Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mon Aug 2 12:36:48 UTC 2010

> An Irish joke? Like bread for left and cheese for right.

Probably not (if by "Irish Joke", you mean one drawing on the alleged ethnic
characteristics of the Irish, such as, "How many Irishmen does it take to
change a lightbulb?" which later mutated into "How many Provos does it ...?"
and in singularly twisted form, "How do members of Continuity IRA change a
lightbulb?" -- OK, I made up the bit about the Continuity [also known as the
Real] IRA, but then ...).

Brendan Behan was himself Irish, so would be unlikely to mock his own.  A
Irish version of "To dumb to ...," I'd guess.  The grandperson of these, now
a cliché, is: "Too dumb to organise a piss up in a brewery."

Robin
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From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 4:28 AM
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)

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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
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> <html>
> <body>
> <font size=3>At 8/1/2010 10:38 PM, George Thompson wrote:<br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">There is a put-down that I think
> I saw in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, that someone was too dumb to pour
> sand out of a boot, even if the instructions were printed on the heel.
> </blockquote><br>
> An Irish joke?  Like bread for left and cheese for right.<br><br>
> Joel</font></body>
> </html>
>
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