.

    Spanky

    @John S.: When my wife and I were young and were in Ireland, we were so taken by County Clare that we decided that, should we have a daughter (we didn’t), we’d name her Clare.

    We loved Dingle even more, but had no such inclination about the name.

  98. 98.

    UncleEbeneezer

    A restaurant near us had roasties for sale last night (a take out tradition they started during “lockdown”) so we ended up eating our corned beef and potatoes last night instead of today.  To go with it, we started watching Rebellion on Netflix.  It’s pretty good but I was surprised that it doesn’t really paint the IRA in the kind of positive light that I was expecting.

  101. 101.

    Layer8Problem

    @EarthWindFire:

    The image I have at the end of this evening is our beleaguered but stalwart manager, a native of Meath, picking her way through the unconscious and the barely sentient, as the camera pulls back showing her amid the inert mass of the closing crowd, and finally showing a tattered Irish flag waving bravely over all.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Very good, Mr. President, but a ‘Sir’ in there, and maybe some tears, would have been the cherry on top.

    As in:

    “The other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Sir, I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” Biden said. “I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”

    Ha!

    Bonus points for some serious inside baseball there.   ;)

  107. 107.

    Jager

    @Juju:

    When we went to the park when I was a kid, I asked a ranger the proper pronunciation, (I didn’t trust my 3rd-grade teacher Elsie Hehr) The ranger laughed and said I was the 5th person to ask him that question, 2 kids and 3 adults,

  109. 109.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @MomSense: I would highly recommend that. There’s a yarn and clothing store on the island and I mailed yarn back home when Mr. Rudbek and I did our Ireland bike tour. We went through https://greenmarblecycletours.com/ doing a self-guided tour with our big suitcase being stored, and it was great! We probably could have spent a whole week in the Aran Islands alone.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @Freemark: Language is weird.  We are hard-wired in our brains to use different parts for speaking/hearing and reading/writing.

    I remember as a kid in suburban Atlanta thinking (for a while) that “nekked” and “naked” were two different things.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    I have been on Medical School MatchTok for a few days. Got me crying for people I don’t even know. I sort of feel ashamed that until MatchTok, I had no idea of the insanity around Match Day for Doctors. The thought that you could go through four years of Medical School and STILL not become a doctor is crazy to me. But, it did make the overwhelming relief and joy in those videos make all the more sense.

  116. 116.

    MomSense

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    I think I will need a suitcase just for the yarn I will want to bring home. I just want to go by myself and explore without much of a plan except for getting to the pub in time for dinner with my knitting project.  There are so many beautiful hikes and this sounds weird but I want to visit the cemeteries.  There are cable designs inspired by carvings on headstones.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    @TBone

    Costco here has begun selling reasonably sized tubs of Toom, a commercial brand of toum, an originally Lebanese garlic dip/spread/sauce (a home recipe).

    Snatched it from the fridge to read the ingredients list: Canola oil, fresh garlic, lemon juice, sea salt, maltodextrin, citric acid.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was surprised once that there’s a difference between “whiskey” and “whisky” among those who worry about such things.

    There are lots of ways to be tripped up by language, even in the “same” language!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    TBone

    @NotMax: yum!  I’d add some steamed spinach and mix it up for today’s festivities mmmmm…but my favorite breakfast is brown bread toast triangles, topped with slices of cold smoked salmon, with capers, diced egg, onion & tomato garnish.  And a dab of cucumber sour cream sauce (drools).

    Just put the smoked ham hock into a big stock pot to boil, then simmer.  Later, fresh cabbage and small, new potatoes will join it.  Healthy-ish enough!

    Oh and thank you for the easy peasy recipe! 💙

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:

    For some reason, I have found myself of KnitTok. I find watching videos of people knitting and crocheting to be soothing.

     

    How hard is it to learn how to knit?

  122. 122.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    It’s not hard!!  I just taught my youngest.  Knittinghelp.com has really good videos.  I think continental styke is easier but you can try both English and Continental and see which one you like.  And if you ever want to zoom and knit together I’m in!

