Erin Go Blog

Happy St. Patrick's Day to my Irish friends (and that casts a pretty wide net right now; as I told someone on Facebook, I think that most of us of Irish ancestry are more than willing to give pretty much anyone a free one-day membership pass into our club today).

Some things remain unchanged from last year at this time:

Not only am i wearing green, but the green in question is a T-shirt that came from Ireland itself, when Mom and Dad went there a few years ago (Mom and Dad went to Ireland, and all I got was a pretty cool T-shirt...and some Guinness, though I would have enjoyed the factory tour they took even more). My T-shirt says Sláinte!, which is an old Irish toast roughly meaning "good health." As I noted a few years ago, it was a popular slogan for the Bennigan's restaurant chain, which lost its good health a few years ago.

But other than the wearin' o' the green, along with a certain odd-colored beverage in my near future, this has been a pretty relaxing day thus far. As I've noted in the past, ever since St. Patrick's Day became part of Spring Break, we've lost a lot of the amusement that goes along with seeing kids either try to pinch each other at school or seeing how little green one can wear to be immune from same. (My all-time favorite was the kid who pinned a leaf to his shirt.)

May the luck o' the Irish be with ye today!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I wonder how many of the people that say they're Irish today will say they're Mexican on May 5th."--my fraternity brother Sam R., on Facebook. (Hey, I assume they hand out day passes just like we do...)