[SML] St. Patrick's Day - fractured explanation

[Dougherty, Jim]

On 3/17/15, Richard Niederberg wrote:

>A long time ago, a well-meaning gentleman named Patrick took it as his
>task
>to drive the snakes out of the Land of Ire. Whether they were literal
>snakes or nonbelievers is open to debate, but the result was the same:
>without the snakes killing the rodents, the rodents ate up
>the still-growing potatoes, contributing to the Irish Famine.
>This demonstrates both 'butterfly effect' and the law of unintended
>consequences.

Don¹t sell yourself short, Judge - it¹s not fractured, it¹s downright
broken! :)

-  St. Patrick and the famines (the big Œuns, in the late 1840s) were
separated by almost 1500 years
-  The famine was caused by potato blight, which isn¹t rodent-based.  Or
snake-based.
-  Land of Ire should be Éire, or Erin, but since the other one's pretty
hilarious I¹m keeping it.  Sort of explains the temper, that does.

Anyone interested can look into why the Irish were so dependent on one
crop, and mostly ONE variety of that crop, that the effects were so
devastating as to lead to the death or mass emigration of so many (hint,
it¹s complicated and not so nice).  It eventually led to my being here,
though indirectly - it had more to do with one particular family store
failing (rather than to the lack of potatoes), leading to a permanent trip
to NYC.  Where the whole store-failing-thing happened again, but that¹s a
different story.

Regardless, Happy St. Patrick¹s Day to one and all!  I look at it more as
a way to celebrate Irish immigration to the US.  Since most of us are
immigrants here of one sort or another, I¹ll raise a pint or a glass to
all y¹all today. To those not in that category, it¹s just a regular night
at the SML bar, so I¹ll do the same for you.  Sláinte!

- Jim Dougherty
ATD, Middlebury College Theatre Dept.
(part Irish, all mutt)