    Lots of LYS (local yarn shops) teach classes and will help you find the right yarn and needles for a good beginner project.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Miss Bianca:

    If it’s true that the activity is around Buckingham Palace rather than Kensington Palace, my guess is that the announcement would be about King Charles III, not the Princess of Wales. Perhaps they’re looking at a semi-official Regency role for William while the King continues to battle cancer.

    Of course, it could all be bollocks and rubbish, just rumours.

  128. 128.

    CaseyL

    @rikyrah: ​

    I work for a medical school, but not with residents. I’ve managed the Match for our Fellowship, but never knew there was one for residents! (Fellows are people who have completed their residency but want more training in a medical specialty. Fellowships are 1 or 2 year positions.)

    I know the Match anxiety from the other side: Will the candidates we want most also want us?

  129. 129.

    prostratedragon

    @Steeplejack:  Didn’t we once discover that a great many of us on the blog were my-sulled at one time? Apparently it’s like losing your front teeth at the age of 6.

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    After much discussion and consultation, His Majesty is pleased to announce the palace will be holding a Giant Hat Sale in time for Easter. All items guaranteed to come from the late queen’s wardrobe.
    //

  132. 132.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @satby: it wasn’t until being a married guy reading out loud to my wife that I learned the first syllable in “fiery” was pronounced “fire” and not “fear”.

    Also when imitating the comic book falling-off-a-cliff scream AIEEEEEE she was greatly amused I would say “aye-ee”. I still don’t know what sound that’s supposed to represent, actually.

  134. 134.

    Eyeroller

    @MomSense: I accidentally re-invented something like lever knitting, possibly because I learned to crochet first.  Lever knitting is a variant of English style that is much faster, often faster than Continental.  You keep one needle fixed and move only the one in your dominant hand, with very minimal motion to wrap the yarn.  When I saw people knitting “English” style, I was always puzzled at the exaggerated hand motions and excessive looping of the yarn.  Lever knitting is what was used by production knitters in the days before large-scale commercial knitting machines.  They usually wore some kind of belt to keep one needle fixed.

  135. 135.

    CaseyL

    The list of words I have mispronounced because I had read them but never heard them is long and at times legendary (“EPI-scopal” instead of “ePIscopal” is still a story my family likes to tell). And that’s just words in my native tongue! FSM knows what I’ve done with words from other languages.

    (The few times I’ve tried speaking Spanish to Spanish-speakers, I’ve heard that my accent is Cuban, or Castilian, and that would be because: a) I lived in Miami, where Cuban Spanish was the vernacular; and b) my earliest Spanish classes were given by a teacher who insisted on teaching Castilian pronunciation. I still mix the two up, e.g., pronouncing “v” as “b” and “d” as “th”.)

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh, right. I forgot Charles is going through some stuff.

    I.must say, I am still chortling over a Xit I saw quoted here the other day, something to the effect of, “The Princess of Wales is missing, the second son is in exile, and the King is treating his cancer with herbs. If this were 1300 and I were France, I’d be thinking about invading.”

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    @Miss Bianca

    From a British production, spoken by a senior army general.

    “War is hideous. Anyone who has ever been in one never wants to go to war again. It’s like France.”
    ;)

  139. 139.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Miss Bianca: I know exactly where Kate Middleton is.

    She’s in a small village falling in love with an artisanal bakery owner who has no idea she’s a princess, and he’s going to help her rediscover the meaning of Christmas. /s

  143. 143.

    EarthWindFire

    @John S.: The Dingle peninsula is one of my favorite places on earth. Especially in September when the sun stills stays out but the August holiday crowd is gone.

  144. 144.

    MomSense

    @Eyeroller:

    Do you wear a belt?  That’s the way I’ve seen the Scottish knitters do it.
    There is also Portuguese knitting which is really cool.  My friend switched to it after having both thumbs operated on.

Comments are closed.