This is a bunch of blarney....

St. Patrick's Day...

That's right. Thin Lizzy. Irish band all the way. Even though this is called the cowboy song. Listen to it while drinking a shamrock shake if that makes you feel any better. I could have gone with the obvious...Van Morrison...U2...the Pogues (who I actually had the pleasure to see back up U2)..the Chieftains...the Irish Rovers, but I'm choosing Thin Lizzy.
Enough already.
Carry on.

I remember (back in the day) when Mr. Bagel would give out free green bagels on St. Patrick's Day. I'm not just talking about going into one of their shops and buying one, I mean stopping at a red light on the corner of High and Congress and having someone walk up to your car...knock on your window...and hand you a green bagel. Times were so much simpler then.

As a kid you always wanted to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day. I remember asking my Mom how much Irish we were once. How much Irish we were? What is that? That's like asking the Smith's how much human they are...or asking spaghetti how much boiled dinner it is...or coffee how much beer it is.

That doesn't even make sense.



But, I always wore green to school that day...even if it wasn't visible.



Why risk the wrath of all of those other non Irish kids pointing out that you weren't Irish because of what color you were (or weren't) wearing. God forbid you wore orange...because that meant you HATED Irish people. Actually that's a kids version of an over simplification of the green favored by Catholics and the orange favored by Protestants.

I think.

Maybe not.

Actually I don't know.

You know why I don't know?

BECAUSE I'M NOT IRISH.



Then there's that crap about St. Patrick being responsible for driving the snakes out of Ireland. While true, there are no snakes in Ireland, but that has as much to do with leprechauns or four leaf clovers as it does St. Patrick. Once again a symbolism thing...equating snakes to the pagans that were driven out of Ireland to make way for Christianity. Again, with the religion, but you know, I'm not really sure about this one either BECAUSE I'M NOT IRISH. REMEMBER?


Speaking of leprechauns. I'm a little fuzzy on the whole leprechaun thing.
Are they good?
Are the evil?
Don't they make shoes?
How do they get that pot o' gold?
Do they live at the end of a rainbow or is that just where they hang out? What's the best way to catch one?
Do they eat lucky charms?
Are they taller than a gnome? How about an elf?
Do they all wear those funny leprechaun hats?
Do they have to have red hair?
Once again, I don't know these things BECAUSE I'M NOT IRISH. REMEMBER?

Then there's the beer.

This is the hook for most people. Maybe St. Patrick and his buddies would sit around the pub at night and talk about creating this mystery holiday. There was a poll once that asked "Which holiday do you most associate with beer?" No surprise St. Patrick's Day came in first, followed by Cinco de Mayo, and then, surprisingly, Flag Day and Groundhog Day.




Why don't you join me and my friends down at the Griffin Club, say about 5:00PM or so?

Around 7:00 we plan on making the Fore river turn green. Although that plan was hatched by a Flaherty last year. Let's see how that goes.

So get out the green gear...find your shamrock decorations...root for the Celtics..have a Guinness or two...and enjoy your St. Patrick's Day...EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT IRISH!