I don’t make any effort to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. If I have something to wear, I do, but I don’t make a special effort. I have other credentials: My father painted the first legal green line up Fifth Avenue in New York City for a St. Patrick’s Day Parade. My father joined the New York City police force in 1931, so the legal green line hasn’t been there forever, although I knew another guy who used to get loaded with his buddies and they painted the green line on a voluntary basis before the city took over the task.
Sometimes I wonder if St. Patrick ever visited Long Island because there are no poisonous snakes here either.
I’ve driven to Albany on St. Patrick’s Day in a blinding snow storm that also had thunder and lightning associated with it. There may have been another one, but I don’t remember a St. Patrick’s Day with weather as beautiful as today is in New York. It’s sunny with a high near 60 degrees.
Have you heard the radio commercials for Guinness Breweries in which they brag that the founder signed a nine-thousand year lease on the brewery hundreds of years ago? I wouldn’t brag about that. It was a terrible business decision. If the founder of Guinness Brewery expected the company to be there for nine-thousand years, he should have bought the place.
If I were a drinking man, I’d probably drop by Guido’s Irish Pub on Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh, NY today for a wee drop. I’ve never been there. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but the name, which I’ve mentioned before, fascinates me. I bet they get customers who see it driving by, stop, go in and ask, “What the hell is with the name of this place?” Someday, I may even stop in there and ask that question, but if I do, I’ll also ask how many times they’ve heard the question before.
My son has a St. Patrick’s Day story that will last him his entire life. In 2011, he celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by lifting a pint in O’Malley’s Bar in Shanghai, China. I asked him if they have a St. Patrick’s Day parade there, but I haven’t heard back yet. One place there is a parade that you might not think of is Savannah Georgia. In fact, the parade in Savannah is a very big deal from what I’ve heard.
Doug McIntyre said on his overnight radio show this week that St. Patrick’s Day is the only ethnic holiday he knows of that reinforces ethnic stereotypes.
If you’re into Irish coffee, or even if you aren’t, you might enjoy my recipe. I suggest you try your Irish coffee black, with no coffee.
