Happy St. Patrick's Day!...

Top o' the afternoon to you. : ) Today everyone is Irish or so they say. It's Evacuation Day here in Boston, which I think is just an excuse to give city employees the day off for St. Patrick's Day. And I'm sure those same employees, along with a good majority of the rest of the city, will be taking a personal day tomorrow as well.

The Dropkick Murphys are an Irish American rock group closely associated with the Boston Red Sox. Closer Jonathan Papelbon did his famous/infamous jig to their song "Shipping Up to Boston." They make the list Lehigh Valley Live posted a list of Irish or Irish-themed music to put on your iTunes as you kick back with that green beer... There's also a list of movies on there too.

Salon.com columnist Francis Lam examines the controversy which swirls around corned beef and cabbage this time every year. The Irish on both sides of the Atlantic are split on whether this is a national food. I remember no such dish being served in non-tourist restaurants when I lived in Dublin, but Lam manages to come down right in the middle with his explanation.

I'll leave you today with a photo gallery from Huffington Post on the most ridiculous things spotted dyed green. And yes, folks, that is green crack... And no, I don't mean the Irish craic (good fun). Although some people might disagree with me on that one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello, hello. Happy St. Paddy's Day to you all. : ) Since it is that lovely American-Irish holiday that everyone uses as an excuse to get blitzed, I've granted myself permission to use a terrible play on words to start this post instead.

This story about a lay missionary nurse who travels all over the world to help those in need even while holding down a home with a husband and children in Galway certainly makes Irish eyes smile (Boston Globe). My other Irish story I found today isn't specifically positive so much as it's a continued step in the right direction. When I studied abroad in Ireland in 2003, I got a good look at the Northern Irish peace process and the dynamic between the two groups there. The Boston Globe had a story this morning about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams calling for an open dialogue and continued unity in the face of militants trying to rip apart the peace process. 

On a slightly related note, it turns out there is another holiday in Boston today. People from home make fun of me for Patriot's Day, saying it's just a day we get off so we can drink and watch the Boston Marathon. But today's holiday is even more esoteric than Marathon Monday, in that only Suffolk County in all of Massachusetts', like, 30 counties celebrates it. Today is Evacuation Day. Yep, who could forget that? Liquor stores, state agencies, schools and libraries are all closed to celebrate the day Revolutionary soldiers hauled 50 cannon up a hill and drove the British out of Boston. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, and I've lived her for seven years (Boston Globe).

Here's one for the "you're not going to believe this" files. As Yahoo! Sports reports, a 62-year old novice golfer hit a hole-in-one on her first-ever swing. The kicker was she didn't realize not every golfer does it, even while her golf pro was jumping up and down next to her.

Turns out those Harvard kids are as smart as they're supposed to be. Business school students devised a contest to encourage the use of non-disposable containers and a way to measure usage and reward those teams that were the most green. Who says MIT has a monopoly on experiments? (Harbus.com)

This last one is a nice-feel good story to end on. As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Bashur was a seeming mutt rescued from an Iraqi roadside and shipped home to a father from a paratrooper son. A coincidence helped the father learn a little more about the "mutt" who found a new home in America. 

I will leave you with one final thought...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures