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10 things you might not know about St. Patrick’s Day

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March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, a religious holiday in Ireland and a secular holiday everywhere else. For a guy named Patrick, it’s like a second birthday. But anyone can enjoy this holiday, whether you’re an Irishman, a descendant of one or a “little Chinese boy in the suburbs pretending to be Irish in the middle of March.”

I now present 10 things you might not have known about St. Patrick or his Feast Day. Don’t feel bad; I didn’t know a lot of these myself, and I’m named after the guy.

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1. St. Patrick was not Irish.
He was from Britain, back when Britain was still a Roman colony. In the late 300s when the Irish began raiding Britain, he was abducted and brought back to Ireland, where he was a slave for the better part of a decade.

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2. St. Patrick was not originally named Patrick.
He chose the name Patrick for himself when he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He was originally named Maewyn Succat. After his years as a slave, he returned to England, where he had a vision that the Irish needed him. When he became a priest, he took Patrick as his Christian name.

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3. The original color associated with St. Patrick and his feast day was blue.
There was even a shade called St. Patrick blue. But the Emerald Isle is overwhelmingly lush, making green a more natural color with which the Irish could identify. Political groups later adopted the shamrock (and thus the color green), solidifying green as a part of Irish nationalism.

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4. He did not literally “drive the snakes out of Ireland.”
Ireland never even had any snakes. The “banishing of the snakes” was a metaphor for the banishing of evil and St. Patrick’s hand in Ireland’s conversion to Christianity. Within 200 years of Patrick’s arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.

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5. The association between St. Patrick and the shamrock may be overstated.
It’s been said that the shamrock is associated with St. Patrick’s Day because St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Christian concept of the trinity: the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit, each separate but the same. He might have used this metaphor, but it appears nowhere in any of his writings, which detail so much of his philosophies and teachings. If St. Patrick kept such fastidious notes about his work, how come he never mentioned this? So, according to the History Channel, this could be a myth, but we have no way of verifying.

The shamrock ended up being used by political groups in the last 300 years, though, in part because of the association with St. Patrick. But the national symbol of Ireland is not the shamrock; it’s the harp.

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6. Corned beef and cabbage is not associated with the holiday in Ireland.
The traditional meal for St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is bacon and potatoes. Bacon and pork in general have historically been a big part of the Irish diet. Corned beef was eaten in Ireland, too, but it’s been more emphasized by Irish Americans. When many Irish immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s, they found that their reputation for loving pork preceded them. Anti-Irish cartoons featured stereotypical Irishmen with pigs, saying, “Here comes Paddy with his pig!” Beyond the anti-pork Irish slurs, there’s a much simpler reason the Irish Americans turned to corned beef and cabbage: it was much more affordable than bacon and potatoes.

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7. St. Paddy, not St. Patty
Patrick comes from the Irish name “Padraig.” The shortened form of that is Paddy. The name Patty is short for Patricia, the feminine form of the name. So, if you say St. Patty’s Day, you’re actually referring to the Feast Day of St. Patricia of Naples, which is August 25.

It’s easy to see how “Patty” and “Paddy” became confused in America. Americans enunciate the two words the same, whereas the Irish would pronounce a harder “T” sound, thus making the names distinguishable. An American would hear the Irish name Paddy and think it was Patty. It wouldn’t occur to people unfamiliar with the name Padraig that it should be Paddy. After all, Bobby works for the name Bob, so why wouldn’t Patty work for Pat?

But now you know. After years of mistakenly being called Patty, I’m reclaiming my masculinity. You can call me Patrick, Pat or Paddy, but not Patty.

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8. Leprechauns were only recently associated with the holiday, by Americans.
The drunk, impish troublemakers who trick you and lead you to pots of gold are really a fabrication of Walt Disney’s “Darby O’Gill and The Little People” and the marketing geniuses behind Lucky Charms. Before those brands recast the leprechaun as benevolent tricksters, leprechauns weren’t associated with St. Patrick’s Day, because leprechauns were scary bastards. They were part of pagan tradition that predated St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland by centuries. Leprechauns were a type of fairies who guarded areas and tried to scare you away. The modern version of leprechauns are based on anti-Irish cartoons that were based on derogatory stereotypes.

I remember middle school, when the “Leprechaun” movies first came out. These three kids in my English class would tell “yo mama” jokes, trying to outdo the other. Whenever someone busted out “Yo mama look like the ‘Leprechaun!,'” it was OVER. You can’t come back from that.

