Comments on: Tan update

By: Crooked Timber » » What would we have done?

Crooked Timber » » What would we have done? — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:53:21 +0000

[...] One of the many surprising things that comes out is the friendship that Attlee and Eden developed during the war as what can only be called Churchill’s minders. Churchill comes over as indispensible to the war effort (obviously, perhaps), but wild, needing to be constantly managed by two people whose good sense and personal relationship were indispensible to Churchill’s indispensibility. In another thread, regular commenter otto reminds us that pretty much whatever bad things Churchill did (or might have done) he comes out ahead on any measure by having kept Britain in the war in the first days and months of his premiership; similarly, from reading Harris, I get the impression that whatever else Eden did he, too, comes out ahead by virtue of the role that he and Attlee played in keeping Churchill on the straight and narrow. Maybe its time for some Eden rehabilitation. posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 9:32 am comments [...]

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:03:29 +0000

Now Ben and Jerry's should apologise to the British Army. The Black and Tans were a police militia, set up by the Royal Irish Constabulary.

By: otto

otto — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 11:55:48 +0000

We’re all Irish, of course.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 06:37:02 +0000

were any real Irish people really offended by an ice cream flavour?

Henry and Kieran are both Irish and AFAICT real.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 23:52:44 +0000

I don’t think pleading ignorance works as a defence against charges of cluelessness.

Okay, then introducing it for St. Patrick’s Day is no less clueless than introducing it for any other day.

By: engels

engels — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:55:33 +0000

I don’t think pleading ignorance works as a defence against charges of cluelessness.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:37:16 +0000

Introducing it for St. Patrick’s Day does seem remarkably clueless.

Why would that be, if Ben & Jerry’s (like almost all Americans) had never heard of the Black & Tan militia?

To us, Black & Tan refers to the combination of stout and ale. Stout is synonymous with Guinness, and Guinness is synonymous with Irish beer. Therefore, St. Patrick’s day is by far the best day to introduce the new Irish beer-flavored ice cream.

By: josh

josh — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:23:41 +0000

So, how do they deal with the problem of Orange™ Shops in Ireland?

By: otto

otto — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:08:18 +0000

Even if he had indeed ordered the invasion of Ireland, WSC would still have netted out ahead on Irish freedom, just as if UK had invaded Norway before the Germans (they tried to), WSC would still have netted out far ahead in terms of his contribution to Norwegian freedom. Compared to keeping the UK in the war in 1940, all of these considerations are very secondary.

By: Iron Lungfish

Iron Lungfish — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:04:16 +0000

Yup, gutless wonders. Some people just go around looking for reasons to be offended.

Some people go so far as to get all offended at other people for trying not to offend other people, which is just really pathetic.

By: EWI

EWI — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:21:46 +0000

WSC didn’t apologise for the Black and Tans: but he did prevent the Nazis making Ireland a client state by keeping the UK in the war. So I think he nets out ahead in his contributions to Irish freedom.

Er, Churchill had to be talked out of invading Ireland during the war (another scheme was a plan to gas the east coast of Ireland in the event of a German invasion).

So no, he doesn’t “net[] out ahead”.

By: mykej

mykej — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:14:38 +0000

Next thing you know they’ll drop Ku Klux Kream.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 03:56:23 +0000

Introducing it for St. Patrick's Day does seem remarkably clueless.

By: Jon H

Jon H — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:10:36 +0000

In that case, I doubt they’ll be putting out an omega-3-enriched herbally oriented organic ice cream called Rape Swirl.

By: Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 00:34:29 +0000

This is actually very interesting from a marketing perspective. Previously one didn’t have to worry about the global market impact of local marketing programs because people in other markets would be unlikely to learn of them.

I suspect that unless this was an intentional effort by someone with media access to discredit B&J (which seems highly unlikely), this may be another consequence of the informal globalization of information via the Internet.