Happy Michaelmas!

Monte Smith · September-28th-2006, 05:33 PM

Hey folks! It's Michaelmas again, and you know what that means! It means nobody in the world remembers what Michaelmas was, though the day may pop up in some old books. Just like Shrovetide or Whitsunday.

Michaelmas is always September 29. It is the Feast of the Archangel Michael and it is one of the Quarter Days of the medieval English calendar. Quarter Days are still observed by bean counters and on Wall Street. Rents were paid on the Quarter Days, frequently in kind, and the tradition on Michaelmas was to give your landlord a goose fattened on the stubble fields. The old wisdom says that "he who eats goose on Michaelmas shall never want for money." (Probably because he's the landlord and we just paid the bastard). So eat goose!

The other Quarter Days are Midsummers Day, and Lady Day (yes, like Billie), and Christmas. Michaelmas occurs near the autumnal equinox, so there is that more natural significance, as well...which probably means that Pumpy is out in the woods getting naked with some pervy witches on a day he'd be embarrassed to call "mas."

Anyway, let me know if anyone needs goosed. I'm there for ya. Happy Michaelmas!

walto · September-28th-2006, 05:46 PM

Thanks, Monte. Same to you.

It always confuses me when I read about Oxford fellows, dons, etc. (real or fictional) and some "term" or other (like Michaelmus) gets mentioned. So your post helps...a little.

Hope you take a first in something or other!

Monte Smith · September-28th-2006, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walto

Hope you take a first in something or other!

You're welcome, walto. You know, I did attend Oxford for a summer semester and studied medieval English literature and culture. But the only "first" I took came in pints and was followed by others.

groover · September-28th-2006, 05:51 PM

Enjoy your Michaelmas, Monte! Hope you get goosed real good!

Monte Smith · September-28th-2006, 05:53 PM

I feel some Quarter Day spirit! Like someone just blew thru a quarter....

Captain Hate · September-28th-2006, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

It is the Feast of the Archangel Michael and it is one of the Quarter Days of the medieval English calendar.

This is the same Archangel that Mont St Michel in France is dedicated to, no? One of my favorite places in France, in part because I was actually able to totally explore a place of such small geographic scope. Wicked tides though; Hatette #1 and I walked across the mud when the tide was out to the adjoining island.

Must be a hot time in the abbey tonight.

Monte Smith · September-28th-2006, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

This is the same Archangel that Mont St Michel in France is dedicated to, no?

Michael...the one and only.

Paul B · September-28th-2006, 10:35 PM

Nice thread, Monte. I think I'll celebrate the day with a snort of good Armangnac.

Captain Hate, have you read Henry Adams' "Mont St. Michel and Chartres?" A fine book. And if you haven't seen Chartres, make haste.

Bye-ya

Scott Dolan · September-28th-2006, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul B

Nice thread, Monte. I think I'll celebrate the day with a snort of good Armangnac.

Master B, what is your address again?

Captain Hate · September-28th-2006, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul B

Captain Hate, have you read Henry Adams' "Mont St. Michel and Chartres?" A fine book. And if you haven't seen Chartres, make haste.

I picked up a used copy years ago but never read it; just pulled it down from the bookshelf to do so. The first time I was in France I saw Chartres from a distance; it looked very impressive. I'll be sure to get much closer next time.

cookie · September-28th-2006, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I feel some Quarter Day spirit! Like someone just blew thru a quarter....

I know I did.....

Happy Michaelmas!

Monte Smith · September-29th-2006, 01:29 PM

I go to the grocery store. How much do you think they want for a frozen goose? $51.91! For a friggin' bird! Plus it'll take me til Christmas to defrost. No thank you! But worry not, I will be eating goose on Michaelmas and so never lack for money. I bought some goose liver pate. Aren't I clever? You have to get up pretty early Michaelmas morning to fool this sharp-edged gentlemen. Pate, anyone? It's goosey....

clinthopson · September-29th-2006, 01:39 PM

I wonder if they have goose tacos at El Tapatio.

Brian Olewnick · September-29th-2006, 04:07 PM

No mas.

Monte Smith · September-29th-2006, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

No mas.

Hahahaha! Olewnick, you destroy me. You have made my Michaelmas Day! This is the best Michaelmas ever!! "No mas!" Que humoroso!

(Note to self: Call Fox News. There has been a "War Against Michaelmas" and we, the faithful, lost. A loooong time ago. Who's to blame? Liberalism? The media? There's got to be some display we can put up in the public square, and it's not a goose, that can tamp down the separation-between-church-and-state types. Also, (second note to self): there could be cash in this. Lucrative Michaelmas market; Hallmark, plush goose dolls, glowing inflatable Archangel Michael lawn globes. Yeah).

