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Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling

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Calraigh
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Point of information: Can everyone stop referring to the Irish accent as a ''brogue''? It's an accent. '' Brògs '' or ''Brogues'' are shoes, as gaeilge.

Thanks!
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sueños blancos
12/19/08

@Calraigh: If my powers of deduction are working, I think you might be Irish & thus I must ask you a burning question: does it bother you when non-Irish refer to the Irish language as 'Gaelic'? I've never met anyone from Eire who called their language anything other than Irish (but I've never got around to ask their opinion).
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Calraigh
12/19/08

@boca de anís: Thank you for asking! I find it incredibly annoying; it's a generic term that applies to several different languages, not specifically Irish. It annoys most Irish people actually. We call it Irish. Or Gaeilge, to give it it's correct term. But then again, the Irish-American terms seems to eradicate any authentic Irish ones because it 's easier for then to be appropriated. Just thinking about the practice of it makes me homicidal. However it's Friday and I'd rather just be getting laid. Nobody gives a crap anyway!

Seriously though, I appreciate the question :)
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sueños blancos
12/20/08

@Calraigh: np! I'm thrilled to finally have an authentic answer from an Actual Irish Person. Cheers :)
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Calraigh
12/20/08

@boca de anís: No probs! I'm a cheerful sort, after all, I am an Actual Irish Person (tm)!
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Calraigh
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Oh would you ever go and fuck off Kathie Lee. Seriously, does the woman even know where she is, let alone Donegal?
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The Queen of No
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Since when did it become OK for an interviewer to interrupt their subject every time they open their mouth?
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Shut it, Kathie Lee. Your comments are getting my Irish up. Really. I'm extremely Irish, and sometimes it just comes flooding out. Most of the time, it's because I'm drunk, but not always. So tell me, you omnipotent expert of ethnicity. If you were blindfolded, thereby rendering you unable to discern my ancestry just by observing my countenance, would you be able to tell I was Irish based on the angle of my foot when it connected with your ass? Or would you be able to sniff out the residue of hundreds of years of Guinness and potatoes in my green blood? No? Well then, why don't you just shut yer gob.
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sexysecularist
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
She's not a musician, she's a musical theatre singer. They're a breed known for being notoriously sharp, with an unpleasantly forward tone, complete confidence in their musical abilities, and no real understanding of music.
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brendastarlet is on it
12/19/08

@sexysecularist: I'll go one step further: she's a performer. No musical ability necessary.

(Don't want to taint my truly talented Broadway friends, who work like fiends.)
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
12/19/08

@brendastarlet is on it: heh,taint.

It never gets old.
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girlnamedblue
12/19/08

@brendastarlet is on it: I agree, I know truly talented musical theatre singers, but they do err on the side of obnoxious. At least the ones I know and love.
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Majrhoulihan
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
I am Irish, and the last time I was together with my extended family I got so drunk I couldn't tell my cousins apart. "Eh..Maureen? Kelly? What? Your name is Margaret? Liar!"

Just saying...
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girlnamedblue
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
My favorite part was when she started singing along in a clashing harmony. How do you not hear yourself doing that if you're a musician? Also, how did Enya not kill her?
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wednesdayam
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Dammit Kathie Lee - don't mess up the last bit of my heritage that won't merge with English ways with your patronizing idiot-speak. You're not only pissing off the Irish but the Scots too. (Clans MacPherson and MacIntyre, represent!) :p
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BabyJane
12/19/08

@wednesdayam: I'm a MacPherson on my paternal grandmother's side!
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gerbilsoutofexile...is cheap and easy
12/19/08

@wednesdayam: I'm a McGee - and no, my first name is not "Tits."

Har. I do have some, though.
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Cam/ron
12/19/08

@wednesdayam: Kathy Lee hasn't awakened my ole Highland rage yet, just keep me away from Scotch.
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
12/19/08

@gerbilsoutofexile (fog's a-liftin' but I will cut a bitch)): I vote you get thee to a county clerk and change your name, then. Because it's long been a dream of mine to have a friend named Tits McGee.
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gerbilsoutofexile...is cheap and easy
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
As a Scottish/Native American mix, I guess this means I should be trying to get a better deal on my scalping supplies.

