The British Crown is a useless anachronism.

@Setanta,

Taffy Richardson (Steve Richardson), Dorset’s answer to Stanley Matthews, still playing football at the age of 47, has no problems being called 'Taffy' since ages - like quite a few others, I know.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

According to Wikipedia, Steve "Taffy" Richardson was born in Slough, 20 miles west of Charring Cross. One can hardly call him Welsh. I'm sure that has a lot to do with lack of a problem being called Taffy.

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Joe Nation wrote:
My Mom was not in favor of anyone putting on airs.

She enjoyed going to arrogant people's funerals.

Joe(such a pleasure to see them lying there with their big mouths shut)Nation

The lace was deemed to be ostentatious ?

My understanding of "lace curtain" versus "shanty", were terms used to describe well-to-do Irish immigrants versus poor to destitute Irish immigrants. Both Catholic and Protestant Catholics immigrated to America. Some came with money and skill to start businesses, others came to escape starvation with little more than the shirts on their backs. Even though both sides of my family
are Irish, my mother's side Episcopalian and my father's side Catholic, I never
heard of lace curtain versus shanty until I was about 35. I have a neighbor who is 2nd generation Ukrainian and horribly anti-Semite, anti-just about everything not Ukrainian. She was also in her 70's at the time, not that that's an excuse, just not untypical of her generation. She was the first and only person who ever asked me if I was lace curtain or shanty Irish.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out "shanty" was not complimentary. So I don't know for absolutely sure if my interpretation is correct, but that was my
sense.

It's none of my business what the United Kingdom does with their taxes. They have universal healthcare, I figure they are managing just fine.

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That was pretty much my understanding of shanty versus lace curtain. It didn't matter much to us, though. It was something other people talked about.

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@glitterbag,

My mother's parents made efforts to be lace curtain but had various troubles attaining it, while the children of her generation did pretty well. I've varied stories re my father's family, but they ended up lace curtain for the most part.
Me, I've used bolts of tapestry cloth on sale at Joann's. I'm sorta shanty since I don't always hem the lengths.

Anyway, I heard the phrase 'lace curtain' early, mostly in talk about a young woman that later married one of my uncles, disparaging talk about her pride in having taken many elocution lessons.
Long did that grudge live on and on - more or less fifty years, developing hairy corners of resentment about how she changed my once loved very much uncle.

edit to add - the cloth behind Katy in the avatar photo is a tablecloth from a thrift store.

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Every taff, paddy or jock i've ever met have been PROUD to be called it.. Smile

For example the manager of Celtic was Jock Stein and there were two Irish WW2 heroes Paddy Finucane and Paddy Mayne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Finucane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Mayne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_(given_name)

Likewise, calling a Welshman Taff or Taffy, or calling an Englishman Limey is not the least bit offensive.

PS- England's King Henry V was born in Monmouth (Wales) so that technically made him a welshman!
Shakespeare's Henry V Act IV,sc 7-

Fluellen-"..the Welshmen did good service... wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps..and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day"
Henry V- "I wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman"

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I have no opinion regarding the usefulness of monarchy, but I wish we could get rid of the whole stupid presidential pardoning of turkeys every Thanksgiving holiday.

1 Reply

@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

I have no opinion regarding the usefulness of monarchy, but I wish we could get rid of the whole stupid presidential pardoning of turkeys every Thanksgiving holiday.

That's just professional courtesy, glitter.

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@Lustig Andrei,

You couldn't have done better if you and glitterbag were in collusion.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

glitterbag wrote:

I have no opinion regarding the usefulness of monarchy, but I wish we could get rid of the whole stupid presidential pardoning of turkeys every Thanksgiving holiday.

That's just professional courtesy, glitter.

Damn, that was good Lustig, and Roger you have a good eye. I've often wondered if Lustig and I are related, this type of never letting a straight line go unmolested was a matter of family pride.

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@Setanta,

I've never used the term Paddy.

You're just a very petty man who started an unnecessary argument by suggesting I thought Mary Tudor was a Scot. You knew I didn't think that, you just wanted to your usual nasty self.

You can't get more bullshitty than Laver Bread Mary, and you swallowed that hook line and sinker.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I don't know, we don't use the term taffy much over here to mean sweets. We use toffee, that may be the same thing. Our seaside resorts sell sticks of rock, similar to the candy canes you hang on Christmas trees.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

You've used the term Paddy again and again, you just didn't happen to use it in this thread. As for you making things up about Mary Tudor, that doesn't speak well to your honesty in what was a discussion until you raied the level to hysteria. If there is a usual nasty self here, it's yours.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

You're the hysterical one, and a petty one.

I've googled A2K, my user name and paddy, and the only thing that comes up other than this thread is a reference to the betting site Paddypower. That's its name.

