This Week for Happy Hour: The Zen Shamrock Abides

Oh, St. Paddy’s Day.   Welcome back, old friend.  Our favorite Irish high holy day of leprechaun worship and daytime drinking is upon us again.

First thing that comes to mind when you think St. Paddy’s Day – what is it?  Beer and whiskey, there you go.  You got it.  There are some other great components of the special day and culture as well, of course.  Smiley old guys with cloth hats and mustache-less beards, happy music, and silly dancing that inevitably involves, at some point, hopping on one leg (which gets pretty tough after a few pints, you’ll admit). 

But nobody thinks, “Oh, I just love a nice plain baked potato,” or, “What would I do without my itchy wool sweater.”  Those are the Irish elements we can all merrily forget.  But their simple existence adds something to the equation, no doubt.

I have a theory that, in Ireland, drinking heavily has always been integral because, let’s face it, it’s no tropical paradise, the food’s a little underwhelming, and until very recently, somebody else’s army was always marching in and causing trouble.  So where’d the attention of the hive mind turn?  The bottle, of course, if only peripherally. 

The one guy brought galoshes.  What a professional.

Have a pint and calm down, lad.  Everything's gonna be fine.  And pretty soon, that baked potato and the stew are looking all right.  Now we’re getting somewhere.  And next thing you know, you’re dancing your fanny off to the fun-timey fiddle music with a surprisingly good-looking lassie.  Presto change-o.

States-side, things are a little different.  We have good food, central heat and AC, most of us.  The music’s a good bit different too, and so is the dancing.  But everybody’s still got their problems.  We just do.  The inevitability of human drama, somebody called it.

St. Paddy’s Day reminds us to exercise the Irish way from time to time: to admire the Guinness bubbles and abide your troubles.  On St. Paddy’s, we to toast to what we love, enjoy the simple things, and put our problems in the trunk for the day.  Have a pint and calm down, lad.  Everything’s gonna be fine.  Smile, cheers, bottoms up.  It’s oddly Zen in its own way.

So come have a merry old time at Rhino this St. Paddy’s day weekend.  Toast with some friends and raise a glass to the Irish.  We’ve got no baked potatoes, though, sorry.  But remember?  Those things kind of suck.  Guinness and Jameson, on the other hand, overfloweth.

See you there!
Cheers!