Centerfield

Between Columbus Day and MLK, Jr. Day Philly's pretty well covered. But I could be talked into Benjamin Franklin day.

AZ has Ceasar Chavez Day.

As long as it aint Hugo, I'm on board.

And it's already in March, which is a big plus. I think we can work this one into the "every month should have at least 1 official 3-day weekend" plank of the centrist platform.

And if we have to work some sort of "affirmative action on holiday honorees" magic into the debate to get it passed, that's a price I'm willing to pay! I think most Americans will agree that hispanics deserve an official day of recognition just as much as we all deserve an extra paid day off.

Baseball season started weeks ago, I've already been to half a dozen games.

Oh, you mean major league...

Odds and sods? Careful how you say that, many of the Irish have an aggressive physical resentment to being called a sod!

(The "auld sod" is the mother country. An "old sod" is the strange childless uncle no one will let baby-sit the kids.)

The cabbage is traditional, it's the corned beef that's Irish-American.

I've always preferred the ham and cabbage variation. Ham, cabbage and potatoes boiled in one big pot. Mmmmm, mmmmm. And vinegar for the cabbage is a must.

Here in Austin, it's interesting that even SCOTTISH bands do gangbusters around St Patrick's Day. Even a Scottish Highland Bagpipe band is booked solid.

We're up to just two days of St. Patrick's Day here so far (we like partying here in Austin), but the Lege doesn't quite see it the same way. So no holiday per se. Yet.

Oh, and St. Patrick's Day is an insult to Irish people according to my Irish-American mother-in-law. But her daughter likes it.

The big local holidays are Texas Independence Day (natch) and Juneteenth. I've read that Juneteenth has been gaining adherents beyond just Texas, though.

There's a lot of variations on the old bubble & squeak, which is all corned beef and cabbage really is--a combo of B&S and the "boiled dinner." Ham's good. So's bacon. No matter what they tell you, you don't have to mash the potatoes, you can make it fresh instead of using leftovers, and don't ever use instant potatoes. Heresy!

Juneteenth has been celebrated around here time out of mind, though it's not an official holiday.

St. Patrick's Day is only an insult in the way some celebrate it--by using it as an excuse to become drunken idiots. That's NOT part of the traditional Irish celebration.

using it as an excuse to become drunken idiots

You're right, Chris. Many of them are drunken idiots well before St. Patrick's Day rolls around!

NYC has snow and slush. Outside, Irish drummers and bag pipes play on. There will be some falling down tonight…….

On another note, West Point has an anti-terrorist department. I noticed months ago, a reference they had mentioned about "White Horses". White Horse is also the name of an Irish Bar on 11th St. in Greenwich Village. The owner, a former Westie (you know, the Irish gang, severed heads in refrigerators etc.), won it in a poker game. Dylan Thomas drank himself to death there. Anyway, I was reading this and I too thought the white horse reference odd. Does a white horse have any particular meaning for the Irish? The authors here obviously think it has significance for Jihadists....

One more for Sunday....

An interesting run-flat tire

And how about this airless tire? Its all in the materials. Would this tire survive last night’s ice and snow? Well, test it in Canada first...LOL

I have a cool idea for sidewalls if this novel idea really works. It would protect the tire internals in snow and ice while providing a new tool against skidding on an icy road….It combines the sidewall from the first link with an extrudable (sp) metal rim (just inflate sidewall) which then makes contact with the road from a grove in the road edge of the sidewall. The added sidewalls might even reduce the lateral force on the flexible tire struts and thus improve cornering…

Looks like the cornering is pretty good as is, but that snow and ice would be a problem.

ROTFL, Tully.

My own favorite Irish expression; "May you be in Heaven a half hour before the Devil knows you're gone."

Considering what my life is like, I'll probably have first hand experience on that.

Okay, nothing on white horses.........well here's a joke to lighten it up.

A young woman was pulled over in Austin , Texas for speeding. As the TX State Trooper walked to her car window, flipping open his ticket book, she said, "I bet you are going to sell me a ticket to the Texas State Police Ball." He replied, " Texas State Troopers don't have balls." There was a moment of silence while she smiled and he realized what he'd just said. He then closed his book, got back in his patrol car and left. She was laughing too hard to start her car.