Today is St. Patrick's Day.  I'm wearing a green t-shirt right now, so don't even think about pinching me.  

I'm trying to think if I know all that much about St. Patrick's Day.  I seem to recall something about a guy named Patrick who somehow drove all the snakes out of Ireland and they made him a saint for it.  I'm not sure exactly how he accomplished that feat or if it was really even a good idea.  After all, ecosystems are delicate balances and removing a whole species from them can really mess things up.  Wasn't there a really bad potato famine in Ireland?  Was that after Patrick got rid of the snakes?  I have no idea, I'm just spit balling.

What else do I know about St. Patrick's Day?  Irish pubs do a ton of business today.  People like to get really drunk on beer that's been dyed green and eat corned beef and cabbage.  In Chicago they dye the river green.

That reminds me, one time when I was in college I was travelling through Chicago on St. Patrick's Day.  I didn't participate in any of the festivities because I was on my way to or from the airport.  I don't remember which.  All I know is I was on some kind of public transportation and some extremely drunk guy got on who was wearing an absolutely gigantic green leprechaun hat and he sat down across from me and was saying weird things and having trouble staying upright in his seat.  I don't think I'm doing a very good job of describing it, but I recall it was kind of surreal.

Another thing I know about St. Patrick's Day is people like to shout "Erin Go Bragh!" for some reason.  I don't know what that means.  I do recall that right around this time about 20 years ago, I was very briefly seeing a girl named Erin and we were making jokes that it was really "Erin Go Braless" and she should thus not wear a bra on St. Patrick's Day.  Again, not sure I'm doing this story justice, but it was funny at the time.  

So since I continue to want to learn things in the course of writing this journal or whatever the heck it is, I'm going to go read about St. Patrick's Day and see what the real deal is.  Be right back.

Okay.  I just learned a few interesting things.  First of all Erin Go Bragh basically means Ireland Forever, so I get what that's about now.  St. Patrick himself was a 5th century Christian missionary who basically converted thousands of pagans to Christianity and that eventually became an allegory for driving the snakes out of Ireland.  He didn't literally get rid of snakes, which actually weren't known to be there in the first place.  Supposedly he died on March 17th, which is why we celebrate his day today.  I also learned that it was originally celebrated as a feast day among various churches and since it falls during lent, the church would lift the restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol, which is a big part of how getting super drunk has become associated with the holiday.  It's not just a stereotype about drunken Irishmen.  

Well, I feel a tad smarter now.  It's fun to learn stuff.