Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Of cards and saints and a bottle of rum.


Boy, I cleaned up at cards tonight. I won the boobie prize - 3 rather nice dishtowels - and also the door prize - a bottle of rum.  As to the boobie, it is a prize awarded to the loser player of the evening. I was stuck at a table for 11 rounds with useless cards. I so want to be lucky in love to compensate for this. 

I've written all about my weekly 45 card game here, if you care to know more about it.

There was much talk of Ireland as one of my cast members was there as well as myself. In addition, there were others who had gone to Ireland over the summer on different expeditions, one had gone with her son, a priest, and they had visited everywhere that St. Patrick had been to convert the heathens and pagans back in the day. Even to the spot where he had banished the snakes.

"Oh, you must miss Ireland so much!" said one of my partners. You'd be amazed at the amount of envy I get for being so fortunate as to be born in the sacred homeland.

"Well, I miss my family of course, " said  I, "But I don't miss Ireland. Though I do like to visit."

He was appalled.

"But it's so perfect! Everyone loves Ireland!"

"Well," said I, never one to hold anything back and it's too late to learn now isn't it, "Back in the day Ireland wasn't very good to me."

Gobsmacked doesn't begin to describe the expression on his face.

"As a matter of fact," said I, continuing to never let well enough alone,  "Canada has been so extraordinarily good to me I can't even begin to count the ways. "

Hire me if you ever need to silence a room.

And if you're up for it, we'll have more on all that another time.

Thanks for the topic suggestion MarciaMay!




 

28 comments:

  1. North Americans are way too nostalgic about The Old Country and don't seem to have a very realsitic idea about it. They are modern western democracies just like the place they are from and not some fairylands stuck in time where everything is quaint and perfect.

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  2. You are hired. How soon can you join?

    I was born in the state that I now live in where a language different to my mother tongue is the official language.

    On two occasions I had to live in the state with the official language of my mother tongue.

    On both occasions, I was subject to the grilling of why I did not consider shifting permanently to my temporary home state and I never could find a satisfactory answer.

    On returning to my home state, the reverse grilling as to how I could stay in the boondocks like that foregoing the comforts of the home state, would be the norm and I had no satisfactory answers.

    India is a crazy country.

    That is why you are hired.

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  3. Irene:

    Interesting you should say that, many of those who wax nostalgic about Ireland have been there but have no idea of the misogyny, racism and patriarchy that still blossoms there.

    XO
    WWW

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  4. Ramana:

    I am sometimes asked why I left there and my answer would cover a book so I usually just say that none of us have the time to listen.

    Even that startles the interrogator.

    I must write it all down one of these days.

    And I would silence a room for free for you, sir!

    XO
    WWW

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  5. Awwww, leave us our myths and legends, WWW!
    ;-)

    I've never visited Ireland, but have known several of its sons and daughters, all of whom had a certain je ne sais quoi.
    Sorry about the French - I'm sure the Irish have their own expression for that, but I don't know what it is. In English the nearest is "charm", but it's not nearly enough.

    Whatever Ireland's faults, and all countries have many, it has turned out some wonderful natives.


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  6. I can't help wondering..... How long did your friend with the son, a priest, stay in Ireland? It must have been a lonnnnng holiday to cover all the places St Patrick had been!

    Hopefully we have moved on from Phil the Fluther singing I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen for some Courtin in the kitchen at Glocca Morra! ;)

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  7. Surely Ireland is much more than only that, WWW? There must be a modern Ireland too that belongs to the young generation. Tell me I'm not kidding myself.

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  8. T:
    I've heard it said that the best thing about Ireland is the ability of its emigrants to stand back and take a good long hard look at the place from a distance. And then write about it.
    XO
    WWW

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  9. GM:
    She visited 22 counties in 10 days. I asked her if she saw anything else and there wasn't time but it was a thrilling trip for her, "my son the priest" and all that. :)

    As to what I call Paddywhackery there was enough of that here with Reagan and Mulroney singing When Irish Eyes on global teevee. Oh the mortification!

    XO
    WWW

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  10. Irene:
    Oh there is but the old ways stick to the bones and women of the most value are the ones who breed.
    And the hypocrisy kills me.
    XO
    WWW

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  11. Tis the hottest fire that forged the strongest sword...don't think you want to meet the characters that have had no pain or obstacles in life as a generalization they kind of suck as humans...you are shaped by the experiences in life you encounter and have to know and appreciate them even as you detest them don't you think?;)

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  12. It's funny how many people idealise Ireland and seem blissfully unaware of all the problems - the recession, the sexual abuse, the racism, the poverty. They somehow screen out all the things that don't fit the sentimental image.

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  13. Interesting discussion about Ireland and how we romanticize a place sometimes -- other places, too, I'm sure.

    I'm intrigued with your 45 card game. If the cards in your picture depict a winning hand in that game, it looks very much like what my mother and her friends played regularly -- especially popular around the U.S. midwest Great Lakes States. I enjoyed playing it, too, but we know it as Eucher -- unless they're different card games. ------ I just looked up the rules for 45 and they mention Euchre with some similarities. I didn't take time to closely study the rules.

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  14. I can hear the crickets just reading this one. Silencing a room is a gift I share with you, WWW. Is it an Irish trait to always speak one's mind?

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  15. Anon:
    No truer words were said, oh shadowed one.
    XO
    WWW

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  16. Nick:

    Us realistic emigrants often call it "the largest open air lunatic asylum in the world."

    Yeah, it is.

    XO
    WWW

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  17. Joared:

    The order of cards is as follows:

    5
    jack
    ace of hearts
    ace of trumps
    and then face cards followed by:
    highest in red
    lowest in black

    XO
    WWW

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  18. Sharon:

    No the Irish usually hold their tongues. Unless drunk. :)

    XO
    WWW

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  19. Irene:

    Yes, I think it took the New World to break those chains.

    XO
    WWW

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  20. There's no place like home and it's up to us to decide where home is.

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  21. My Irish ancestors did not even wait for the potato famine to get out: they were in the u.s. by 1820.BTW: Have you read anthropologist Nancy Scheper - Hughes' book,Saints, Scholars and Scizophrenics, about the West Country Irish? It would interest you, I'm sure.



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  22. We've gone to the same school I think. Never shy about putting my foot in it either, I am not.

    Anyway, telling it as it is makes for a much more interesting conversation.

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  23. I think it's the human way to idealize somewhere else. A grass i always greener sort of proclivity.

    "continuing to never let well enough alone" Oh my God. This may sum up my entire life.

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  24. Marcia:
    Home is where the heart is. For sure.
    XO
    WWW

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  25. Hattie:
    I must get my hands on it, though I'm sure I've lived all of it.
    :D
    XO
    WWW

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  26. Friko:
    I agree. Though not too high on the popularity scale!
    XO
    WWW

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