happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 02:32 AM

Be sure to look at the Ancient Irish French Letter at Immortalia.com.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: Abby Sale
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:02 AM

I was rotten at languages but I remember this from our French teacher in High School. Finally I may get the word right. Something like an American lady in a French shop. (Don't know if this is something you forgot or a variation, Joe -) Meant to ask for a chapeau noire (black hat) but said, by memory of sound only, capot noire. Yer capote seems more likely as far as Bable Fish can tell me - hood, coat. Is that a slang term for condom?

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 09:36 PM

A wretched young man of Cape Horn

Said "I wish I had never been born,

And I shouldn't have been

If my father had seen

That the end of the letter was torn."

In a joke I read somewhere, a Frenchwoman comes into a shop and asks for "une capote noire". The shopkeeper, improbably misunderstanding her, asks why on earth she wants a black on. She explains that she is in mourning for her late husband. "Quelle delicatesse!" exclaims the shopkeeper.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: You're never too old to do something stupid. :||

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: The Walrus
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 08:55 PM

"Cundum" appears in Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" - Grose states that they were said to have been invented by (and named after) one Colonel Cundum.
These items were also known at the time (late 18th Century) as "Mrs Philip's ware" (after London's most famous manufacturer).

Strangely, the first time I ever heard the term 'condom', it related to the oilskin covers used for protecting suits of Regimental Colours by the Army, the contraceptive sheath were 'Johnnies' or 'French Letters'*.

Walrus

* Apparently, the French nickname, at one point, was the "Capote Anglais" - the "English Greatcoat".

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 10:34 AM

Thanks for this one, esp. Abby! Sheath indeed! Reminds me of James Herriot's story of when poor Tristan had to use a rubber facsimilie of a cow's vagina to get semen from a bull. He used boiling hot water in it and got quite a suprise when he *sheathed* the old fellow with it!

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 08:31 AM

The tattered remnants of an old French letter,
The dose of syphilis that won't get better,
How my part stings.
These foolish things
Remind me of you.

Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: Effsee
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 07:56 AM

"The Ancient Old Irish French Letter," Anon.

Isn't that a verse from Tom Lehrer's Ballad of Brian Boru?

Subject: happy? – Nov 1 (Contraception banned)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 07:28 AM

The "Comstock Law" (one of many) enacted by Congress 11/1/1872 makes it a criminal offense to import, mail, or transport in interstate commerce "any article of medicine for the prevention of conception or for causing abortion."

          Now they're talking o' the pill, they've filled my heart wi' hope
          I'm sitting here and waiting on a signal frae the Pope
          I went along to buy some at fifteen bob a tin
          I hope we hae the Pope's okay before my man comes in.
  
                  "The Pill," Matt McGinn; DigTrad filename[ THEPILL
  
  ALSO:
           Yes an ancient old Irish French letter
          Made of elk hide and just one foot tall,
          With a wee golden tag at the end sir,
          With his name and his stud fees and all.
  
                          "The Ancient Old Irish French Letter," Anon. 

Personal blather on the matter follows:
Here's an odd thing, Celtic Pride seem to sing this as "old Irish condom" but everyone else seems to use "French letter." Always thought the word "condom" was essentially unknown in the UK. But times change. When I arrived there in early history, I went to the nearest apothecatorium (or whatever quaint title it used) and asked for condoms. The counterman professed not to know what I meant. I was at a loss for another term - Rubber? "Pardon?" Male contraceptive? "You mean the Pill?" Now I still don't know today if he was just playing "embarrass the American." American pharmacists occasionally ask, "What size, please?" when they're playing at that sort of thing. Who knew? So I said, you know, one of those balloon things you put on the end of your penis when you don't want to have a baby. This seemed, somehow, to give him the idea and he said "Oh, a sheath." Calling it a "sheath" still seems the funniest part of the whole deal. Except that it turned out you didn't get them in drug stores, after all. But why do Celtic Pride say "condom?" Are they USian?

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky