St. Patrick's Day

Oh fuck, tomorrow's St. Patty's Day. This had better not interfere with HAUSU in any shape or form.

I'm having a shot of whiskey, buying a loaf of soda bread, and sparing a naughty thought for Alyson Hannigan. Nothing else is necessary.

Also, may all the moonlighting fratboy drinker types get beaten up by real angry old drunks.

Aw, Christ, does this mean I have to wear green to work tomorrow?

Wear a nametag that says "I don't pinch, I punch. Do it at your own peril."

So, I don't have an Irish bone in my body, but my local Irish bar is one hell of a place to be tomorrow night, so me and a friend are heading down there for a couple. I don't know that I'll be getting "fucking wasted" but i'll be hitting the craic pipe pretty hard. Slainte!

(Hey, what the fuck am I supposed to do on St George's day? Nary an English friend of mine even knows when it is)

I celebrated on Saturday, which most people seem to do (including the maillady that did shots with us).

Wooo! Shamrock Fucking Shake!

I'm getting really fucking sick of my favourite day of the year being on a school night.

Just two more years to go....

I avoid bars on St. Patty's Day at all costs. It's filled with people who don't know how to drink thinking that they have to and royally making a mess out of things.

That's a bingo. Amateur night is no night to get drunk.

Also, I'm half-Italian. I think it's illegal for me to pretend to be Irish, even for a day.

All my friends backed out on Wednesday and both weekends. Can you believe that shit? I'm gonna retreat to some cool bar tomorrow, enjoy some good Irish whiskey, and flirt with girls.

A CHUD-centric NYC location would be pretty cool.
(edit to add)
Oops. The NYC Chewers hath spoken. Half Italian, but I look like my quarter Irish. Am I breaking some law?

I decided to skip out on the festivities this year. Thursday and Friday I'm taking off work to watch college basketball and drink all day, so I think that's enough for me.

For those of you wanting to drink green beer who have never tried it, don't. It tastes like a shot of tap water's been added to it.

Fuck. Forgot the Guinness at home.

I refuse to wear green, but I'm proudly displaying my Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien shirt!

Tonight is strictly amateur night at the bars. Add in the fact that every cop is out there looking to nail your ass on a DWI...yeah, I'll pass.

Exactly, no one needs you people impeding on our holiday.

As always, I'll mention ESPN soccer commentator Tommy Smyth makes the NYC St. Patty's Day parade coverage simply awesome.

I can't find any Irish in my family tree. Plenty of folks from Indiana though. They don't have a holiday, do they?

I've sworn off beer until I lose weight, so this St. Patty's is pretty much going to suck for me.

I can't wait to do a glorious Irish Car Bomb. There are only a few days out of the year where having a real job sucks, St. Patty's is one of those days.

Manning's signing day?

I plan on getting pretty drunk in honor of this glorious holiday. Just like most everyone else, I'm going to avoid bars. I'll go to the one down the street only so I can do a Car Bomb (it's St. Patrick's Day, you have to have at least one) because I don't have the shit for them here at home. Other than that, I'm just gonna drink a lot of beer.

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone!

I'm not sure why getting snakes out of Ireland was such a priority back then, but all the same, good that he gets recognized for it*

It's really kind of remarkable, when you think about it, the way this holiday has become a common place part of American culture. I mean, I am 50% Irish. My great great grandfather came over during the civil war. My Dad is so Irish his uncle voiced an Irish policeman on an Old Timey Radio Show 'of the air!'.

But today people who aren't Irish at all celebrate. They even go so far as to toast the emerald isle with stagnant green beer

It's mind boggling, IMHO, when you consider the Irish experience in America, and where we started out. Through hard work and dedication, we elevated ourselves to where we got a President in the White House, and convinced the public at large to drink rancid discolored ale. By the early 1990s, when Harrison Ford was on the run from police, and needed to blend in, the best way for him to look like everyone else and go unnoticed was by pretending to be Irish.

