I'm Irish today

A VERY HAPPY St. Patrick's Day to you. I'm not Irish, but aren't we all Irish today?

There is something about this day. It's the start of spring, it's green, it's alive, and in my younger years it would end up with beer and frivolity. The Irish have it figured out.

Today I think of the late Dr. Michael Petrick, the legendary journalism professor at Central Michigan University. Best teacher ever, who tried preparing us for the real world with strange characters and scenarios in his reporting classes.

St. Patrick's Day was changed to St. Petrick's Day when I was in college. Dr. Petrick turned everything around and told us it was actually about the rats leaving Krakow in Poland, or something like that. The memory is foggy, and deservedly so.

Anyway, may the wind be behind you and the sun in your face, and may the grass grow green under your feet, or something like that. Our own Irish Rag Tag band is playing at O'Griff's tonight, and wouldn't it be something if I actually had enough energy after a long day of guitar lessons to tip one or three?

Maybe I'll just settle for tea beside the fire.