Argh. Kathie Lee, I luv ya, but really.
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cuteasabutton
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Dylan Moran, brilliant Irish comedian!
Soo funny!
[uk]

+ Watch video

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Calraigh
12/19/08

@Cuteasabutton hearts Caleb Followill: I want him.so badly. It's not funny. At all.
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sportz.star
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
In an extreme act of self restraint, Kathie Lee held back the urge to use her mediocre step dancing skills in an effort to upstage the Irish songstress.
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BabyJane
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
I can't watch the clip, but I have noticed that listening to Kathie Lee lately is a lot like talking to my great-aunt Helen after she's had a few drinks. She's all innapropriate comments and bossy opinions. All she needs now are some unwrapped peppermints covered in lint at the bottom of her purse and I'd be unable to tell the two apart.
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bowleserised
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
The whole US "ethnic identities for white people" thing really puzzles me sometimes. I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to picture when people say (as happened on another site where I'm a member) that their tits are set far apart because they're "German", or that they have "an Italian butt". Because both Germans and Italians have a pretty diverse range of figures, in my experience. Ditto "Irish faces".
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Maritsa
12/19/08

@bowleserised: Yeah, I don't get this either. People always tell me I "don't look Greek." Um, OK. Because you know what Greek people are supposed to look like?

Also, a judge once told the partner I work with that he had "a fat Irish face." Class-ay.
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scullymurphy
12/19/08

@bowleserised: Peoples are weird and aren't quite clear on the concept that they are American not German or Dutch or Italian or what have you.
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Andraste
12/19/08

@Maritsa: Ditto--I always hear that I "look Irish" because I have freckles. So annoying...
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Majrhoulihan
12/19/08

@scullymurphy: I think it depends on how much of the culture you retain. There are some very Italian cultural traditions that Americans of Italian ancestry maintain which sets them apart from say...Americans of Mexican ancestry.

Really...we don't have a lot of Americans of American ancestry here. Especially in New York City.
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emilyanne
12/19/08

@scullymurphy: yeah but I'm never sure about this because my Manhattan born daughter holds three passports. Now if we stay in America she is presumably American but what if we move back to Ireland or England does she then become Irish or English or is she destined to be confused her entire life?
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Cam/ron
12/19/08

@bowleserised: If you grow up in a family or community that often focuses on their ethnic cultural differences, such remarks will be heard. I have German-American relatives who joke about their "German temper," as well as Filipino-American relatives who laugh about having "Filipino driving skills" as in driving like a NASCAR racer on a residental street.
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Liz11685
12/19/08

@bowleserised: I think people really do have their ethnic qualities, but its more of an ethnicity influencing their, and other people's, take on how they look:

My boyfriend's cousin gets told she has a Portuguese butt all the time but she is really only like a quarter or so Portuguese. And my boyfriend gets told he doesn't look Italian enough because he has lighter hair and eyes- where except for that splash of Portuguese he is pretty much 100% Italian.(and looks a lot like the great-grandfather he was named after)

My mom really does look Swedish though- there is no mistaking that one (she is almost 100%).
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So Irish
12/19/08

@Andraste: I resemble that remark!! ;-)
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AuntieEm (robots from the year 2000 > zombies)
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
wow I wanted to punch her in the face there . . .
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emilyanne
12/19/08

In reply to Dear Kathie Lee: Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling
Personally I completely understand her problems. As I'm always telling my husband, you Oirish with your dems and doses and your fillums and your tree when you mean three, why your all so quaint and diddle de dee...

Then he points out my family are also Oirish and we have a dance-off to the tunes of Michael Flatley.
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BiteMeMitchell!
12/19/08

@emilyanne: Before sitting down to a nice bowl of colcannon and a pint of cold Guinness, I hope?
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BabyJane
12/19/08

@emilyanne: @Anointynointy: I can't wait for Christmas and my family's annual donneybrook!
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emilyanne
12/19/08

@Anointynointy: ha absolutely. Then he grabs hold of a stray bodhran and we try to rouse the good people of Brooklyn and convince them to join our protest against the filthy English aka my next door neighbour.

Actually oddly enough I happen to making colcannon for dinner tonight (it's very cheap as you know and also filling - god I sound like my mother)
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The Queen of No
12/19/08

@emilyanne: HA! That made me chuckle.
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