to think that asking if a peacock is male is a really stupid question?

[Vagabond]

I was sitting outside my local pub the other day admiring the local peacock (who was all a-preening). The ladies at the next table to were also admiring said peacock. When the waiter came over, they asked him if the peacock was male or female! I almost fell of my chair?

AIBU?

You almost fell *of your chair?

Let she who is without sin cast the first stone and all that.

Agree with soupdragon.

I know the difference , but doesn't everybody ask stupid questions sometimes, or is that just me?

There's a whole beastiary in that seeker, from cockatoos to cockroaches.

Ok, I skimmed over your cockatoo bit seeker but, having scrolled back, it is very funny

Cockroach is genius!

oh thats nothing...on a previous forum I used to use someone asked why the Pope's wife and children weren't at his funeral...

Well done seeker!

The peacock thing is understandable I guess, but in my youth once I was out riding and stopped to let the horse have a graze, and a woman walking past asked whether my horse was sick because it was eating grass, like a cat! This in a semi-rural area mind you, and she was walking a dog, so no "townie" excuse.

On my politely explaining that grass is in fact a staple of the equine diet, she said that she had thought they ate hay. Erm well...

I'm not sure whose anecdote wins: Bathsheba or Annie!

An ornithological question for you all: what colour is a blackbird?

Please will someone tell me about Erse or I won't sleep tonight.

I really would like to be enlightened by someone who knows.

All very interesting, but can some helpful person please answer Streakybacon's question about Erse because I am also ignorant on that one and it will now rankle if I don't find out.

X-posted there, but we really mean it!

Streakybacon I've never heard the word "Erse" in my life, honestly. I have no idea what it means.

Ok just looked Erse up in Wiki and it seems to be an old English word for Irish. Weird that it's still used, I've never heard it before.

Even though I have been told now that it's not Irish gaelic it's gaelige (on iphone so can't go back and check spelling) my brain is just going to think that that is how Gaelic is spelled in Irish. See siobhan for why I might think that.

Really in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. The only reason it bothers me is that it just shows clearly how little British people seem to know about Ireland. I mean if someone called Welsh "Walesish" or something equally inaccurate people would think they were a bit ignorant, but I hear even very well educated people use the word "Gaelic" all the time.

The non-gaelic/peacock thing isn't really a good comparison is it? Because as you admit WriterOfDreams, most British people don't know that about the Irish. It isn't taught, people actively teach that it's 'gaelic', it's written and said all over the place.

Very few books are saying a peacock can be female. Probably more people know than don't that a peacock is male and a peahen is female.

But you know what you know. There's no shame in that, just an opportunity to learn something new.

Like I didn't know Batman isn't a superhero. I assumed he was because he looks like one and is on the comic book rack with the other superheroes. Somebody who gives a flying monkey's left testicle about Batman put me right (thanks dh).

I'd heard of Erse (probably because it was in poems and such which my mother would have known about). Never heard of Gaeilge. My apologies to all those Irish people who shuddered when I mentioned Gaelic but I never realised why.

Blackbirds are black if male, brown if female and both sexes are lighter brown when immature. However some might claim that males are really very very dark brown - they look black enough for me though, thanks. I didn't look that up btw.

But as anyone who has watched Father Ted knows, black socks are really only very very dark blue. Only priest socks are black.

But the welsh people don't say that they speak welsh, do they?

And French people don't say that they speak French.

And german people don't say that they speak german.

So it could be argued that 'Irish gaelic' is the English way of describing the language.

Books don't say that peacocks can be female, but I've never noticed a book pointing out the existence of peahens.

Are moorhens only the females? I like the idea that baby ones are moorchicks.

Why isn't Batman a superhero?

Batman has no superpowers.

He is a rich well-connected vigilante with Kung Fu skills and gadgets.

What trillian said.

Right, time for me to get my head around the major points of one of the countries next door to me.

So, "Gaelic" isn't a transliteration into English of the Irish word for the Irish tongue, then? Who speaks Gaelic actually? Just the Scots?

And finally, what's the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn? Welsh, Irish, or Scottish (Gaelic?)?