Ditto to that

Like Hugh, I'm not really one for St. Patrick's day:

The disneyfied green overload on the streets of this country tomorrow is too much for this green blogger to stomach. In some ways I feel in league with old codgers and creaking nuns who think that St. Patrick's Day has lost its meaning, although I never thought it had much meaning in the first place. I would find it preferable if the were limited to parades after 10 o'clock mass with the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and the Knights of Malta, and then the pub for those who felt so inclined.

Also like him, I'm off to France for the weekend and (as if to validate my characterisation below) intend to scarf quite a bit of foie gras, surely the epitome of evil food.

Comments

[Gerry O'Sullivan]

foie gras, surely the epitome of evil food.

Pfft! Compared to ortolan, foie gras could almost carry a FairTrade label.

From The Toronto Globe & Mail:

In the Landes region of Gascony, aging poachers trap a protected songbird in nets, fatten it on millet in darkened cages until it is four times its original size, then drown it in Armagnac. The ortolan, also known as the bunting, is eaten at clandestine dinners by gastronomes who suck the bird's piping hot innards through its rectum.

The late French president François Mitterrand, when he learned he was dying of cancer, invited 30 friends to a New Year's feast of oysters, foie gras, capon, and a plate of ortolans — a dish illegal for the hoi polloi, but, following the age-old double standard that exempts rulers from their own rulings, permissible for the elite.

The tiny birds, after being roasted at high heat for five minutes, are traditionally eaten whole, bones and all, with one's head hidden beneath a white cloth napkin. Some believe the custom was conceived to prevent the grease, bone fragments, and saliva from the feeding frenzy from splattering one's fellow diners. Others say it is intended to keep what you are doing hidden from God.

[Frank McGahon]

Now that's an evil meal!

[Jim]

Evil meal indeed. Sounds as bad as Monkey table.

"Meaning" of StP Day - someone pointed out that it got going in the US at a time of complete contempt for Irish people, so it was in essence a Pride Parade. Maybe it was someone trying to talk the parade organizers in New York - obviously didn't have the desired effect.

[Jim]

"talk the parade organizers...etc"

Talk them into letting the gay groups march in the parade.

[Emily]

I have a book called Wicked Irish, which is a phrase book for travelers that teaches you to say truly useful things like "I hear the women of this village are loose. Do you perchance have a sister?" instead of the tiresome "How do I find the post office?" kind of stuff. It characterizes St. Patrick as "patron saint of US party animals." I'd pretty much call that the truth. Only it fell on a Friday this year, thus losing its regular meaning of "an institutionally recognized excuse to get drunk on a Tuesday."