Is it just me, or on the Chieftains’ Down the Old Plank Road DVD, does Moloney say, “yabba dabba doo” to end the Pilatzke Brothers’ dance break in the opening number? If anyone else saw or heard this, please reply to ensure that I’m not hallucinating…
I have no idea, Ivan. But I can assure you that Paddy Moloney looks just like my childhood friend Darrell Mullins. I wasn’t hallucinating then and I’m not now either. Darrell used to say ‘yabba dabba doo’ from time to time but not too often. 
Ivan do you mean the Nashville Sessions?
Yeah, it’s the Chieftains with ten milllion bluegrass people at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as a “follow-up” to the Nashville sessions, and before you guys nail me for owning this thing, I’ll just quickly state that the DVD was a gift from my mom. I was away when they came to Baltimore, MD last summer, and she decided to get me that.
My apologies if I seemed to be taking the micky. I actually was taking the micky a little bit, but the story I told was in fact true so I couldn’t resist telling it. 
“Taking the micky”? Explain, please.
In Americanese: pulling your leg.
Rhyming slang actually. Micky is Micky Bliss. I’ll leave it to your imaginations to figure out what that rhymes with.
I knew that “taking the piss” (do I get a cookie, now?) was the other usage, but didn’t know about “Mickey Bliss”. Who the heck is/was Mickey Bliss? Just a convenient rhyme, or a real person?
I think he was a famous East End character in the 19th century but I forget what he was famous for. There is a dictionary of English slang on the web but I don’t know the URL. It came up a couple of years ago when I ran off a burst of rhyming slang and several people were shocked to discover what things they’d been saying really meant. A lot of it has been somewhat watered down in the last few decades.
Not the explanation we’re looking for but just a confirmation of what I already told you. Other places I looked were less informative.
So, “yabba dabba doo” could be rhyming slang for “what a load of poo”? 
Now, having taken the Mickey once, I couldn’t possibly comment. 
Something to do with finger-painting perhaps?
djm
Or Feakle.
Oh yeah, and where does Moloney come in?
At the end of the Pilatzke brothers’ dance break.
Its the latest exercise craze. The equipment is pretty expensive though.
djm
No, I meant in the whole context of the rhyming slang mumbo-jumbo.
I was taking the mickey, myself, there, IvanP. Thread drift is almost a way of life here at C&F.