I contemplated concluding this four-part series with thoughts and reminisences on my tour of the Emerald Isle some thirty years ago, but I have so many fond memories that I lack the time, and perhaps the words, to do them justice. Besides, recounting personal vacation trips is a dubious proposition of boring potential at best, so I’ll spare you (and me) the task, and go instead with a few swigs of St. Patrick’s Day trivia and a wee bit of Irish Lit, writ and wit.
Let’s start with St. Patrick himself. One might assume that St. Patricks Day is celebrated on March 17 because that’s his birthday, but in fact, his exact birth date is unknown. March 17 is the day he died (in the year 461).
The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in NYC on March 17, 1762. For more on this and other things Irish, click on these short video clips:
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day/videos/nyc
As for Irish Lit, one of the earliest surviving manuscripts is the painstakingly crafted and astonishingly beautiful Book of Kells (circa 800), which I had the pleasure of viewing at Dublin’s Trinity College Library. See for yourself at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells
Ireland, of course, has produced some of the greatest satirists and masterpieces of wit in history, including Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion, on which My Fair Lady is based), and John Millington Synge (The Playboy of the Western World). Excellent movies (and some not-so-excellent re-makes) have been made of all, and I close with a quote or a clip from each:
The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver’s watch may be his God, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting. –Gulliver’s Travels (1939)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eymdx4xomM –The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADz07k_wXU –Pygmalion (1938)
…if it’s a poor thing to be lonesome, it’s worse maybe to go mixing with the fools of earth. –The Playboy of the Western World (1962)
May this St. Patrick’s Day find you neither lonesome nor with the fools of earth.
mlrover 8:58 am on February 16, 2020 Permalink |
I love that they aimed the fruit over her head. My favorite was always when Harpo played.
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mistermuse 10:56 am on February 16, 2020 Permalink |
Harpo’s playing always provided just the right balance of “catch-our-breath” between what would otherwise have been non-stop zaniness — not to mention that his playing was excellent in itself.
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tubularsock 1:50 pm on February 16, 2020 Permalink |
Tubularsock loved that as well and found it interesting how she showed such confidence they’d miss. Wonder how many times they had to run through that without a mistake hit.
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mistermuse 9:23 pm on February 16, 2020 Permalink
They did hit their initial target (Trentino) several times without noticeable effect before turning their attention to her, so I suspect that the “fruit” was made of something relatively soft (I was going to say foam rubber, but I checked and found that foam rubber wasn’t invented until 1937 — 3 years after DUCK SOUP was filmed). In any case, it does look like they missed her on purpose.
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magickmermaid 6:17 pm on February 16, 2020 Permalink |
The Marx Brothers were unequaled! Still just as funny today. 🙂
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mistermuse 9:43 pm on February 16, 2020 Permalink |
Absolutely! And A NIGHT AT THE OPERA lends itself perfectly to being satirized like a soap opera. I can’t think of another film which could as easily “inspire” the writing of these posts.
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masercot 8:22 am on February 17, 2020 Permalink |
Just leave out the sanity clause next time…
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mistermuse 5:02 pm on February 17, 2020 Permalink |
I think Trump has already removed all sanity clauses.
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JosieHolford 8:45 pm on February 18, 2020 Permalink |
Not for nothing they were known as comic genius.
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barkinginthedark 10:26 pm on February 19, 2020 Permalink |
love the Marx bros…the first Beatles. continue…
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mistermuse 12:58 am on February 20, 2020 Permalink |
I guess you could make that comparison, though I’ve never thought of the Beatles’ films in that way before.
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