Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
OMG! Driving a little north of the Baltimore beltway in the rolling hills of Carroll county Maryland, USA, I saw a yard bedecked in Shamrock flags. Amidst the shamrock flags and between the trees stood a huge plastic, blow up leperchaun holding either a mug of beer or a pot of gold. I couldn't quite make it out as I was driving by. It was at least 6 feet tall. When in the hell did this start? what's next-green blinking lights on roof tops ? Leperchaun eggs? Good God I thought the green beer was bad enough!
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Drinking, plastic leprechauns and shamrocks is the only way I know. We barley even do that were I live. It's just not a big holiday around here. What would be considered a non obnoxious way of celebrating Saint Patrick's day?
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
This reminds me of a trip I had to the UK a few years back, near X-mas, I saw what looked like a 10 foot blow up Homer Simpson on somebody's garage, (in a fairly posh neighborhood), I thought it was a riot. I wasn't offended in the slightest.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
My first ever night in Dublin, just before Easter 1978, was in a guesthouse with a conservatory where breakfast was served the following day. Around us stood several green, white and orange leprechauns about a yard tall. They were life-size, in fact. How did I actually know they were life-size? I just, well, *knew*. Sometimes one instinctively does...
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"What would be considered a non obnoxious way of celebrating Saint Patrick's Day?"
A few beers and some tunes. But then I'm not (even remotely) Irish, so what would I know?
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I was more surprised than offended. I've seen all the big Christmas blow ups, even a big rabbit and turkey but this is the first giant leprechaun I've seen. I didn't know that they existed. I think they are all pretty obnoxious as is the maniacal frenzy for profit which surounds every holiday in this country.
'course it's that maniacal quest for profit that keeps the economy creeping along. C'est la ve.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
This is really funny. The other day my girlfriend brought home what I'm pretty sure is the exact same thing described in the original post. Even though I was the one who had the dubious honor of inflating it the old school way (couldn't find my pump), I don't recall what it was holding in its hand. Considering she's a 4th grade teacher, I'm guessing it probably wasn't beer. The other funny part of this is that I too live in Baltimore (Maryland). I live in the eastern part of the county though, so it wasn't my house you saw. Maybe the large blow-up leprechaun is a Maryland thing? Scary
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
*This* is the way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Georgia. Or at least in Savannah, an otherwise charming city the rest of the year, but also host to the 2nd largest St. Paddy's celebration in the US (and possibly in the world). 400,000 people puking green beer into the cobblestoned streets, and this guy: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0320062tank1.htm
You could pay me to play there on St. Patrick's Day, but so far no one has come up with that much money. I play there the week before and it suits me just fine.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"non-obnoxious way to celebrate":
Whe I first went to Galway in 1979, the locals went to church on St Patrick's Day. They thought the Yanks were crazy to fly over for the weekend, looking for a big bash in the pubs, which were business-as-usual... Things have changed!
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
St. Patrick's Day is meaningless. Not dissimilar to Oktoberfest, except with that it's a bit more tempered because it's spread out over a month. It's not worth the fuss. Just a temporary nuisance to get through and get back to business as usual. If it's such an annoyance, become a hermit for a week and re-emerge like a curmudgeon bear from hibernation.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I looked for blow-up leprechauns in the store. You can't get them here. All they had was some kid-sized "Kiss me I'm Irish" T-shirts. They don't even have plastic shamrocks. They do have corned beef in the grocery store this week . If it wasn't for that and the little T-shirts, you wouldn't even know it was St. Patrick's day.
It may not be as obnoxious around here, but it's not as much fun either.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"They do have corned beef in the grocery store this week "
When I first moved to Canada from Ireland I was mystified at the obsession with corned beef and why anybody thought it anything to do with the Irish. Many years later - on this site, I think - I found out the connection:
"It is also associated with Saint Patrick's Day when Irish Americans eat a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. According to the History Channel, while boiled bacon and cabbage has long been a traditional food item for the Irish, corned beef serving as a substitute for Irish bacon first became traditional in the late 1800s. Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side learned about this cheaper alternative to bacon from their Jewish neighbors"
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Oh, come on, I'm addressing those that bemoan the holiday, that should be apparent. I'm pretty ambivalent to it myself. I do find it annoying in its cartoon caricature of Irishness, but, like I said in my previous post, it's not much unlike Oktoberfest in that regard, only the beer is better. It's just a holiday to get through and go back to life as usual for me. I don't go out to the pubs that night because I don't care for the elbow to elbow belligerants and the horrible pub bands. To each their own.
