Happy St. Patrick's Day

Photo: LA Times

You don't have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Heck, even the Obamas show a little holiday spirit by dying the White House fountain green (then again, the Obamas might be Irish [vid]). Here are a few ways to celebrate America's favorite Irish holiday:

Have a pint. It's no surprise that the country that gave us Guinness also gave us one of the most alcohol-related celebrations after Marti Grais. There are plenty of Irish beers to choose from: the aforementioned Guinness, Smithwicks, Harp (both owned by Guinness), Murphy's or Beamish Irish Stouts and a bunch of Irish red ales. Not a fan of reds or stouts? While you have my scorn, you can also have a pint of green lager, specially produced annually by the big domestic companies such as Miller and Budwiser. If you are lucky enough to be in Kentucky, Alltech makes a few green batches of their tasty amber Kentucky Ale.

Watch hurling [vid]. I'm not talking about what might follow the first activity. Hurling is a fast-paced sport with dangerous looking sticks and a small ball that resembles a baseball with inside-out seams. The All-Ireland championship takes place every March 17th, this year won by the Ballyhale Shamrocks of County Kilkenny.

Dye some body of water green. Many cities celebrate St. Patrick's Day by dying their river or canal system green with organic food coloring. Chicago's tradition actually started as a way to check the sewer system, but now is a famous annual event.

Pinch people (and wear green). For some reason, Americans enjoy tormenting people who don't conform to traditional dress, and St. Patrick's Day is no exception. Though I wouldn't recommend pinching random strangers who aren't displaying green, this activity can be fun. Caution! Be wary of who you pinch: if your friend turns out to be wearing green socks, he can pinch you back.

Plant peas. Because you can finally see the ground by the middle of March, St. Patrick's day is a good time to plant cool-weather seeds such as peas.

Fill out your bracket. The NCAA men's basketball tournament starts tomorrow. Because it's St. Patrick's day, why not pick Notre Dame to make the Sweet 16? Go Irish!

Life, Sweetness, Hope

I only recently noticed that the Seal of the University of Notre Dame has three Latin words at the center: Vita, Dulcedo, Spes. This is from the "Salve Regina," one of four Marian anthems, and is the official motto of the school. Here is the first line:

"Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,

our life, our sweetness and our hope."

It has a slightly different ring than "Tender, Strong and True" or "God Country Notre Dame," but is just as inspiring.

Whiteboard: a cleaning adventure

Years of scribbling by visiting children had left the office whiteboard anything but white. Inspired after a thorough office cleaning, I decided to attack the marker stains last week in hopes of creating a workspace for organizing tasks by matter.

First I dragged the 8x4 board into my office and turned it so it stood on its side so that I could lean it against a wall.

Second, I did a Google search for advice then rooted around the firm for cleaning products for experimenting on the tough stains. Here is what I tried:

• Windex wipes: faded the marks a little
• Pine Sol: smelled great, no discernible difference
• Vinegar-water solution: didn't smell so great, did seem to take away some "ghosting"
• Pledge multi-surface: nada
• Hand sanitizer: cut through the stains, but required a blog per inch or so
• isopropyl rubbing alcohol (70% ): saw significant improvement, elbow grease necessary
• "magic eraser" (brand unknown): worked decently, especially in combination with the alcohol

The problem was that none of these were getting the board back to white, and those that had any effect took more effort than it was worth. At this point I looked into whiteboard sheets to recover the surface. This stick-on material would be a quick fix if it worked, but could be a pain in the neck if not applied smoothly or kept fairly clean. Having exhausted the cleaning products at the office, I came back to work the next day armed with stuff from home:

• Toothpaste (this happened to be Colgate Cavity Protection): worked really well, but took a toothbrush amount per foot or so. Also, the room smelled minty fresh.
• Bar Keeper's Friend: worked like a charm. On a clean cloth, make a paste with water and work in circular motions. I combined it with the toothpaste a few times for accelerated results. Add more paste as necessary, then clean the powdery residue with water and a new towel. It may take a few goings-over to get the powder off.