I am gushing with Quarter Day spirit.

Chris D · September-29th-2006, 05:30 PM

Sounds like you got into the quarter pound.

groover · September-29th-2006, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris D

Sounds like you got into the quarter pound.

Or the quarter keg.

Monte Smith · September-29th-2006, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris D

Sounds like you got into the quarter pound.

I already made that joke in post 5. I forgive you. It's Michaelmas!

Captain Hate · September-30th-2006, 05:34 PM

In William James' book he refers to Archangel Day (synonymous with Michaelmas) as being on October 16, but looking at the online mackerel snapper calendar, it's on September 29th. Far be it from me to question William James; did it change in the last century?

Monte Smith · September-30th-2006, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

In William James' book he refers to Archangel Day (synonymous with Michaelmas) as being on October 16, but looking at the online mackerel snapper calendar, it's on September 29th. Far be it from me to question William James; did it change in the last century?

Interesting.

You are obviously a Catholic. Only a Roman Catholic, these days, would refer to the communicants of their own holy universal church as "mackeral snappers." My mother told me once, teary-eyed, how she was taunted with that same epithet in the Pennsylvania of her youth (1950s) by the damned Protestants. I seldom call ma anything but mackeral snapper these days. It's that or Mother. And yet the woman has never, to my knowledge, been within a league of a mackeral.

Dad's a Methodist. I'd called him a lapsed Methodist, but it'd be redundant.

According to A Dictionary of English Folklore (Oxford University Press), Michaelmas day is unalterably September 29. But then James was an American. Maybe Archangel Day is a shortlived, obscure Yank offshoot? Too obscure for this Yank, at least. I used to have James' book but I sold it off, unread, and so cannot consult the Varieties.

Captain Hate · September-30th-2006, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

You are obviously a Catholic. Only a Roman Catholic, these days, would refer to the communicants of their own holy universal church as "mackeral snappers."

Nope; unless Anglican Catholic counts (no Pope but tons of cash flow), although the next time I enter that church will be with a molotov cocktail in one hand and an axe in the other, to rid it of the money-changers, sodomites, catamites and just plain mites. I went to a snapper high school and developed a healthy respect for it, certainly more than Ollie the Apostate currently has (although I think he, along with the devious Jesuits, was driven apoplectic by John Paul II).

My respect was increased exponentially by visiting Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, le Havre and Mont St Michel.

[edit]and substitute Henry Adams for my prior daft reference to William James. D'oh!!!!

walto · September-30th-2006, 09:54 PM

Ah. I was wondering in what work and why Wm. James would be getting into this matter....

Tom Storer · October-1st-2006, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I go to the grocery store. How much do you think they want for a frozen goose? $51.91!

Frozen?? For goodness' sake. Find a fresh one! Raise and kill one yourself if you have to.

Monte Smith · October-1st-2006, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

...to rid it of the money-changers, sodomites, catamites and just plain mites.

You could add the widow's mite and not stunt your outrage.

Chris D · October-2nd-2006, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

Frozen?? For goodness' sake. Find a fresh one! Raise and kill one yourself if you have to.

Reminds me of when my brother living in the country decided to have geese. Huey, Dewey and Looie.
When they started nipping ankles, they became Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Little did he know he could have saved one for Michaelmas!

Monte Smith · October-2nd-2006, 11:25 AM

Just about everywhere I have been in the US teems with those greasy, disgusting birds, Canadian geese. I guess those things aren't palatable? I can't imagine they would be. Or we're not allowed to kill them or something? What's the deal with those nuisances...those goosances!

Captain Hate · October-2nd-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Just about everywhere I have been in the US teems with those greasy, disgusting birds, Canadian geese. I guess those things aren't palatable? I can't imagine they would be.

You would be quite wrong; they are excellent eating. Father Hate used to hunt them on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; the meat is all brown but very dry (not greasy like a duck) with a very good taste to it. The only problem was avoiding breaking a tooth by not chomping down on some shot.

clinthopson · October-2nd-2006, 11:43 AM

Actually almost all the fat in either ducks or geese is in the skin and if cooked properly, most of the fat renders out.

I had an Itralian chef friend who always cooked goose at the holidays. He cooked it low and slow for several hours. It was always tender and succulent with very little greasiness. And, need I add, delicious.

I miss Franco, he taught me a lot.

Monte Smith · October-2nd-2006, 11:50 AM

OK, so why are those loud, messy, supposedly delicious Canadian geese allowed to loiter in liberty in such numbers? There's gotta be something wrong with them. Their suburban diet is garbage? Or is it we can't kill them because they're Canadian? What's up?

Chris D · October-2nd-2006, 12:17 PM

Canada geese, NOT "Canadian." (AP Stylebook, Page 38.)