Wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I used to do this, but basically no one noticed/cared, so I quit. Today at work I was reminded of it by a girl from England originally and who lived there until she was 14, (her English mother married an American serviceman stationed at an Air Force base) had an orange and white striped longsleeved shirt on, but she denied that it was intentional and that she was even aware of the relevance of orange even though she said she is "not too fond" of St. Patrick's Day. Considering that this is also a girl who I once had to remind that Gordon Brown is no longer PM of the UK and is not aware of how to cast an absentee ballot I believe her. But anyway no it's not offensive, and specifically making sure to wear green on St. Patrick's Day if you're over 12 is stupid anyway.

I remember someone on AIM telling me how they had just seen a 30 Rock episode with Liz Lemon wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day, which should make her my dream girl.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's not offensive, but it is astonishingly petty.

[fezzyfestoon]

Are you going to bring this idiotic subject up every year now?

[Mechaman]

Are you going to bring this idiotic subject up every year now?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

We get it BRTD, you hate the Irish. You don't have to make a topic about it every year.

[patrick1]

COME AT ME BRO

[TDAS04]

We get it BRTD, you hate the Irish. You don't have to make a topic about it every year.

He might be jealous that they get a holiday, and the Scandinavians don't (Viking Day not so huge in the US).

I'm part Norwegian, so I understand.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

We get it BRTD, you hate the Irish. You don't have to make a topic about it every year.

He might be jealous that they get a holiday, and the Scandinavians don't (Viking Day not so huge in the US).

I'm part Norwegian, so I understand.

I doubt it. BRTD disapproves of seemingly any form of strong cultural identification other than band shirts.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

We get it BRTD, you hate the Irish. You don't have to make a topic about it every year.

He might be jealous that they get a holiday, and the Scandinavians don't (Viking Day not so huge in the US).

I'm part Norwegian, so I understand.

I doubt it. BRTD disapproves of seemingly any form of strong cultural identification other than band shirts.

Yes, with that being the real reason I dislike St. Patrick's Day.

Things that are often missed though:

-St. Patrick was not Irish, he was in fact one of those hated English.
-For centuries the color associated with St. Patrick was blue, not green.
-St. Patrick predates the Reformation and Catholic/Protestant divide and is just as beloved amongst Irish Protestants including Northern Ireland Unionists (even Ian Paisley.) He almost certainly would have had no problem with Protestants and wearing orange.

And yes I also really like St. Patrick. I have even made a FF/HP poll on him in the past calling him a FF. I dislike the stupid and childishly celebrated "holiday" that bears his name.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

St Patrick was Romano-British, not English. There was, in that time period, a very, very major difference--insofar as the latter could even be said to exist, since we're pre-Hengist and Horsa here.

[patrick1]

As Nathan already pointed out you are cherry picking history. No such thing as English at that time. There were frequent raids, trade and genetic mixing across the Isles. Ironically, much of the raiding was done from the island of Ireland.  Further,  it was the later Anglo-Saxon's who were more loyal to Rome and led to the erosion of the unique features of Celtic Christianity. 

St Patrick's,  here in the United States, is a celebration of Irish/Irish American history, ancestry (frequently bastardization) as a whole.  For the Irish American exiles green had a symbolic value- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wearing_of_the_Green
As you know many and most of the leaders of the rebellion of 1798 were Protestants. 

[Napoleon]

i Like how you stopped doing it because it didn't stir up any controversy lol.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

i Like how you stopped doing it because it didn't stir up any controversy lol.

Are you drunk already? It's only been St Patrick's Day for two hours.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I should point out that if you Google this there are suggestions of doing this in a completely non-petty or offensive manner: http://www.examiner.com/article/wear-orange-on-st-patrick-s-day

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I don't normally get my 'news' about my own ethnic groups' cultural traditions (insofar as St Patrick's Day is an Irish cultural tradition, which I admit is a decidedly limited extent) from the 'Neighborhoods' section of examiner.com, but okay.

[afleitch]

There's nothing worse than Americans pretending to be Irish for the day, except them pretending to be Scottish a few weeks later

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I don't normally get my 'news' about my own ethnic groups' cultural traditions (insofar as St Patrick's Day is an Irish cultural tradition, which I admit is a decidedly limited extent) from the 'Neighborhoods' section of examiner.com, but okay.

Well it's an editorial, not news.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I don't normally get my 'news' about my own ethnic groups' cultural traditions (insofar as St Patrick's Day is an Irish cultural tradition, which I admit is a decidedly limited extent) from the 'Neighborhoods' section of examiner.com, but okay.

Well it's an editorial, not news.

I think you're misapprehending the level on which I'm unmoved.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I used to do this, but basically no one noticed/cared, so I quit.

So like all trolls, when no one notices you're an attention whore, you go away.   Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[ilikeverin]

Yes, but I'm honoring both my Irish and Northern Irish ancestors today by wearing green and orange.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I used to do this, but basically no one noticed/cared, so I quit.

So like all trolls, when no one notices you're an attention whore, you go away.   Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I was also quite a bit more immature back then.

Of course the real reason for this was the often absurd and obnoxious behavior of a minority contingent but still very visible one of Irish Americans. Who for the record I wasn't even aware of until I had the internet since I live in the Midwest. That certainly played a role in my later view of rejecting all types of cultural identification, at least ones based on ethnicity, rather than things you choose.

[ilikeverin]

I used to do this, but basically no one noticed/cared, so I quit.

So like all trolls, when no one notices you're an attention whore, you go away.   Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I was also quite a bit more immature back then.

Of course the real reason for this was the often absurd and obnoxious behavior of a minority contingent but still very visible one of Irish Americans. Who for the record I wasn't even aware of until I had the internet since I live in the Midwest. That certainly played a role in my later view of rejecting all types of cultural identification, at least ones based on ethnicity, rather than things you choose.

What on Earth are you talking about?  I was certainly unaware of the cult of Italian-Americanism IRLz (I think I first heard about it from books), but St. Paul has a large Irish Fair every summer, and has a long and storied Irish-American community.

[Lief 🗽]

I, for one, commend BRTD for his heroic acts of real life trolling.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I wore orange by accident today. We went to Duffy's for lunch. Very, very awkward

[patrick1]

I, for one, commend BRTD for his heroic acts of real life trolling.

It is one thing to wear orange to the office, quite another to wear it in a crowd of drunken, ignorant lunatics. No shortage of that.  The parade in New York is a fun day but it marred, imho, by swarms of high school and college kids treating it like Mardi Gras. Absolutely plastered and staggering in at 10:30 am.  Granted I was once a young drunken reveler, but I was that all year round affair and least had a millenia of bog trotting alcoholic DNA kicking around as an excuse.

Random observation: many young woman dress insanely slutty these days huh? Really not leaving much to the imagination.