Re: Luck, hits, misses, & grounders o' the Irish

03/16/09 - posted by Paul Rosenberg

My grandfather on St. Patrick's Day back in the '20s, '30s, and '40s would tell the family that he was going down to City Hall to have his ass painted green. I had forgotten this until a couple of years ago when one of my friends at work (Italian heritage, SI graduate) asked me if I had ever heard that expression. Both of us wonder how widespread that expression was.

Do you remember the old question that Don Sherwood asked for St. Patrick's Day:
What music is played in Honolulu on St. Patrick's day?

I have celebrated St. Patrick's Day since 1974 with the Irish-Israeli-Italian Society of San Francisco. This year's celebration is one day late on Wednesday. The speaker of the day is Kevin O'Brien, former general manager of KTVU. His presence is a bit contraversial and may be the subject of protest. He was fired in March, 2005, as head of the broadcast group of Meredith Corporation for his repeated comments criticizing African-Americans. The Chronicle had an article on the firing in the Friday, March 11, 2005, paper on page C-2.