Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, boy. I have no excuses here. Considering my Irish ancestry, I should probably do a post about the origins of St. Patrick's Day like I did for Valentine's Day. But St. Patrick seems like he was the type to drive anyone to drink, so...I'm just going to give it a pass as a saint's day that got converted to a celebration of national culture and a drinking holiday, which is pretty standard procedure when you think about it. The amazing thing is that it's still a religious holiday for not only Catholics but a few other religions.

As for the drinking, I blame all the drinking on the snakes, man. If I were in Ireland and thought I saw snakes, I'd want to drink too. Well, okay the snakes and the Chicago River when it's dyed green. Seeing that might make you want to keep drinking. That is, if the flying carp didn't scare you sober. LOL

I still remember taking a friend who was visiting Chicago for the first time down along the river. He asked me if the river was that color because of the dye. It was May. I was like, "Um, no. The Chicago River is always that greeny grey color." Hah! (See the photo below from Windy City Art for the everyday color.) I bet it has something to do with the area's limestone deposits. Anyone know for sure?

www.windycityart.com/chicago/bridges.htm