First there was a Man. Then a Woman. Then in quick succession, two cats, a confused dog beast, and two kids. I stay at home with them. I'm the Man

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Luck O' The Irish

I know this is a couple days late, but I don't have much else, and it's been rattling around in my otherwise empty keppe, and I've been busy with my fucking flooded basement,.  The entire contents of which are now sitting in my back yard, having been sorted into "toss" and "keep" piles.  So much shit.  Today, we waited all day for the junk man to come, but he never did come.  Sort of sounds like lyrics in a blues song.  Who knew junk men were unreliable?

This post is about luck.  Starting with my mildly shitty basement luck and continuing with "The Luck O' The Irish." With St Patrick's day passing ( I'm a full 1/6th Irish give or take.  An Irish Jew. Sure n'begorrah atah adonai. ), I saw that phrase a lot this week.  More than some of you, because I live in Boston, which as any of you who saw the Departed know, is not an American city but the one and only outpost of the Irish empire.

 "The Luck O' the Irish" is probably my favorite type of luck.  Even more than dumb luck or the luck of the Devil himself.  Because Irish luck is almost always horrible.  When I think Irish, I don't think, "lucky bastards."  I think of a different kind of luck.

I think of people blessed with a,  "Well, I know there's a famine goin on right now, but at least I still have one 'o me feet." kind of luck.  Or, Sure, I was badly beaten for my entire childhood, but with all the alcohol, I barely felt it."  Or, "Mom, dad, guess what?  I'm an altar boy!"  That kind of luck.

My 3/4 irish wife exhibited a good-natured bristling at that.  But like I told her, she's lucky.  Who ever even heard of Jewish luck?   "The Luck O' the Jew!"   The only time you hear mention of Jewish luck, it's in the context of "You think you've got it bad?  Your dead uncle Saul should BE so lucky. "  Hell, at least the Irish get to be christian.  Part of the in crowd.  

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The amazing things that happened this week to take our minds off of the basement:

The Peanut, who will be 3 this April, read a word for the first time.  Not a sight word, but actually sounded out a word and read it.  It was the word "fat."  She looked right at me afterwards.  Smart-ass.

She also drew her first stick figure.  Huge round head and round, empty eyes. Also the arms came out of the head and the legs out of the neck.  She said it was a self-portrait.  Girls start so young with the body issues now.


Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Homemaker Man

14 comments:

  1. Loved this post. Peanut sounds pretty smart! Good luck with that whole basement thing. I don't envy you.

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  2. Good post, thanks for the warning about junk men.
    The Peanut's drawing sounds better than anything I could do, you should be very proud!

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  3. As a part-Irish, honorary member of The Tribe myself, I say: "Oy. More Jameson."

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  4. Aww sorry to hear about the basement. And you live in Boston? For some reason I had pictured you living more ... I don't know, less metropolitan.

    Congrats to Peanut -- she's on her way to Mensa.

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  5. Sorry that 'ID' was me (hadjare) I was trying out the OpenID option. It didn't work that well. Trying out the google account one now...

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  6. I thought I commented on this one already. "Body issues" - that killed me!

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  7. I've been following the Boston basement flooding with a friend on FB. It does not sound fun at all.

    You really have a flair for ethnic humor--I felt like I just walked into a bar with a Jew and an Irishman!

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  8. Jenn, he's a Jew married to an Irishwoman - what would you expect?

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  9. This luck of the Jew thing has me thinking about Woody Allen in "Annie Hall" - "There's the miserable, and the horrible. I'm just thankful I'm only miserable." Or something like that...

    I've got to get that movie again.

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  10. I didn't realize you were Jewish. We have no luck, or we choose not to believe we have any b/c then what would we complain about

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  11. I'm part Irish, though I am not sure how much, and the feeling of being diluted beyond measure is strong. Oh wait. That's the Guinness.

    My self portrait would look similar to your daughter's.

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  12. Peanut is too cuuute!!!
    You simply must keep all the sketches~
    Guinness Cheers & Happy LUCKy Spring*

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  13. An unreliable junk man. How on earth would he go down from there?

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  14. I would have sworn I commented on this post, so perhaps I have really lost my mind.

    You have great 'Luck o' the Jew,' I mean you have an Irish wife, right? Children that nearly 50% Irish...what more could you ever want? At least, that is what my Irish grandfather would say in an instant. ;)

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