All Things Green and Otherwise

What’s on the iPod: Nothing. Car is in the shop. 🙂

Slieve League, County Donegal

What a nice week it’s been! I connected with not one, but three new clients, and I completed a draft and provided another client with an outline. I have yet to actually speak with the third client, but given the words “we’re desperate” in her note back to me, I think it’s more finding time to call than anything.

So the weekend is staring at us. Only this weekend is the one I look forward to every year. Sunday I’ll be in my usual place — on a bar stool in Molly Maguires enjoying the music and surroundings. Let’s hope they improve over last year, when they thought it was a brilliant idea to remove tables and chairs. Who wants to stand around for ten hours? (Yes, I make it a day!) I’ve told them often and in their terms — here’s how much I spent the year you left the tables present and here’s how much that decreased the year you removed them. It’s up to them now.

I’m sporting a small sinus infection that I’m trying to nurse myself. I may have to break down and get some antibiotics, but I’m trying to avoid that. I don’t like medicating unless it’s required.

Trivia day! Everyone needs one day where all those questions rolling around in the head need an answer or a place to land. Today and right here. And I get to share some old vacation photos.

So, did you know:

In front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin

St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. It’s true. Ireland’s most famous resident was indeed English. He was captured at age 16, held in Ireland in slavery, then escaped only to return as the country’s most famous missionary.

Replacing a key in a Saab can be costly. I may need only a reprogramming of the key transponder (which controls the security system as well as the engine), but if the transponder is dead, it’s $1,000. Let’s hope it needs a simple tune-up.

Green is considered a bad color to wear in Ireland. Legend has it that it’s the color the fairies use to camouflage themselves from humans, and they take exception to humans who choose to wear it. It’s been said that wearing green to a wedding ticks off the fairies and they’ll steal away the bride, but more likely people in Ireland don’t wear green because it symbolizes the old flag under which they weren’t a free country.

Glencolumbkille, County Donegal

Mercury poisoning can come from incense. My niece has been sick since mid-January. Yesterday, test results showed mercury poisoning, and they don’t eat fish. Her illness directly coincided with a service at church that was thick on the incense, and my sister’s research says yes, it’s possible. Eleven other kids and a few teachers at that same service were sick, though none of them have missed but one day. My niece is working on 30 days absent.

The word for “good times” in Irish gaelic is Craic. Pronounced “crack” it’s loosely translated to “good times” or just “fun.” This weekend, I intend to be a total Craic head. 🙂

Kenmare, County Kerry

You can have a birthmark on your liver. I know. I have one. It’s huge (bigger than the liver itself), but as long as it doesn’t give me trouble, the doc says to pretend it’s not there.

The Kennedy name was more than likely Scottish. So JFK was Irish, but he was probably also Scottish. Kennedy is a Scottish clan name. Fitzgerald? Definitly Irish.

March 17th is the 7th anniversary of this blog. Thank you for riding along with me. I appreciate you. On Sunday, I’ll say a toast to all of you who visit and lurk. (Lurkers, please post a hello so I can toast you properly!)

Oscar Wilde was Irish. He was born Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde in Dublin. Colin Farrell–also Irish.

The national symbol of Ireland is…. the harp. No, not the shamrock. The Celtic harp was on their flag and it’s now on their beer (Harp lager).

County Kerry

The architect who designed the White House? Irish. Born in Kilkenny, James Hoban is credited with the White House design.

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I live for it. I get misty thinking about all my ancestors who left their homeland so that their descendants could have a better life in a country with so much promise. Cheers to the Gallaghers, O’Malleys, Daltons, Mulligans, Gearys, McNamaras, DeVineys, Carrs, and yes, even the Ulster-area Fergusons (originally from Scotland) who made it to America and fought our wars and worked the land and the factories. I’m a better person because of you.

The best version of ‘Carrickfergus’ is sung by Loudon Wainwright III. See for yourself.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all. Please share your own trivia and fun stuff!