9-12-13\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0 Two words<\/p>\n
Sgriob<\/b> (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey<\/p>\n
Backfeifengesicht<\/b> (German): A face badly in need of a fist<\/p>\n
Write for 30 minutes<\/p>\n
I was sitting in the pub in Westport with the sibs.\u00a0 We had flown in to Shannon earlier, visiting the old haunts up on Croagh Patrick for our semi-bi-annually-monthly visit to Dad\u2019s folly.\u00a0 The twenty seven acres stood there mute and immutable, yet taunting us viciously even over the seas to America. \u00a0\u201cNo,\u201d said the building council.\u00a0 \u201cYou may not build on the land.\u00a0 If you want a house, we have plenty of them vacant here in town, and it\u2019s your lot that\u2019s to blame for it all.\u00a0 You can even remodel it from the bones of those that haven\u2019t been picked clean yet.\u00a0 No one will stop ye, but there will be no building up in the Patrick\u2019s Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n
We were holding a whiskey-fueled council to try to figure out what to do in this most unfortunate of all circumstances.\u00a0 Kathy arrived at the table, back from the bar with a first load of glasses.\u00a0 I held mine under my snoot, and was overcome.\u00a0 \u201cSgriob,\u201d said the oldster sitting behind me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlainte,\u201d said I in return.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no,\u201d he said. \u201cSgriob is that tickling that was moving your upper lip toward a sneeze.\u00a0 We\u2019re all on intimate terms with it here.\u00a0 It\u2019s the sign of quality whiskey.\u00a0 Sneeze if you must, but without sgriob, that\u2019s a wasted hoist of the arm if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled and raised my glass to toast him.\u00a0 He joined in with his pint.<\/p>\n
A boisterous crowd chose that moment to enter the sanctuary of fine intelligent folk.\u00a0 Eight or ten Germans taking the tour on holiday, and they were comparing the virtues of German beer with all the vices of the Irish piss in a circular tour around our fair isle.\u00a0 The disparaging voices were at once filled with stout, and then sprayed onto the floor in disgust.\u00a0 Why, oh why did we have to endure such from our continental cousins?\u00a0 Did they see us over there commenting on the German habits of beer making, those that included swimming in the vats and pissing into the batches?\u00a0 No, we were too polite and intellectual for such boorishness.<\/p>\n
A single rotund and rosy-faced traveler broke off from the pack and began to make the rounds of the sitting area.\u00a0 As he passed by trolling for a citizen to harass, Chris did one of those backhanded gesundheits that actually came out as \u201cBackfeifengesicht!\u201d\u00a0 Herr Roly-Poly froze in his tracks and swept our group with his eyes.<\/p>\n
His fists clenched, and his hue went from florid toward crimson.\u00a0 \u201cWas ist?\u201d he shouted.\u00a0 Chris, ever the statesman, sneezed again. \u201cBackfeifengesicht!\u201d\u00a0 The German was in his face in an instant. \u201cWas?!\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris was on his feet, glass in hand, chin jutting forward and eye to eye with the visitor.\u00a0 And then, in a spectacular move, he rocked back and swallowed his entire glass of whiskey in a single gulp.\u00a0 No tears, no whoops, no gasp.\u00a0 Just a smile, and he sat back down.<\/p>\n
Chris turned toward Deirdre and asked in a very nonchalant voice \u201cDo you think we could convince the council if we invited them out for a few tomorrow night?\u201d<\/p>\n
Deirdre remembered to close her mouth, and nodded slowly.\u00a0 \u201cI bet that\u2019s what they\u2019re waiting for.\u00a0 They just want to know that we\u2019re friendly, and mean no harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herr Fatboy didn\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 He stood there staring at us for a few seconds, and headed back to his mob.\u00a0 His step was a bit softer, and his head a bit lower. No wind had his sails.\u00a0 Defeated again.\u00a0 Five minutes later, they left the pub to blissful peace, and a murmur flowed through the pub.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was that you sneezed at the old kraut?\u201d asked the gent sitting behind me.<\/p>\n
Chris grinned a sort of crooked grin, and explained in the half-Irish he feigns.\u00a0 \u201cI said \u2018backfeifengesicht.\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s an old German word meaning \u2018a face badly in need of a fist.\u2019\u00a0 The old fool must have been well-read if he could have such a reaction to it.\u00a0 I learned it on the flight over.\u201d\u00a0 He held up a small paperback tome entitled \u2018Swear Your Way Across Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, that did it.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t pay for another round all night as the word spread of the epic heroism of the American cousin who came all the way over to Westport to uphold the honor of the cherished Isle against the Hun.\u00a0 By the end of the night we tumbled out onto the street, firmly convinced that we were related to every single inhabitant of the town.\u00a0 I suspect that if there were any locks left on the gates of the city after the latest round of mortgage backed security ravaging that we would be presented with the key by Hizzhonor the Mayor tomorrow morning.\u00a0 The invaders had been turned back, and all was right with the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
9-12-13\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0 Two words Sgriob (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey Backfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist Write for 30 minutes I was sitting in the pub in Westport with the sibs.\u00a0 We had flown in to Shannon earlier, visiting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promptedwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}