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I'm going to say a quiet rosary as I always do, in memory of my Irish grandparents, then bring my flute and whistle to school and play session tunes for the kids. Then I will put on a short VHS travelogue on Ireland that I have...lots of green fields and the Cliffs of Moher...no leprechauns nor shamrocks, sorry.
Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
OMG! Driving a little north of the Baltimore beltway in the rolling hills of Carroll county Maryland, USA, I saw a yard bedecked in Shamrock flags. Amidst the shamrock flags and between the trees stood a huge plastic, blow up leperchaun holding either a mug of beer or a pot of gold. I couldn't quite make it out as I was driving by. It was at least 6 feet tall. When in the hell did this start? what's next-green blinking lights on roof tops ? Leperchaun eggs? Good God I thought the green beer was bad enough!
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by shanty
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
They say a man gets more Irish the farther he gets from Ireland...I dislike that stuff, too
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Do leprechauns lay eggs?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Gringo
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"Do leprechauns lay eggs?"
Who knows? Is there a preserved specimen anywhere?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
The high holiday of plastic shamrocks is nearly past. Just get through it and start the next set, will ya?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Drinking, plastic leprechauns and shamrocks is the only way I know. We barley even do that were I live. It's just not a big holiday around here. What would be considered a non obnoxious way of celebrating Saint Patrick's day?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Gringo
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
A non obnoxious way? Let me think on that one......
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Decorate the place with rubber snakes?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Bredna
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Is a leperchaun some sort of creature with a horrible skin disease? Is that why you are offended?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
This reminds me of a trip I had to the UK a few years back, near X-mas, I saw what looked like a 10 foot blow up Homer Simpson on somebody's garage, (in a fairly posh neighborhood), I thought it was a riot. I wasn't offended in the slightest.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by SandyBottoms
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Leprechauns in the United States have a distinct flawed characteristic about them; I've seen.
http://coastalcruzn.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/leprechaun.jpg.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
My first ever night in Dublin, just before Easter 1978, was in a guesthouse with a conservatory where breakfast was served the following day. Around us stood several green, white and orange leprechauns about a yard tall. They were life-size, in fact. How did I actually know they were life-size? I just, well, *knew*. Sometimes one instinctively does...
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by nicholas
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"What would be considered a non obnoxious way of celebrating Saint Patrick's Day?"
A few beers and some tunes. But then I'm not (even remotely) Irish, so what would I know?
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by minijackpot
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I was more surprised than offended. I've seen all the big Christmas blow ups, even a big rabbit and turkey but this is the first giant leprechaun I've seen. I didn't know that they existed. I think they are all pretty obnoxious as is the maniacal frenzy for profit which surounds every holiday in this country.
'course it's that maniacal quest for profit that keeps the economy creeping along. C'est la ve.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by shanty
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
This is really funny. The other day my girlfriend brought home what I'm pretty sure is the exact same thing described in the original post. Even though I was the one who had the dubious honor of inflating it the old school way (couldn't find my pump), I don't recall what it was holding in its hand. Considering she's a 4th grade teacher, I'm guessing it probably wasn't beer. The other funny part of this is that I too live in Baltimore (Maryland). I live in the eastern part of the county though, so it wasn't my house you saw. Maybe the large blow-up leprechaun is a Maryland thing? Scary
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jason G
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
non-obnoxious way to celebrate:
play tunes w/o the "noise and b***ix" americans seem to require in order to enjoy any sort of musical presentation
sing a song or two (unicorns, whisky in the jar, wild rover, and black velvet band strictly forbidden)
read or recite poems or stories by irish writers
have bacon and cabbage for dinner
Enjoy a pint or ten with likeminded friends,
BUT, carry on with a LITTLE decorum - there's no need to
shout,
brawl,
urinate in public,
get so drunk you puke.