1 Reply

@glitterbag,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Joe Nation wrote:
My Mom was not in favor of anyone putting on airs.

She enjoyed going to arrogant people's funerals.

Joe(such a pleasure to see them lying there with their big mouths shut)Nation

The lace was deemed to be ostentatious ?

glitterbag wrote:

My understanding of "lace curtain" versus "shanty", were terms used to describe well-to-do Irish immigrants versus poor to destitute Irish immigrants. Both Catholic and Protestant Catholics immigrated to America. Some came with money and skill to start businesses, others came to escape starvation with little more than the shirts on their backs. Even though both sides of my family
are Irish, my mother's side Episcopalian and my father's side Catholic, I never
heard of lace curtain versus shanty until I was about 35. I have a neighbor who is 2nd generation Ukrainian and horribly anti-Semite, anti-just about everything not Ukrainian. She was also in her 70's at the time, not that that's an excuse, just not untypical of her generation. She was the first and only person who ever asked me if I was lace curtain or shanty Irish.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out "shanty" was not complimentary. So I don't know for absolutely sure if my interpretation is correct, but that was my
sense.

It's none of my business what the United Kingdom does with their taxes. They have universal healthcare, I figure they are managing just fine.

Thank u for your explanation, Glitterbag; very kind of u.

David

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@izzythepush,

Your post invests me with nostalgic memories,
from the 1940s.

izzythepush wrote:

I don't know, we don't use the term taffy much over here to mean sweets.

I remember it as a stretchable bar of candy
sold by a candystore, Cef's, in my naborhood in Jamaica, NY
(County of Queens, NYC) in the 1940s.
I guess the Turks were involved with it somehow.
Mrs. Cef also sold us rock candy.

glitterbag wrote:

We use toffee, that may be the same thing.

Maybe, I dunno.

glitterbag wrote:

Our seaside resorts sell sticks of rock,
similar to the candy canes you hang on Christmas trees.

In my experience, those were 2 different things. Christmas candy canes were unique.
Rock was amorphous, shaped like rocks.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

glitterbag wrote:
Our seaside resorts sell sticks of rock,
similar to the candy canes you hang on Christmas trees.
In my experience, those were 2 different things. Christmas candy canes were unique.
Rock was amorphous, shaped like rocks.

I'm quite sure that izzie wrote that above and not glitterbag.
And he spoke about the sticks of rocks sold in the seaside resorts in the UK.

Like this one ...

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w641/Walter_Hinteler/a_zps2d81eae1.jpg

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Romeo Fabulini wrote:

Every taff, paddy or jock i've ever met have been PROUD to be called it..
For example the manager of Celtic was Jock Stein and there were
two Irish WW2 heroes Paddy Finucane and Paddy Mayne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Finucane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Mayne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_(given_name)

Likewise, calling a Welshman Taff or Taffy,
or calling an Englishman Limey is not the least bit offensive.

I can t claim to know much about it,
but for what its worth, my dead friend, Neil Callahan, deemed himself to be very Irish,
and he occasionally used the word: "Paddy" in conversation, as I remember.

He was a talented raconteur, very intelligent, quick sense of humor.
His life was replete with very diverse n very multiple adventures.
I enjoyed much discussion n debate with him for years n decades.
He was one of my guests in my house in New York in the 1970s n '80s.
I took delight in colloquy with Neil.
Anyway, in his use of that word, he was not in a state of anger.
There was no rancor in his voice when he said: "Paddy."
He was an Irishman himself and he held the Irish in high esteem.

However, Mr. Setanta has indicated that he is Irish (or at least his rear end is, anyway)
so in fairness, we shud accord him due deference in the matter.

David

P.S.
Its a little funny, maybe ironic.
I remember him telling me of a refugee from Ireland,
from the IRA, whom Neil described as a very mild, pleasant fellow,
(tho lethal) who despised the English (said: "if an Englishman saved my life,
I coud not like him") yet, knowing of my English heritage,
Neil and I were very good friends. Ultimately, he moved out of my house
and went to Las Vegas, where he perished from natural causes.

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@izzythepush,

You have more than once referred to me as a "plastic Paddy." Convenient how poor your memory is.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I have, but that's a phrase in itself, which refers to ersatz Irish. It's completely different from calling an Irish man a paddy. I wouldn't do that. The Irish themselves use the term plastic paddy.

Sometimes talking to you puts me in mind of Reasoning Logic, you miss the point. You've conflated paddy and plastic paddy. You say I was dishonest in using the term Laver Bread Mary but that also misses the point. Laver Bread Mary is such a whopper, such a ridiculous thing to say, that had I said it to someone like Simon Schama, he would have dismissed it out of hand. For all the blowing of your own trumpet, you missed it. The reason you missed it, is because your vanity is such, that you can't possibly entertain the notion that someone may find you ridiculous.

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The British Crown is a useless anachronism.

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