Ugh, St. Patrick’s Day again. Yes, I’m wearing a green shirt today, because I don’t want to hear it at work.
No, you wouldn’t catch me at a bar today if you offered me a free bar tab. I don’t need to hear any bad phony Irish accents.
I guess companies need something to sell this time of year. Even people that may have given up alcohol for Lent might make an exception for St. Patrick’s Day. Also, single people can get their fun after dealing with Valentine’s Day last month.
I don’t hate it. I’m pretty ambivalent about it and rarely even notice it’s here. I didn’t wear a green shirt, and I guess I don’t really care if I hear about it at work. I ain’t Irish! I don’t go to the bar.
But wish it would go away? Not really. People are having fun, and winter is reluctantly finally seeping away. Let it be.
It always sneaks up on me, then a few jerks at work have to make a big deal about me not wearing green. Just like the guys who used to pinch me in third grade for not wearing green. Yes, I have Irish blood, who cares?
Count me in on both the wearing green to keep the peace and the hating. It seems like nothing but an excuse for otherwise sane people to get stupid-drunk for no reason.
Even the fact that the boss brought donuts doesn’t help, since it’s a choice of green icing, green sprinkles, or filled with bug guts green cream.
Yup. All the amateur drinkers getting crazy. I don’t hate the day, I hate the ‘celebrants’ who get so into it.
Plus as I said in another thread, few acknowledge St. Joseph’s Day; it’s only some Italians who don red and feast on seafood and wine.
I look Irish but am not. I’m not Catholic. My husband is Italian. We’re adults; we don’t need an excuse to go out and drink a lot, and none of the “traditional” (US) foods of the day appeal to me.
I don’t hate it, it just often passes me by completely much like Valentine’s Day. Somebody might mention it and I’ll think “oh hey, it’s St. Patrick’s Day soon”… and then it slips straight back out of my brain.
The “traditional” Irish-US foods of the day are vile. Last place I worked there was a twee Irish Pride lady who tried to harass me into coming to her corned beef and cabbage potluck because I have some Irish ancestry.
Our one discussion on the topic went something like this:
I’m American; not Irish. My ancestors left Ireland so I could be American.
My ancestors also left Ireland because the food sucked.
[Your] bad red dyejob doesn’t fool anyone.
That said, St. Patrick’s Day as Engineering Day at school was pretty cool. Shillelagh hunts, (rubber) snake bashing, whacky engineering exhibits, and parties. Although the green beer was rather crap.
I don’t hate it, really, but it is amateur night. Unfortunately, I am going out to play trivia with friends, so I’m hoping to be able to avoid the amateurs.
I like playing/listening to traditional Irish music in bars with a few friends around the fireplace. We would enjoy doing so in relative peace and quiet throughout the year. Then, on St. Pat’s, all of a sudden the same pub would be filled with thousands of drunks being huge “fans” of traditonal music requesting Danny Boy or the Fields of Athenry or similar and loudly chatting/shouting through the music.
I think many traditional musicians hate Paddy’s day. Sure there’s a mint to made in gigs, but through gritted teeth and for an audience that just wants either the sing-a-long cliches or fast and loud music - no real appreciation to be had for the musos.
In any case, it’s also the day of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, so those of you who dislike green Guinness may leg it to your nearest pizzeria.
I’m half Irish, so I feel obliged to pickle a brisket every year (corning your own beef is easy and delicious…and yes, I know it’s not really Irish, but it’s Irish-American). I also like to make some kind of green treat or snack for my kids. I might wear green if I think about it. That’s about it.
I don’t hate it, but I do hate crowds – especially drunken ones half my age – so you definitely won’t catch me at a bar tonight.
As for the other stuff, I’m wearing a green shirt and I ate a cupcake with green icing that someone brought to the office this morning. What’s to hate about that?
i don’t hate it but i sure don’t like it either. particularly irksome is the “wear green” bit and the “everybody proclaiming they’re 1/2n irish” at any given chance. who cares? why cram it down the throats of everybody who doesn’t care? is this what it’s like to be jewish around christmas time?
I hate the politics, which as a citizen in a different country I have no stake in. I hate the implied binge drinking. I hate seeing cars weaving on the way to and from work (and worrying about the one I didn’t see weaving).
But much can be forgiven for a slice of fresh-baked soda bread with a small dab of butter and a quiet evening at home.
Musician here, in a band that plays more country and folk-rock stuff usually but pulls out the reels and Clancy Brothers/Dubliners kind of stuff for March every year. It’s fun to be fairly well-paid to play for a big, enthusiastic audience, right up to the point where they become mostly belligerent, incoherent drunks (or pull guns, as happened once). These are all Americans of unknown ethnicity, although about 10% of the drunks will try seem more Irish than they really are (often by requesting songs by county … uh, I’m from fucking New Jersey, I don’t have them organized by county).
I won’t typically have more than one pint (keeping jigs straight in my head takes a bit of concentration), and won’t necessarily wear green (and if you try to put a plastic green derby on my head I will shiv you). I’d avoided the green-beer scene for most of the preceding 20 years and would stay home were it not for the paying gig.
Heartily agree on this. I haven’t encountered this is at a gig in a few years, but there’s this weird American sentimentality for the IRA that makes me really uncomfortable. I’d rather do the happy tunes, myself … nobody really wants to hear your sentimental “rebel songs” all night, Mr. Drunk from the County Bronx.