or wear green plastic accessories
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
*This* is the way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Georgia. Or at least in Savannah, an otherwise charming city the rest of the year, but also host to the 2nd largest St. Paddy's celebration in the US (and possibly in the world). 400,000 people puking green beer into the cobblestoned streets, and this guy:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0320062tank1.htm
You could pay me to play there on St. Patrick's Day, but so far no one has come up with that much money. I play there the week before and it suits me just fine.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Tracie
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
The giant inflatable is pretty awesome, but this might be better:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepfriedkudzu/427927510/
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
apparently some folks need reminding
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Agreed Tracie. I won't even go within 5 blocks of the downtown pub thursday. This year I think we're just going to the movies.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by SandyBottoms
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
This discussion got me wondering, where can I GET one? Here’s a gallery of weird St Patrick’s Day items
I’d love to have one of these, just don’t know where to store it:
http://www.fabulousinflatables.com/images/galleries/holiday/lucky-leprechaun.jpg
this is rather confusing:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qzvy_dSNOYs/SU_-ah2bpRI/AAAAAAAAANg/t0i0HgEsA-o/s320/leprechaun+nativity.jpg
sexy:
http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/funworld/5165front-main.jpg
vaguely kinky:
http://www.ovcart.com/images/inventory/11087.1023.zoom.jpg
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by fidkid
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I'm still tryin' to work out how the last one is kinky. I don't want to know what you do with your blow-up dolls, Fidkid.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"non-obnoxious way to celebrate":
Whe I first went to Galway in 1979, the locals went to church on St Patrick's Day. They thought the Yanks were crazy to fly over for the weekend, looking for a big bash in the pubs, which were business-as-usual... Things have changed!
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by primrose lass
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
St. Patrick's Day is meaningless. Not dissimilar to Oktoberfest, except with that it's a bit more tempered because it's spread out over a month. It's not worth the fuss. Just a temporary nuisance to get through and get back to business as usual. If it's such an annoyance, become a hermit for a week and re-emerge like a curmudgeon bear from hibernation.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
'St. Patrick's Day is meaningless.'
I'll let our local parade organisers know this immediately. I'm sure they'll abandon the event.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I looked for blow-up leprechauns in the store. You can't get them here. All they had was some kid-sized "Kiss me I'm Irish" T-shirts. They don't even have plastic shamrocks. They do have corned beef in the grocery store this week . If it wasn't for that and the little T-shirts, you wouldn't even know it was St. Patrick's day.
It may not be as obnoxious around here, but it's not as much fun either.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Gringo
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Thats right Floss and start introducing snakes and pagans to Ireland.
st. patricks day is anything but meaningless for lots of people Jimmy
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by premier
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
"They do have corned beef in the grocery store this week "
When I first moved to Canada from Ireland I was mystified at the obsession with corned beef and why anybody thought it anything to do with the Irish. Many years later - on this site, I think - I found out the connection:
"It is also associated with Saint Patrick's Day when Irish Americans eat a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. According to the History Channel, while boiled bacon and cabbage has long been a traditional food item for the Irish, corned beef serving as a substitute for Irish bacon first became traditional in the late 1800s. Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side learned about this cheaper alternative to bacon from their Jewish neighbors"
http://www.jewishrecipes.org/jewish-foods/corned-beef.html
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by grego
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Oh, come on, I'm addressing those that bemoan the holiday, that should be apparent. I'm pretty ambivalent to it myself. I do find it annoying in its cartoon caricature of Irishness, but, like I said in my previous post, it's not much unlike Oktoberfest in that regard, only the beer is better. It's just a holiday to get through and go back to life as usual for me. I don't go out to the pubs that night because I don't care for the elbow to elbow belligerants and the horrible pub bands. To each their own.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
I'm going to say a quiet rosary as I always do, in memory of my Irish grandparents, then bring my flute and whistle to school and play session tunes for the kids. Then I will put on a short VHS travelogue on Ireland that I have...lots of green fields and the Cliffs of Moher...no leprechauns nor shamrocks, sorry.
# Posted on March 17th 2010 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Big Green Obnoxious Blow up Leperchaun Lawn Ornament
Travelogue - there's always this, as pointed out by FlossTheTethers a little while back...
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=46743
# Posted on March 17th 2010 by grego