Garrison Keillor writes in The Daily Writers’s Almanac about St. Patrick:
“Today is St. Patrick’s Day, the annual feast day celebrating a patron saint of Ireland.
“St. Patrick was born around the year 385, in a village in Wales. When he was 16, a group of Irish pirates raided his village and took many of the young men back to Ireland to work as slaves. Patrick worked for six years as a herdsman in the Irish countryside. In his sixth year, he escaped and made his way back to Wales. But, according to his autobiography, soon after he got back home he heard a voice telling him to go back to Ireland and convert the Irish to Christianity. That’s eventually what he did, but first he went to France to visit monasteries and study religious texts. After 12 years in France, he went back to Ireland, where he founded monasteries, schools, and churches and converted much of the island to Christianity.
“Parades are a large part of the day’s celebrations, and New York City’s is the largest in the world, with the 69th Infantry Regiment leading 150,000 marchers up Fifth Avenue, drawing approximately 2 million spectators. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York was on March 17, 1762. Boston has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since 1737. And since 1961, Chicago has been dyeing its river green for the holiday.
“The city of Dublin is a relative newcomer to the huge parade festivities, but the celebration there has been taking off in recent years. Dublin’s first St. Patrick’s Day Festival was held in 1995 to boost tourism. Since then, the parade has grown into a weeklong event that includes a symposium with lectures on Ireland’s economic success, issues of Irish identity, and the future of the Irish state.“
Most St. Patrick’s Day parades have been canceled this year.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Next door in Ireland, Saint Patrick preached at such length that the snakes got sick of hearing it and left the island. . . . Saint Patrick planted the whole country in potatoes and hops for making Guinness, and the second of these is the great contribution of Ireland to world civilization.” –from A Brief History of England, by Gerald
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In honour of Saint Paddy let’s all do our best to drive the snakes out of Washington DC.
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HAAAAAA!!!!! Awesome, Jon!
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Can we honor the Pied Piper, too so that he can drive the rats out of DC….. along with the snakes!
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“Sort of”
Good one, Diane!
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Here in Tampa Bay, we are screwed. We have a lot of Repugnican idiots who have been listening to Hannity and Limbaugh and Don the Con and think that this is some kind of “Democrat hoax,” and we have a lot of young people who think that they are immortal and that the future is whatever happens this evening and don’t give a d**n. After going out partying at our beaches and bars, they will then fan out around Tampa Bay and around the country, taking the virus with them.
Asymptomatic carriers.
Darwin Awards all around.
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Flor-uh-duh
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OT
The next president of the United States is the Gov of New York.
Absolutely magnificent!!!!!
Make it happen at the convention.
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“No, I’ve always viewed it as very serious. There was no difference yesterday from days before.”
–Our Liar in Chief, Today
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“We have it totally under control. . . . It’s going to be just fine.” –IQ45, Jan 22
“We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment–five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.” –IQ45, Jan 30
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. . . . Stock market starting to look very good to me.” –IQ45, Feb 24
“We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are . . . getting better. They’re all getting better. . . . As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.” –IQ45, Feb 25
“And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” –IQ45, Feb 26
“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear.” –IQ45, Feb 28
‘We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies, and they’re going to have vaccines, I think relatively soon.” –IQ45, March 2
“Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” –IQ45, March 6
“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu. . . . Nothing is shut down. Life and the economy go on.” –IQ45, March 9
“And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” –IQ45, March 10
“It’s going to go away. . . . The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point. . . . When you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.” –IQ45, March 12
“”Federal Government is working very well with the governors and state officials. Good things will happen!” –IQ45, March 17
“I’ve always known this is a real–this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic . . . lways viewed it as very serious.” –IQ45, March 17
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The progress of the Moronavirus
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“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. . . .They tried anything. … And this is their new hoax.” –IQ45, Feb 28
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“And I like this stuff. You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT I think for like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand. Everyone of these doctors they say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have been that instead of running for President.” –IQ45, March 6
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I agree with Trump. He has a natural ability for medicine and public health. He should NEA doctor, not president.
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I think he would make a great federal supermax prisoner.
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Bob,
Please add his comment from last Sunday, when the Fed cut its rate to zero and 45 said, “This will make Wall Street very happy,” and the market dropped by 2,000 points.
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“Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. ” –IQ45, Feb 26
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What? Yesterday it was the common cold.
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