Well, I survived another Saint Patrick's Day

[Cain]

Libya was never part of the Commonwealth.

Gaddafi's beef with the UK was entirely contemporary.

[Faust]

Libya was never part of the Commonwealth.

Gaddafi's beef with the UK was entirely contemporary.

Oh I know that, just saying Ireland got on well with the UK's detractors.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Corned beef is eaten only by savages who don't know any better.

DAMN STRAIGHT! 

Plus, it's not even Irish.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that can be true, for people who have the knee jerk reaction of THE IRA FUCK YEAH! and such, but I think it can be part of an identity without overwhelming the rest of you. An identity should be greater than the sum of its parts, yes?

Well, sure.  I'm not saying that it's BAD to have that as part of your identity...It's just that St Patrick's Day turns many (insert e prime crap here) otherwise intelligent people into the Irish version of NASCAR fans, which grates on the nerves as badly as listening to Texans talk about Texas.

It's pretty fucking tiresome. In general, who their great-grandparents fucked is the least interesting aspect of a person's identity. If it comes up and it's directly relevant or a good joke can be had, sure. But the people who just constantly have to remind you of how Irish they are seem to be using it as a replacement for having an actual personality. It's like an indigenous American ending every statement with "A ho" or a black person changing their name to Kunte Kinte and then constantly being all "It's because I'm black, isn't it?"

Although at least if you're black there's a pretty good chance that people are treating you like you're black without you mentioning it. Irish in America can't get any oppression anymore because nobody can tell them apart from any other honkeys without them mentioning it. Constantly.

Fucking St. Patrick's Day. Some ass in the bar yesterday asked me why I wasn't wearing green. It's BECAUSE I'M NOT IRISH AND I COULD NOT GIVE A SINGLE FUCK ABOUT THE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT HOLIDAY IN WHICH SUBURBANITES COME TO THE CITY TO DRINK GREEN PISS-BEER. What March 17th means to me is my best friend's birthday, and that's all it will ever be.

Oh, and then I have to drive home in fear for my life because of all the drunk drivers. And miss a perfectly good show in St. John's, because driving to St. John's on the day when every white person in the city is using some tenuous and/or manufactured link to "Irishness" to justify getting wasted by 4 in the afternoon makes St. John's an even drunker and more dangerous place than it normally is, which is considerably drunk and dangerous.

Or I'm Legally Black Kill Me.

I thought you got that with Italians any every other group your migrants came from not just Irish.

Nah, on the West Coast the only white people who inform you of their heritage are the Irish. E.O.T.'s German and Italian, but you'd never know because it never comes up.

The Polish get all excited about once a year and make pierogies. That's about it, though.

Have you no African, Spanish or Chinese decent? I would have thought they would have been all about the heritage. Especially the Spanish.

the only white people who inform you of their heritage are the Irish.

People of African and Chinese descent don't usually announce it, although it might come up in conversation. We don't have a very big Chinese population in Portland; more Korean and Vietnamese. Who also may or may not specifically mention it, but in general I think non-white people here don't feel a strong need to inform you of their heritage because it's visible on their faces.

We don't really have much by way of Spanish people here. One of my Mexican friends is of primarily Spanish descent, but I am not aware of a single Spanish-heritage festival, and I can't think of anyone other than Fluffy telling me that they're of Spanish descent.

We do have a shit-ton of Russians.

We have a lot of people of Chinese descent, to look at they wouldn't be instantly identifiable as Irish (unless the girls were wearing hoopy earrings and shiny tracksuits). One of my friends from years ago took offense when I assumed he knew about her Chinese heritage, she is something like fifth or sixth generation Irish.

That highlights a tremendous difference between where you are and where I am. I live in Oregon. Oregon hasn't even existed for six generations, and if it had, its horrifically oppressive racist laws that existed until recently, and ensuing non-official but still-practiced racist policies and populace did a pretty thorough job of making sure that nobody who isn't white lived here long. Until about 60 years ago when colored shipbuilders moved here (and then got largely flooded out in Portland's most unpleasant, yet utterly predictable, natural disaster to date).

Nonetheless, an American of Irish descent would, despite being sixth-generation American, be the only person you might find anywhere in the vicinity making a point of informing you and everyone else at every step of their genetic heritage. Most of them are great experts on what is and is not authentically Irish, too.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

What I am saying is that you would probably want to slap the shit out of them.

[trippinprincezz13]

Nah, on the West Coast the only white people who inform you of their heritage are the Irish. E.O.T.'s German and Italian, but you'd never know because it never comes up.

