Month: March 2010

• On March 17^th, there are only two kinds of people in the world:  those of us who are Irish; and those of you who wish you were.

• My grandparents all came from County Limerick and County Mayo.  So I qualify, okay?  In fact, I’’ve never made a point of wearing green on St. Patrick’’s Day because it’’s that obvious.  And, if it weren’’t that obvious, two of my uncles were named Cornelius and Robert Emmet.  Moreover, one of my aunts and one of my uncles were born on March 17^th.

• When I was a young child, my grandparents and their relatives from the Old Sod used to say things like, “Up Limerick,” and “Up Mayo.”  We kids thought it really funny when someone from County Down arrived and yelled, “Up Down!”  I always wondered, but never found out exactly where County Yours is.

• If you asked my grandparents what nationality they were, any of the four of them would have told you (in a brogue, of course) that they were Americans.  If you asked their children what nationality they were, all of them (in a New York accent, of course) would have told you they were Irish, not Irish-American, Irish.

• My mother’’s father came to the USA, like many immigrants, through Ellis Island.  He is the only man with his name who is listed in their records as a woman.  This proves that clerical errors are nothing new.

• My mother’’s mother couldn’’t show me how to write anything in Gaelic because when she was in school, teaching Gaelic was forbidden by law.  I can say, “”Kiss my ass,”” in Gaelic.  In fact, it’s the only thing I know how to say in Gaelic, but I can’’t prove it here because I can’’t spell it.  I’’m not convinced anyone can spell anything in Gaelic or Welsh either for that matter

• The Irish invented bagpipes as a military weapon, to scare people:  it works.

• My father was in the crew that painted the first legal green line up New York’’s Fifth Avenue for a St. Patrick’’s Day Parade.  A bunch of guys got drunk and did it illegally for some years before the City of New York adopted the custom.

• Family lore says one of my great aunts won a newspaper essay contest by writing a first-person account of being on the RMS Carpathia when it was the first ship to arrive on the scene as the Titanic sank.  She did come to the USA from Ireland on the Carpathia, just not on the trip when the ship rescued survivors from the Titanic.

• My wife makes soda bread every year.  She’s not the only baker of soda bread who doesn’t like caraway seeds, but because she doesn’’t, I don’t get any caraway seeds in mine.  She got her recipe from someone who must have been much wealthier than my mother’’s mother was.  Hers is rich and very good, but I don’’t think it’’s too authentic.

• I recommend drinking your Irish coffee black, with no coffee.

• I contend that vendetta is a Gaelic word, not an Italian one.  After all, how many Italian people do you know who’’ve been fighting the same losing war for more than 900 years?  How many Irish people do you know like that?

• I didn’’t kiss the Blarney Stone; we had a meaningful, long-term relationship.

• Blarney is a much nicer word than bullshit.

Here’s my idea on how to speed up the whole NCAA basketball tournament and maybe fit all of March Madness into March next year.  Just make the Big East tournament one of the brackets.

A nor’’easter is a vicious Atlantic coastal storm with high winds and lots of rain during which, because of the storm’s rotation, the winds over land are generally from the northeast.  Or, a nor’’easter was Saturday, Sunday and to a lesser extent, today.

Why was this one bad?  Well, we had more snow than average in February, and then we had a little warm weather which melted all the snow and softened the soil.  Next we had a lot of rain which softened the soil, and wind gusts at hurricane velocity that helped all those trees to go over.  Upstairs, my 100-year-old house shook noticeably in the wind.  It didn’’t feel as bad on the ground floor.  Seventeen foot waves were reported on Long Island’s ocean beaches.  I sometimes wonder who”s crazy enough to measure those.

Saturday night was a really bad time to be a pine tree on Long Island, or trapped beneath one.  Several people in the metropolitan area were killed by falling trees during the storm.  That, of course, is no laughing matter.  I also saw a Toyota that collided with a tree, but it appeared to be the tree’’s fault.  Another thing about nor’’easters, unlike hurricane, these babies stay around a while.  Saturday was the worst of it, but it’’s not supposed to be nice until Tuesday.

One day, in my high school physics class, I leaned too far back in a chair and fell backwards.  Everyone laughed at me and the teacher said, ““Tell us about center of gravity.””  When I see so many trees on the ground, I’’m reminded of that and marvel that all the trees don’t come down.  A 50-foot-tall tree might have a root system 12-feet around and nowhere near that deep.  It’’s kind of marvelous that all the roofs didn’’t blow away too.  Part of my garage roof went.  It’’s a corrugated metal roof and I managed to find it, but it was bent and partially torn.  I’’ve spent high five figures with one contractor over the past two years and he was nice enough to send someone over so I didn’’t have to climb on a wet roof in a brisk wind. 

