Comments on Happy (Secular) St. Patrick’s Day!

When I was in college, posting numbers for cabs @ 5:50 pm would have been about 10 hours late.

Actually, I'd consider New Year's Eve the only STRICTLY drinking-only holiday. Elsewise, why would grocery stores order up extra cabbage and corned beef and stock them right next to the Guineess and Harp? Same with Cinco de Mayo and the end-capped displays of extra tortilla chips, salsa and seven-layer dip strategically placed in close proximity to the Pacifico and Corona?

I mean, it's not ALL about the drinking on these holidays - really it's just about consuming whatever the store thinks it can get away with selling you more of in the week or so leading up to that particular day.

In Ireland St. Patrick's Day was traditionally a sober religious holiday, with all the bars and restaurants closed. It's only been in the past decade or so that it's turned into an Americanized parade-and-green-beer sort of thing.

Similarly, no one in Ireland knows what the hell "corned beef" is; if they know it at all, they know it as a horrible canned-meat product like Spam. The association came about when Irish immigrants to New York couldn't find Irish bacon (very different from American bacon), but found Jewish corned beef to be an acceptable substitute.

It's safe to say that almost all "traditional Irish" cultural artifacts in the US have nothing to do with Ireland -- except the Guinness and the Bushmills.

Ah, Boy-o, it's been an Americanized, drunken holiday for a LOT longer than the past decade. I'm not disputing your facts, only the time frame.

Cinco day mayo is an even worse excuse for a drinking holiday than St. Patrick's day. Only Americans celebrate it (One initial victory over Emperor Maximilian of France, who cares)

dieciséis de septiembre is where the real action is

very true - my only quibble would be to add that at least locally, and for a certain portion of my generation, memorial and labor days are the getting-very-high- at-seattle-center-music-festivals holidays.

But it's still during Lent. Is drinky drinky allowed on Lent?

@3, Reason #1062 why we are better then the Irish.

@7: Holy Week is about as early as it gets in the liturgical calendar this year, but actually St Patrick's Day always falls at some point between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. That has never stopped anyone I know unless alcohol is what they gave up for Lent. Dumb choice, in my humble opinion.

Fuck you. Fuck all you people drinkin' today. I gave up booze for Lent. Good thing I didn't give up cussin' too.

hey, i saw some pics about Britney in bikini in Miami's South Beach on http://www.intimatemingle.com which is a free dating site for youngth.

Don't forget Mardi Gras! That's the biggest booze fest around, especially if you're in New Orleans.

12 is right, you missed mardi gras on the alcoholiday list!

FAT TUESDAY

Yup, 12, 13, & 14. Fat Tuesday's one of them. Never said it wasn't.

Dr. A @10:

Um, giving up booze for Lent, doesn't that make it kind of tough to take Communion?

Or has the wine already turned to Christ's blood by the time it hits your tongue? And can you in fact get drunk on Christ's blood, assuming you could get enough of it down you at one time? And does that mean Christ could be jailed for DUI, even if he could prove he hadn't actually been drinking?

Ah, makes me almost miss Sunday School...

11 - what's a youngth? Does that involve my tongue?