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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's...Er...Weeks

March 1, 2007

Did I mention that Hoboken knows how to party?

St' Patrick's Day, traditionally a day for the Irish to put on silly t-shirts and hats, parade through the streets, and get as drunk as they like, begins here today and will go on until at least March 17, the day the rest of the world knows as the day of the departed saint's birth.

There's going to be a parade down Washington Street this afternoon. Bars will open at 11 A.M., and if you're interested in standing in a line in the freezing rain to get in, the lines form at 10. Hoboken's blogs are active with advice on how to manage alcohol intake by starting early and going slow, eating a little sump'n-sump'n during the day and drinking water as you go. All of which I might have done some 30 years ago, but doesn't appeal to me today. I want to be a part of it, being a newcomer; I have to see what is known as Amateur Day around here. Not that I haven't seen this kind of thing before, but not lately, not here. We have Mardi Gras in Lower Alabama, and I've seen many drunken spectacles including New Year's Eve in London, but I haven't yet experienced St. Pat's in Hoboken.

I had an idea that even sounds lame to me at 7:15 in the morning when I was sipping my morning Joe. I'm remembering a trip to Dublin in the distant past, a grey and drizzly day, when my husband and I sought shelter for lunch in a beautiful restaurant called Davy Jones. We laced the meal with Irish coffee, and suddenly came to an understanding of the best way to view the Emerald Isle. When the emerged from our lengthy meal, glowing from the warm brew which included no small amount of Bushmill's, Dublin and all of Ireland looked beautiful and welcoming, just as we had been told it was.

I wonder if there is some way I can squeeze into a bar at some point in the day and obtain an Irish coffee. Starbuck's wouldn't have it. Amanda's, the elegant Hoboken restaurant, wouldn't sell just coffee. The bars will be full of reveling 20-somethings who will wonder what that old lady is doing there. (Not there there won't be a few old men among them, if I know my Irish.) I'm in the mood to sit in a room and watch people get stupid. Kind of. Would they let me in if I'm not wearing green?

I wonder where I can get something green to wear at this point. I'm going to need to wear it every day for the next two weeks anyway.

Then again, maybe the best way to meet fun people today is to find the nearest AA meeting.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you catch old "Hardball(s)" Chris last night, putting the knoock on Obama for talking about genuine family values? You know like, care about your kids, their education, their health . . . as if he thought that commonsensible advice were somehow the private possession of the Republicans? I tried to picture Chris's response if Mike Huckabee had delivered Obama's little talk. There wouldn't have been one. Not even if McCain had said those things would Hardball's (or "Hardballs') programmers have seen fit to put it in the script. But when a Democrat tells folks they ought to act like parents, somehow it's big news. Bullshit. Chris's guest, Michael Fauntroy (a "Republican strategist") wondered why Obama was inserting this family advice into a political campaign, no doubt trying to maintain the prevailing fiction that only Republicans care about family values. And whudda ya know -- old Chris fell for it. Man, it's getting to where you can't tell the "fair and balanced" pundies from the "obviously biased."

Mary Lois said...

Yes, I caught Matthews last night, and had a similar reaction. Why criticize Obama for suggesting in a speech that Americans need to work on their own issues at home?

What nobody seems to get is that Obama is really different; that what he wants is to change people, not just change regimes in Washington. I agreed when Cosby said the same thing and think it is the place for the leader of the free world to help clean up his own backyard.

Elmer Gantry said...

Nice post, ML. I was looking for the Brendan Behan quote about the Irish and Jews, but settled on this one instead!



"It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody."

Brendan Behan

Mary Lois said...

Elmer, wait til you see my post when it really is St. Patrick's Day!

Anonymous said...

Hey, don't knock the Irish. Some of our best presidents were not Irish. What would mothers do for examples to tell their kids what not to be like if it weren't for the Irish. Think about it. Jesus wasn't Irish, and neither were Ghandi and M. L. King. (Hmmmm. OK OK So those three were all assasinated. Pontius Pilate was Irish . . . right?)

Elmer Gantry said...

"The only good republican is an Irish Republican"
---Graffiti observed in the men’s room at Paddy O'Toole's.

Jeff Faria said...

Cafe Elysian is a good place to watch life unfold on Washington Street. The high-toned atmosphere rather forces the patrons to behave and dress a bit better than almost anywhere else in town.

Mary Lois said...

Great idea, Snitch! Now that I've been through the Hoboken St. Pat process I'll try that next year. Probably you have to reserve in advance -- "Private Party" -- but I'll bet they serve Irish coffee.

Think I'll go over there on the 17th.

Nan said...

I'll bet you can get Irish coffee in a bar, or better still make your own! Our Irish friend makes the best stuff.

1 1/2 oz. Irish whiskey
3 t regular sugar
put in a 6-8 oz glass
Fill the rest with brewed coffee (reg or decaf)
stir, and then add whipped cream

There are other recipes, but this one ain't bad. :<)