Bookride (a marvelous blog about dealing in rare books) mentioned Jokes Cracked by Lord Aberdeen, with this sample howler entitled "Another Irish one":
An Irish Census recorder on enquiring - 'How many males in this house?' received the reply - 'Three of course; breakfast, lunch and tea!'Jokes Cracked by Lord Aberdeen
A new study on "partner abandonment" has found that a woman is six times more likely to be separated or divorced soon after a diagnosis of cancer or multiple sclerosis than if a man in the relationship is the patient. Link... More.
Yves Béhar (who is in an epic struggle with Marc Newson to claim the title of "sexiest industrial designer alive") designed this vibrator. It looks like a Miyazaki cartoon creature. The Form 2 takes a two-pronged approach to the vibrator, giving its user what they're calling "Sensation in Stereo.... More.
Michæl.Paukner's "The ancient Hebrew Conception of the Universe to illustrate the account of creation and the flood." Flickr link, but you really have to see it at the largest possible size.... More.
Michael Jackson's funeral cost one million dollars. His final outfit cost $35,000, and the flowers cost $16,000. Lord. Obviously I'm no MJ anyhow, but when I die, if there's a mil lying around? Feel free to bury me in nekkid dirt and use the rest to feed pie to starving kids.... More.
Found on Sean Bonner's tumblog.... More.
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I haven't heard Irish jokes in years..... since the 80s probably. The Brits used to tell 'Irish' jokes like Americans used to tell 'Polack' jokes.
Nice, Irish jokes cracked by a member of the English aristocracy during the occupation. Next up some one liners from southern slave owners, and then Eichmanns favorite knock knock jokes.
Poor old Lord Aberdeen, such a misunderstanding.
Translation for him from Irish to English:
"None of your Flaming Business! But here's an answer for you."
"Nice, Irish jokes cracked by a member of the English aristocracy"
I'm pretty sure he's Scottish.
I bet The Wit of Prince Philip is a short little book with big, big type.
@#2, Graysix...
English aristocracy?
You might want to check out where Aberdeen is. Then again, perhaps the tartan bookcover sort of gives it away?
BTW, is this the same Lord Aberdeen who was Governor-General of Canada from 1893-1898?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamilton-Gordon,_1st_Marquess_of_Aberdeen_and_Temair
Reminds me of Buzz Killington.
gollux, GraySix, and joncro:
Lord Aberdeen would be a Scot, not English nor British. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassenach
Waddaya know, he'd spent some time in my neck of the woods while visiting his uncle, Sir Arthur Gordon, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. (For the 'Mercans out there: reread that sentence but this time pronounce it "Leftenant Governor".
And he seemed like a decent sort.
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/descendants/chap31.htm
Reminds me of a story I read somewhere. An American was talking to a French person. The French person asked if the Americans told insulting jokes about how stupid some other nationality's people where, "Like we tell jokes about how stupid Belgians are."
The American said that, yes, American people did (or used to) tell jokes about Polish people.
The French person looked shocked and said, "But why the Polish? They're not stupid like the Belgians!"
@PaulR
Given my ancestry, already knew that.
Given my other ancestry, the Irish SmartAss pretending to not understand answer to the government dude is a given as well.
well.. whatever. I laughed. Good one, Lord!
Damn, #7 beat me to it.
Buzz Killington: "Stewie, do you know why W.S. Gilbert was frequently drunk on his transatlantic crossings?
Stewie: "No?"
Buzz Killington: "because he was quartered on the port side."
BWAWHAWHAW
Nice, Godwinned in 2.
I'm just as fascinated by this:
As the foreword notes ' In the realm of wit and humour, Lord Aberdeen is a force to conjure with...
"a force to conjure with"? Is that/was that really an expression, or is it some kind of typo? I can't make it make sense. Conjure what?
It's a commonly used expression (force to conjure with). Nico
I find these behaviors puzzling.
Dang, Amazon wants nearly 200 for a copy...
hehehe man I don't know what's going on
@Nosehat:
I have heard this phrase before, but not in a long, long time. (I lie, I should have said "read" not "heard"). My understanding was that it meant that someone was peerless.
Er, gollux, which part? All three factoids?
cmpalmer:
"Pourquoi est-ce que les Belges portent des chaussettes aux quartz?
Parce-qu'il n'ont pas besoin de les remonter!"
The only Belgian joke I know. And it's so lame when I heard it in the 70's that I didn't try to find any more.
@ Folsofl:
Yeah, I got the meaning from the context. I just can't figure out why "a force to conjure with" would be anyone's choice of words to convey that meaning. "A force to reckon with" is much more straightforward to my mind.
The best I can figure out is that it "conjures" a sense of unimpeachable mastery of (and ultimate authority on) the subject in question.
As in:
"That's not funny!"
"Oh yeah, well LORD ABERDEEN says it is."
"Oh, well since you've conjured up that much authority, you must be correct. And what's that chill in the air?"
I guess the phrase would make the most sense to someone who ascribes to the Argument from Authority rhetorical school?
Anyway, I don't mean to derail the thread with my sudden obsession for the etymology of antique phraseology. ;)
@multiple posters, using #8 as an example:
"Lord Aberdeen would be a Scot, not English nor British."
How wouldn't he be British? I take British to mean of or relating to Great Britain or the United Kingdom…which I includes Scotland.
Great Britain = England, Wales, and Scotland
United Kingdom = England, Wales, Scotland, & Northern Ireland
yeah these "howlers" are almost as hilarious as the racist slurs from another british royal: prince philip. nothing new then...
It's 'a force to be reckoned with' or 'a name to conjure with'. The writer got mixed up or didn't understand the two expressions.
If someone is a force to be reckoned with, it means it won't do to leave them out of your calculations.
If someone has a name to conjure with, you're really saying they're a demon, since conjuration traditionally requires a demonic name.
'A force to conjure with' makes no sense at all.
I had this book a long time ago - the best part was I couldn't understand half the jokes, way out of context and time. I think that most stereotypes tend to shed away 50 and 60 years later.
Mea culpa...As the author of the Bookride blog I must take the blame for a sort of typo. Because I am a slow typist 'I lifted the publisher's blurb from a fine poem by Stefanie a NZ poet and she had changed 'name to conjure' to 'force to conjure' as poets will--in her prose poem someone is going through stuff in a deceased estate:
'...a significant issue of the Taranaki Herald in the jersey drawer. In the news that day, there was rugby club war. You can either sort it out or biff it out, someone said to me, carrying out a box of silver. A table made of the old back fence, a portrait of her granduncle, the eyes coloured in with red biro. The whiskey smell of oak cabinets. In the realm of wit and humour, Lord Aberdeen is a force to conjure with. Here the publishers have great pleasure in introducing to the public a few of his gems. I kept a vase with a bullet hole in it and left the rest.'
Those sample jokes don't seem that bad to me, if you told them well in the right company. People tell offensive jokes all the time, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are a heartless bastard. The circumstances are certainly damning, but we don't have the good Lord here to contend with so let's just keep slagging him to ground.