That really says something


And so I wish you all a holly jolly St Patties day. I don't think I'll be imbibing, personally, but we'll see. I can't stand the taste of alcohol (even in those breath spray things, or mouth rinse**), and drink only to feel the effects. However, since I like smoking up (also green/irish, IMHO) about a million times more, I almost never would choose to drink. I don't think there is any particular reason to drink on this day other than a tradition whose origins are murky at best. So I think I'll abstain.


But I wish you guys the best of luck when you're feeling nauseous and ill tomorrow morning!


*Alexander The Great Day makes about 10000X more sense, and actually, from what I understand, Alexander's people in Macedon share common ancestors with the Celts. So there is that.

**thankfully they have anti-bacterial mouth rinse without alcohol these days

EDIT: President Obama was just on MSNBC talking about Irish people! FYI, The President is part Irish

RE: Wearing of green.
Not for me, I just don't do it. It's not a particularly flattering color, and I like the way I dress normally. I'm not going to change just because it's a holiday. I don't even really change how I dress for winter

I don't know why it matters. Nothing against Ireland. And there's a bit of Irish in my family. But it's easy to enjoy yourself on this day, so I don't usually question it. Also, I'll be too drunk to wonder how this tiny, but charming country has managed such a huge, worldwide PR push. Perhaps it's Guinness corporate joining forces with the State, to influence the masses. I don't know.

Heh, O'Neils?... mine was so irish they couldn't even spell craic right all over the pub. What a joke. St. Georges day being the biggest joke of them all as none of us English celebrate it.

As mentioned the only good thing about St.Paddy's day when you're not irish is when you're underage, bursting with dutch courage after drinking some cheap cider (White Lightning) and sporting a two-week growth of bumfluff on your face that you manage to get a bouncer who's in on the joke to let you into the pub where you spend the rest of the time looking shit scared.

Whats worst is when you hear someone go on about being Irish due to family 10 generations removed. Fuck off, it's embarassing.

Which is what everyone's doing today!

Also, I love your signature.

I put my thoughts on today's tradition and its place in modern Ireland into almost a thousand words last night, so I'll spare you the encore. Suffice it to say, there's a complexity to the day that's missed by both those who use it as an excuse to destroy themselves and their condescending opposite numbers.

My attitude towards St. Patrick's Day, as with a number of local issues, falls somewhere in the middle. One thing I'd love grousers to take away from the day, though, is how satisfying and even moving it can be to see your fellow countrymen - a people usually prone to division and needless turmoil - embracing one another and their shared heritage. Today, the streets of Belfast were bathed in green, white, and gold; whatever your politics, you'd be hard pressed to find a well-adjusted person Here unhappy about the community coming together to set aside their differences and have fun.

To the entire Sewer, Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig! I hope you enjoy your day as much I've enjoyed mine.

By the way, I'm about to go cook up some dinner , but in the spirit of the holiday I wanted to return to quickly expound on a topic previously raised:

I asked my dad, and the Ye Olde Tyme radio show that his uncle was on (doing the voice of an Irish policeman) was apparently called "Mr Keene: Tracer of Lost Persons" and according to my Dad, clips from the show (along with his uncle doing the irish accent thing) can be found online

I have to say, I think that job title is one of the coolest things ever. "Tracer of Lost Persons". Marvelous!

I want to see a Mr Keene movie, stat!

My plans for tonight consist of hiding in my room, away from all the drunks I call my friends.

Just as a quick update: I did not end up imbibing. Good for me!

My wife made a chocolate Guinness stout cake and a cornbeef roast marinated in Guinness and brown sugar. DARBY O' GILL and THE QUIET MAN are always on rotation this time of year here at the O' Darkmite's homestead.

My wee 5 year old daughter's been trying to trap and catch a leprechaun all week. We placed some coins, a note, and a tiny green hat under a basket (her "trap") on the back porch. She told everyone in her class that one got away. All the kids were looking out the windows all day, says the teacher.

I didn't imbibe either. I went into my room and talked to my girlfriend instead.