The Polish get all excited about once a year and make pierogies. That's about it, though.

Aw  I love pierogis. Why don't I see that ever? This are has/had a fairly large Polish immigrant population. The Church we went to growing up/school I went to a few years used to throw a Polish festival every year. It's how I developed my immunity to polka and a passable ability to pronounce Polish last names (a residual side effect is that I may still know how to do the Chicken Dance). A Polish deli/store had opened not that long ago, but closed before I got to look at it (it was in a bad area I suppose). And now I'm rambling about Poland (I'm Polish AND Irish on my mom's side, I can't help myself!)

Maybe it's just me but a lot Italians in this area seem to be pretty vocal about it. Backlash against all the Irishness?

[trippinprincezz13]

And yet irish americans still eat it out of a sense of heritage.

Twid
uses willingness to eat corned beef for his litmus test. Seriously. That shit is naturally grey without food coloring.

I don't know what the hell is wrong with the corned beef you guys are eating there, because here it's DELICIOUS. I usually buy a bunch of briskets on sale around this time of year and freeze them.

Also, this. I brine my own brisket if I want to make corned and it comes out just fine. Makes yummy hash afterwards too. Also, pulled BBQ/smoked brisket is pretty great too.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Nah, on the West Coast the only white people who inform you of their heritage are the Irish. E.O.T.'s German and Italian, but you'd never know because it never comes up.

The Polish get all excited about once a year and make pierogies. That's about it, though.

Aw  I love pierogis. Why don't I see that ever? This are has/had a fairly large Polish immigrant population. The Church we went to growing up/school I went to a few years used to throw a Polish festival every year. It's how I developed my immunity to polka and a passable ability to pronounce Polish last names (a residual side effect is that I may still know how to do the Chicken Dance). A Polish deli/store had opened not that long ago, but closed before I got to look at it (it was in a bad area I suppose). And now I'm rambling about Poland (I'm Polish AND Irish on my mom's side, I can't help myself!)

Maybe it's just me but a lot Italians in this area seem to be pretty vocal about it. Backlash against all the Irishness?

We put a freeway through the Italian neighborhood and put a stop to that nonsense.

There's a Polish neighborhood and Polish community center here, and a few places that serve pierogies on the menu. They do a Polish festival once a year, too. My ex-boyfriend is Polish so we went to that once.

It's nice.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And yet irish americans still eat it out of a sense of heritage.

Twid
uses willingness to eat corned beef for his litmus test. Seriously. That shit is naturally grey without food coloring.

I don't know what the hell is wrong with the corned beef you guys are eating there, because here it's DELICIOUS. I usually buy a bunch of briskets on sale around this time of year and freeze them.

Also, this. I brine my own brisket if I want to make corned and it comes out just fine. Makes yummy hash afterwards too. Also, pulled BBQ/smoked brisket is pretty great too.

I like corned beef sandwiches. Nom!

I always thought corned beef boiled dinner (with cabbage and potatoes) was a German thing.

[Faust]

What I am saying is that you would probably want to slap the shit out of them.

We'll that's true, the term plastic paddies came about solely because of the likes of those.

[trippinprincezz13]

I like corned beef sandwiches. Nom!

I always thought corned beef boiled dinner (with cabbage and potatoes) was a German thing.

Mmmm maybe I should save some of my leftovers for sandwiches and not just hash this time, since I always make way too much of that.

Hmm hadn't thought the boiled dinner being German before, but sounds like it could make sense. Of course, trying to do any research just brings up a million articles and recipes about this "traditional Irish dish". At least the ones calling it a New England boiled dinner sound more honest, since I thought it was mainly a New England thing. I did find this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labskaus which sounded close, though I guess not really because then it's fried after the meat it boiled.

In my searches I did find out that during WWI, sauerkraut was renamed to "Liberty Cabbage", which made me 

I do like me a nice dinner of pierogis, kielbasa and Liberty Cabbage, that's for sure

[Juana]

*shurg* I was told corned beef and hash was a poor-people thing. Doesn't matter to me. It's fucking delicious.

[LMNO]

The majority of traditional poor-people food is fucking awesome.

Modern poor-people food however, is fucking nasty.

[Faust]

The majority of traditional poor-people food is fucking awesome.

Modern poor-people food however, is fucking nasty.

Some of the poor people food over in the likes of Malaysia and so on has been cited for their peoples longevity.

We have McDonald's. Each burger is like biting into your own metastatic tumor.

[Cain]

Traditional peasant food ftw.

Modern peasant food = mmm, tasty carcinogens!