Good news, people–yesterday’s creative meltdown has been replaced by a burst of content the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the end of the writers’ strike.  Well…that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I am happy to report that postings I would have normally had available yesterday are now available as well as stuff for today.  The limit of my resourcefulness knows no boundries.  Yeah, right…

I’m pleased to report the first feedback to the site yesterday–a small but significant start to what I hope will become a growing interest in what the heck I’m doing here.  Don’t be shy–leave a sentence or two behind.  With any luck, it will sprout into a full-fledged thread of wildly divergent opinion on what exactly I meant when I said, "she has all the good sense of a butterfly in reverse metamorphosis".  Heck, I don’t even know what I mean…

Today the "big dance" that is the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kicks off, and among the interesting first round games is the matchup between top-ranked Stanford and local Ivy League institution Cornell.  It’s being called "the Mensa Matchup", owing to the intellectual prowess of these two schools’ alumni.  Heck, Cornell boasts Carl Sagan and my 93Q colleague Brian Phillips.  I figure the Big Red of Ithaca have about as much a chance to advance past John Elway and Tiger Woods’ alma mater as I have of satisfying either schools’ admission requirements.  But it’s one of those "Cinderella" stories the media loves, and there oughta be somebody from this region going deep in this tournament.  Syracuse University has missed their second Big Dance in a row, and the local natives are a bit restless about it.  Anyway, the game could be worth watching if you’re a hoops fan.  I think tip-off is around 4:45 Eastern, and should be on your CBS station depending on where you live.  Go Big Red!

Pardon the whine, but "waa waa–I’m having a bad day–waa waa!".  Not really, but a couple of things have happened that have seriously messed with my normal ability to crank out material.  In other words, this is if for today so far, with the slim possibility of more later.  At this point, I feel lucky I’m actually getting this done, but you deserve to be kept in the loop.

I’m hoping that worst case, I can get today’s stuff posted by tomorrow, so bear with me as I whine some more:  "Waa waa–life is hard and unfair–waa waa!"  Don’t you feel terrible for me?

As a kid, I can remember the annual school budget votes, and how my dad complained about how they were always trying to jack up his taxes.  I can certainly relate to that today.  The district where we live recently sought approval for a $44.5 million improvement proposal that was the largest ever submitted to voters.  To no one’s surprise, it was defeated pretty soundly.  The reason–which district officials didn’t take seriously enough–was that it was a bundle of different projects that voters wanted to have an individual say on, as opposed to just an all-or-nothing choice.  Again, no surprise as to the outcome.  Will the powers that be think smart this time and give us some smaller bites to digest?  Who knows, but in today’s economic climate, choosing what’s most important is becoming more of an everyday thing for all of us.

One correction from yesterday’s post.  In discussing a couple of my favorite Irish-based films, I mentioned both had plenty of native folk music and none of American "Irish" music like Oh Danny Boy.  Actually, The Matchmaker does have someone singing that, but I think that the setting was of a local trying to give some tourists what he thought they expected from Ireland.  In that case, it made sense.  The song is far from traditional Irish music, since it was written by an Englishman and became popular in the US in the early 20th century.  Just like corned beef and cabbage, it became associated with Ireland–only the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle like that song just about as much as that food.  Have a great day…

Welcome to St. Patrick’s Day 2008!  As you know from reading Friday’s post, you know that this is a serious holiday in my part of the world–ala Chicago, Boston, and New York.  Today feels like a holiday, with commuter traffic down significantly this morning.  At our house, we like to mark the holiday with flims we like that celebrate all that is the Emerald Isle.  If you get the chance, see if these are available from your favorite video store.

First, Waking Ned Devine is a wonderful tale of a tiny village that learns one of its own has won the big prize in Ireland’s national lottery.  An effort to detemine who it is leads 2 of the townfolk to the suprising truth–it’s Ned Devine, found quite dead from the excitement of the news, still clutching the winning ticket.  It’s there at Ned’s home that this pair devises a plan to outwit lottery officials into believing one of them is the real Ned, alive and well and ready for riches.  However, things don’t go exactly as planned, which leads to some real hilarity.  The film features an all-Irish and Scottish cast which includes David Kelly, Ian Bannen and Fionnula Flanagan–all who may be familiar to you from their many supporting flim roles.

The second film is The Matchmaker, which stars Janeane Garafalo as a staffer for a Boston politician whose Senate campaign has run into problems, leading the politico (Jay O. Sanders) and his chief of staff (Denis Leary) to convince her to go to Ireland in search of the candidates’ native roots–all the better to get him elected.  Her reluctant agreement turns to disbelief when she arrives in her boss’ ancestral home in the midst of a matchmaking festival   Her search for any relatives leads her to her own possible match–and an unexpected visit from the candidate, whose desperation for Irish relations leads to a few surprises.  In addition to Garafalo, Sanders (very familiar from both film and TV) and Leary (famous stand-up comedian who’s starring in the FX series Rescue Me), the cast includes several familiar Irish, Scottish and British actors.

I think both these movies pretty closely celebrate real life in Ireland’s small towns and villages, with plenty of genuine Irish folk music ( no Danny Boy or My Wild Irish Rose here).  The social life of the people revolves around the pub–just as it has and does in Ireland.  And the cinematography in both movies gives you a real sense of the beauty of the place, as well as its connection to the Atlantic.

At any rate, enjoy the day–and tip a pint or two of Guinness or a wee snort of Jameson’s.  The Irish wouldn’t have it any other way…

To a great number of my fellow Central New Yorkers, this is practically considered a holiday weekend.  That’s because St. Patrick’s Day in this part of the world is an enormously big deal, and with the big day occuring on Monday and Syracuse’s annual parade tomorrow, the green beer will be flowing and corned beef and cabbage will be cooking in record amounts.

Syracuse comes by its Irishness pretty honestly–it has a dedicated neighborhood (Tipperary Hill), a traffic signal imported from Dublin many years ago featuring an inverted signal design (red on bottom, green on top), and a locally legendary restaurant that prides itself on serving traditional Irish cuisine.  A brief sidebar on that is in order. 

While practically everyone in America equates Irishness with corned beef and cabbage, it is decidely not Irish cuisine.  While it was more or less invented there in the 17th century, its popularity originated with Irish immigrants who were looking for a cheap alternative to their beloved Irish bacon and found it while living on New York’s Lower East Side.  The neighborhood was primarily a Jewish one, and corned beef was a staple of their diet in the late 19th century.  Corned beef is fairly common in Ireland now, but isn’t commonly eaten on St. Patrick’s Day because they consider it a poorer or cheaper cut of meat.

Living in a city that has serious Irish roots and, not surprisingly, steeped in the Catholic Church, this year’s observation has posed a serious dilemma.  Easter this year falls just about as early as it possibly can, putting St. Patrick’s Day squarely in Holy Week.  While drinking is mostly tolerated by the church, doing so during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter is definitely frowned upon.  It required what’s called a "special dispensation" from the bishop of Syracuse’s diocese that essentially informed the faithful that they could tip a few for St. Paddy, but not to overdo it.  In other words, the party was back on.  Don’t you just love traditions?