Finally, a clean, white whiteboard! Unfortunately, all the abrasive cleaning left the board without its shiny surface, so I brought in my trusty WD-40. As recommended by www.wikihow.com I sprayed the board, let it sit for about five minutes, then wiped the board dry. After that I added some electrical tape for lines and began writing. WD-40 is also great for removing less-than-stubborn marks when applied with a cloth.

All kinds of things ... about Kentucky.

35.6% of Lexington, KY work force has a Bachelor's degree or higher! This city has 15 golf courses and over 3000 acres of parks! Thank you Commerce Lexington for these delightful tidbits, but what really caught my attention was bourbon.

Even more than horses, bourbon distilling is what helps make the state of Kentucky tick. According to Business Lexington magazine, "Kentucky hosts nearly half — 43 percent — of all distilling jobs in the United States. With a high job multiplier of 3.29, distilling creates more spin-off jobs than other signature industries, such as tobacco farming(1.267), horse farms (1.181) and coal mining (2.142)." That's pretty impressive, perhaps made even better when you consider that booze is on industry that continues to do well during economic downturns. Combine those numbers with the upcoming World Equestrian Games (more on those later), and the humble state of Kentucky is in for some good times.

New Year's Resolutions

Going off of my brother's example, I think it's time to create a list of goals for 2010. Here's a start:

1. Tweet less, blog more
        I'm learning things but not retaining them! For example, it would take 1400 Gummy bears to equal this 5-pound Gummy bear!

2. Eat more vegetables
        I don't think I've consumed one yet this year.

3. Use my library card!
       The Lexington Public Library is a great resource and super close to both my work and home.

Alcohol Wish List

At the moment I reside in a state that doesn't allow consumers to purchase alcohol online. This makes it more difficult for me to buy different wines/beers/liquors that I can't find locally. In a few cases this isn't a bad thing: Sagatiba Preciosa is a cachaça that would run me nearly $300 if I acted on all my desires. That same company's two year cachaça however, is only around $35 and probably far superior to any similar product I can find in Lexington, KY. So I have two wish lists: one that is ridiculous, and one for which I might need an out-of-state mailing address.

The ridiculous list:

Sagatiba Preciosa

According to alcademics.com, a distiller put 10,000 liters of cachaca into five giant cognac mixing casks (2,500 liters each) in 1980 to see what would happen, but then died in 1982. Over 20 years later in 2006 the Sagatiba folks pulled it out, filtered, and bottled it. There were 3,300 liters remaining out of the original 10,000, hence the steep price tag of $300 if not much higher.

Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 23 Year Bourbon. $300
or
Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 Year Bourbon $170

Some of the oldest bourbon on the market, and definitely the oldest wheat bourbon available (when you can find it), Pappy Van Winkle's line is known for being the highest quality bourbon. I'm a big fan of wheat bourbon, of which there are only five lines. My favorite, W.L. Weller 12-year, was recently taken off the market to expand their 7-year sales. Though it probably wouldn't be able to replace the Weller 12-year cost-wise, sipping on Pappy 23 year would be a sweet way to celebrate (eventually) leaving Kentucky.

Regular old list:
W.L. Weller 12 year.

Pitu Cachaça

Santa Barbara Winery Syrah
More to come

Concomitant

Concomitant: existing or occurring with something else, often in a lesser way; accompanying; concurrent
This term is used at time to describe symptoms or medical processes.

"She was not looking forward to the hangover with its concomitant headache."

Found at work: "We can show with serial measurements that there has been an explosion in American body size in the last 20 years. The most frightening aspect is the concomitant growth in the frequency of weight-related diseases." Cheery stuff, that.

Source: "concomitant." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 15 Dec. 2009.

















Image: Concomitant signals act synergistically.