Happy Post St. Patrick's Day

March 18 / 11AM

Another March 17th's come and gone. Karrie and I headed down to Trinity last night to grab a few brews and (as always) some awesome food. The place was packed on account of "Chipmunks on Ice" or some such nonsense over at the Civic Center (side note: please, if you live in Providence, I beg of you never to refer to our one and only "arena" as The Dunkin Donuts Center. Or even worse, The Dunk).

From there, it was on to The Celtic Pub in Pawtucket. A rowdy good time had by all. We met up with Karrie's "aunt" (I use quotes because they're practically the same age), Christine, who was already bombolined and had been since midday.

I'm not sure if I'm outgrowing St. Patrick's Day or it's outgrowing me. I've noticed in the past couple of years that something just don't smell right anymore. Every year, it's ever more amateur - the frat idiots with their Lucky Charm beads and fuzzy green hats downing $2 cans of Budweiser and the oh-so-cute soccer moms with their green, "Kiss Me Irish" sweaters and blinking shamrock earrings. I can't be quite certain, but my guess is that this just ain't the way it's done over in the Emerald Isle. I think maybe, just maybe, something got lost in translation when America imported this holiday from across the pond.

Today, St. Patrick's Day in the U.S. is to drinking what Valentine's Day is to love and relationships. It's what Christmas is to religious celebartion. It's an overhyped, over-commercialized bastard of its original self.

I'm not exactly sure what, if anything else, I expect it to be, given that this is America afterall - purveyor of overhyped, over-commercialized bastards. Maybe just what it is now, but without the afore-mentioned bullshit. Can we all just agree that it's a great day to go out and drink and celebrate our friends and family? And leave it at that. Leave the ridiculous beads, hats, and green thongs (on second thought ...) at home. They're not authentic and you look like an arse. No one in Ireland celebrates St. Pat in a manner even remotely similar to this.

And please ... for godsake, if you're going to drink, drink. Bud is not beer. It's certainly not an Irish beer.

To quote Guinness: "Raise what's raised in Ireland."