If I want a permanent repair, I’’m going to have to go much farther because that kind of metal roofing isn’t available anymore.  The insurance adjuster is coming, but I don’’t know when yet.

I’’ll hold the big piece of aluminum trim in my back yard for a while in case someone wants to come looking for it, but I don’’t know who yet either.

New Yorkers, these days, are wishing they lived in New Jersey or Illinois.  The state Democratic Party is plagued with a Congressman accused of sexually harassing his male staff, another Congressman who has been in charge of writing tax laws who apparently didn’’t pay his taxes, a Governor who quit in disgrace after his involvement with prostitutes became public , another Governor who may be involved in trying to suppress domestic violence charges against one of his closest aides, and a State Senator who was expelled from the Senate after he was charged with slashing his girlfriend with broken glass.  Polls suggest the last guy has a shot at returning to the Senate when the special election is held soon. 

Have I left anything out?  Oh, yeah, Democrats control the Governorship, both houses of the State Legislature.  The Comptroller and Attorney General are also Democrats and the budget, which is due in three weeks, currently carries a projected $9 billion deficit.

Most disturbing of all, the New York State Republican Party is in such disarray that it doesn’’t seem to be able to use any of that to its advantage.  In fact, at this moment, the Republicans are talking about two possible candidates for Governor, an investment banker (not America’s most trusted or admired profession these days) and a Democrat.

Former Arkansas Governor and candidate for the Republican nomination for President Mike Huckabee has a five-minute daily radio commentary program.  In New York it’s broadcast on WABC radio at about 5:55 AM.  This morning, Governor Huckabee informed his listeners that next week is National Procrastination Week.

No it’s not, Mike.  As already reported in this blog on Wednesday, National Procrastination Week is this week, March 1st to March 7th.  However, I don’t think anyone will mind if you don’t get around to celebrating it until next week.

I’ve been an appointed public official for more than half my life.  While I’m much more interested in government than in politics, I admit that makes me a politician.  Before I started in government, I reported on it.  After I started, I got a master’s degree in it.  I’ve taught it in college too.  I read about government on my job and in my spare time.  I don’t play golf at conferences; I attend all the sessions.  I’m something of a policy wonk, especially when it comes to property taxes and other government revenue.

Elected officials, and some appointed ones too, seek publicity.  So, when one of them is unethical, dishonest, immoral, does something illegal, or all four of those things, he or she deserves to get more publicity than someone who has spent his or her life out of the limelight.  I don’t know if there are more dishonest politicians than any other profession, but that publicity sure makes it seem as if there are.  And it reflects on all of us.

How much does it tear down everyone’s reputation?  Well, my late father-in-law, a good, decent, kind, and generous man, used to sit in my home and opine that all politicians are crooks.  He did that often enough that I became fed up.  Finally I said to him, “You can think anything you want to think, but if you say, ‘All politicians are crooks’ in my house one more time, you will no longer be welcomed in my house because I’m a politician and I’m not a crook.”

In my varied career I’ve done public relations and any competent PR person would advise a client to never frame an accusation.  Someone must have advised former President Nixon not to say things like, “I am not a crook,” but this was a private conversation among family.  I didn’t say it in front of cameras or microphones.  Until today, the fact that I said it was never in print either.

I believe my father-in-law never stopped thinking that at least the vast majority of politicians are crooks.  I don’t think he ever slipped up and said something like that in my presence again either.  I told you he was good, decent, kind, and generous.  I would not have wanted to grow up in that family.  I could never have married my wife if I did.  But if I had grown up in that family, I might be able to do a better imitation of normal than I can today.

So now we come to New York State government and the Governor of New York.  Mr. Patterson, there are negative stories about you in the news media every day.  All of them are about unethical behavior attributed to you.  Some of the accusations, if true, are felonious.  The last I heard, three top officials in your administration have resigned in the last week or so.  One of them may be implicated; the other two cited personal integrity.

Political capital is the sum of a leader’s various abilities to influence the course of government and political action.  Some of it is the ability to direct money, but there are many other aspects including charisma, respect, voter support in your last election, current support as judged by polls.  It’s a long list.

Governor Paterson, you have no more political capital.  You’ve squandered all of yours.  Your supporters’ strongest argument for you to stay is you’re going next January anyway.  You’re reinforcing the stereotype and giving the rest of the politicians a bad name.  I think you should go now.