Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for March 16, 2010

The speed may change, but at least you can still have fun on life’s highway!

I think Nicky is ready to party, too,

Count me in.

Just give Nicky green milk.

Joe’s not being entirely truthful.

Remeber its cool to be green.

Enough fiber shakes and you’ll be going long after the party’s over.

I think Someone just hates to see other people enjoying themselves.

The revelry of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the U.S. have little to do with religion and much to do with Irish identity. Patrick being the patron saint of Ireland, his day became, for Irish immigrants and their descendants in America, a day on which to gather and celebrate their heritage and traditions. Traditional Irish celebrations being what they are, it was so much fun that non-Irish and even non-Catholic celebrants joined in, and were (and still are) welcomed.

I suppose we could designate March 17 as “Irish-American Heritage Day” and have exactly the same parties and parades under a different name, but why bother? It would be the same shamrocks, the same bagpipes, the same green beer… If we separated the two by putting them on different days, we’d likely just end up with double the parties.

(My understanding is that, IN IRELAND, St. Patrick’s Day observances have been more sober (in all senses of the word), but that’s changing because the joyous example set by their kinsmen across the Atlantic has been so infectious.)

True, St Patrick’s Day has little to do with religion and a lot to do parades, green beer and getting drunk! My ex-home of Savannah, GA. is a good example!

For all of you planning on having corned beef and cabbage tomorrow, know that it’s not actually an Irish dish. Jiggs from Bringing Up Father loved it, and he was obviously Irish, so people thought that it must be an Irish dish and associated it with St. Patrick’s Day. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have it, mind you. I just thought you’d all be interested in knowing where how the custom started.

Wow, notbugme, “Jiggs and Maggie”! A blast from the past, like “Out Our Way”, “Our Boarding House” (Major Hoople and Martha), “Captain Easy”, “Terry and the Pirates” (I always sort of had a thing for the Dragon Lady), “Little Lulu”, “Nancy”, “Priscilla’s Pop” - I better stop now; I’m going to cry (and big boys don’t cry)…

The fiber shake won’t get her stuck with another kid.

My Irish friend always makes Shepherd’s Pie when she wants to do something Irish. I suppose you could throw some green food coloring into the mashed potatoes, to make it more “festive”. It also contains peas, but peas are hardly festive on ANY occasion…

I’m not Irish as you can probably tell from my name …I used to like to celebrate the holiday though as well as have my Irish friends over for St. Joseph’s day dinner a couple nights later.