Pet peeve

[beloitpiper]

I don't know how many of you are on the Frugal Corner mailing list, but they sent me an e-mail today advertising their "St. Patty's Day Promotion". ARGH! I hate that! "St. Patty". Since when did we become all buddy-buddy with St. Patrick? We don't say "St. Mike" or "St. Andy". And another, if you're going to shorten it, it becomes Paddy, after the Irish Padraig.

I have a love/hate relationship with St. Patrick's Day and tend to get on edge. I love the holiday, but there are so many things that treat it with disrespect and irregard. I'm sure the Frugal Corner was not trying to offend anybody, but it just rubs me the wrong way. Is it so hard to refer to it as "St. Patrick's Day?" With the green beer and plastic paddys coming out of the woodwork, can't we at least refer to it by it's proper name?

/end rant

[Bugbear]

Well, at least they didn't tell you to paint your face blue.

[Larry124]

I received the email also.

Pro: What do you expect from a site that features a salesman in a kilt and sport coat; with the kilt worn over the knees and the (white!) hose worn too high?

Con: Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday. “St. Patty's Day” is a USA secular holiday. It is what it is.

IMHO Irish-American heritage frequently exhibits the extremes of what my family has for decades (in a equally finger-wagging way) pejoratively labeled “Lace Curtain" vs. "Shanty”. In the Scotch-Irish USA Appalachian music community it's often called “Saturday Night – Sunday Morning”.

I'd be surprised if there isn't a Scottish or Scottish-North American equivalent.

Perhaps it's part of all heritages.

[McClef]

Over here I have never heard such a diminutive used - Paddy sometimes yes, but never Patty.

Must be an American thing.

[Spartan]

Isn't Patty a girl's name? Who is this St. Patty?

Option: unsubscribe from their email list.

[Howard Clark]

Take a deep breath, then let it go.

There are so many things to get peeved about that one has an endless supply.

I think the whole holiday is nonsense, myself. Bunch of americans use it as an excuse to get drunk on cheap beer artificially colored green. Has nothing to do with Irish, or St. Patrick.

Life is full of things to be unhappy about. Look for the ones to make you happy. They are harder to find, but worth the effort.

[Pleater]

Maybe it is to do with the minced beef patties called hamburgers in the US?



Anne the Pleater

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Greg-- don't be "more Irish than the Irish"! In the nearly twenty-two years that I lived in Ireland, almost everybody called it "Paddy's Day", because that's what it is-- the day we celebrate our patron saint, Patrick. There is nothing derogatory or demeaning in the term, unless one wants to read into it some sort of slur based on the second most common boy's name in Ireland (Elvis being the most popular, this week. ) So kick back, enjoy the day, and don't get stocious drunk on Paddy's Day.
Slainte--

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I think the whole holiday is nonsense, myself. Bunch of americans use it as an excuse to get drunk on cheap beer artificially colored green. Has nothing to do with Irish, or St. Patrick.

Don't know how many Paddy's Days you've celebrated in Ireland, but I'll tell you this much, and it couldn't be more true if I was staring into my own grave, you won't be able to move in Temple Bar on Paddy's Day except for the partying (and drinking) going on. Johnny Fox's pub is booked out a year in advance (by locals) and the whole of Dublin, as well as the more rural parts of Ireland, will be celebrating like there is no such a thing as a hangover. Jeasus but I will miss it, even being the "Ascendancy Prod" that I am. Invented by Americans? More like invented for Americans and others so they could join in the craic with the rest of us.

[slohairt]

Yeah, when I think of "Patty", I think of Patricia!

I, too, have a love/hate relationship with St. Patrick's Day. Much of it is trivialized nonsense, but in North America we tend to do that with most cultures anyway. When I was younger I certainly went out 'swilling with the lads' but nowadays I prefer a small party at home with friends and family. I observe the holiday only to celebrate Irish culture since, as an atheist, I could care less about St. Patrick himself.