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9. March 17 is believed to be the day St. Patrick died.
Many Feast Days for Catholic saints tend to be on the saint’s death date, or day associated with his or her death. St. Patrick is believed to have died on March 17, 461. For Catholics in Ireland, the day is a Holy Day of Obligation. In other words, a day on which attending Mass is mandatory.

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1o. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in America is believed to have been in Boston in 1737.
It’s not universally accepted, though, as there are those who say the first St. Patrick’s Day parade was in New York in 1762. Others say it was in Philadelphia in 1780.

March 17 is used to be a city holiday in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville and thus used to be a day off for school kids and anyone employed by the city. It’s technically not for St. Patrick’s Day, though, but Evacuation Day, the day the last of the British left the city. It’s convenient that it falls on St. Patrick’s Day, though.

UPDATE: Governor Deval Padraig Patrick signed a law requiring government offices in Suffolk County to open on Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day. Read more here.

UPDATE, AGAIN: To test your knowledge of the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade, take this Boston.com Your Town quiz.

Ya Know It Gets Even Colder, Right?

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It’s been a cold few months in Massachusetts, the first New England winter for this Midwestern transplant by way of Florida. Just how cold has it been? Here’s what Monday looked like:

Graphic by James Abundis for The Boston Globe.

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And here’s what Monday looked like in context:

Graphic by Javier Zarracina for The Boston Globe.

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And here’s what Monday felt like:

Photo from Cambridge. I saw this handiwork on Saturday and had to take a picture for posterity.

If you missed it, here’s how much snow we’ve been getting. And here’s David Filipov’s science experiments in Athol, where it was 23 degrees below zero.

In Case You Missed It: Xtranormal

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I’ve recently become obsessed with Xtranormal, a website that takes your text and turns it into a movie, usually with 3D-rendered characters speaking like voicemail messages. There are  tons of videos that have taken advantage of this “text-to-movie” site, and I’m loving them.

Particularly, I’m loving some of the journalism-themed videos.

Adventures in Freelancing, Part I: The Trend Story

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So You Want To Be A Journalist

“If I do not get a job at The New York Times right after graduation, I will go to Columbia Journalism School. Then I will get a job at The New York Times.”

And…

“Do you even read the newspaper?”
“Of course I read the newspaper. I love the New York Times.”
“Do you have a subscription?”
“No. Why would I pay money for a subscription? I read it for free online.”

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Snake on an MBTA train

Joel Abrams of Boston.com put together a dramatization of the snake on the red line using direct quotes from Eric Moskowitz’s story, my account or the Craigslist ad.

To read more about Xtranormal, go here.

In Case You Missed It: Steve Buckley’s coming-out party

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Last week, Boston Herald sports columnist Steve Buckley wrote a touching column in which he announced he was gay. He tied his coming-out story to his mother, who initially discouraged him from annoucning his sexuality in his column, but who later encouraged him to write the column. She has since passed away, but Buckley said that he has had recent reasons to want to write the column.

He wrote:

I have read sobering stories about people who came undone, killing themselves after being outed. These tragic events helped guide me to the belief that if more people are able to be honest about who they are, ultimately fewer people will feel such devastating pressure.

It’s my hope that from now on I’ll be more involved. I’m not really sure what I mean by being “involved,” but this is a start: I’m gay.

As Newsday’s Neil Best pointed out, it the sports world more or less “shrugged,” though this is not to say there was no reaction. In a post for The Angle, Rob Anderson of The Boston Globe writes:

While the Herald has deleted some comments on Buckley’s coming-out column (presumably because they were offensive and/or antigay), there are still hundreds of positive notes. And on Twitter, where no one is moderating the comments, I can’t find even one negative reaction.

But there’s an even bigger announcement that has yet to come, Best says:

[T]here remains one barrier no one has yet been brave enough to cross: There has not been an active, male pro in a major American team sport to come out. That day surely is nearer than ever.

When that day happens, Buckley will be probably be pointed to as someone whose coming-out story allowed that to happen. Especially because Buckley’s been a journalist long enough to remember times when it might not have been wise to come out in the newsroom. Steve Almond wrote that Buckley’s announcement reminded him of a time when he worked with a transsexual in a newsroom that made jokes about her behind her back. Almond writes that the praise will continue for Buckley, but the Herald columnist will not be unscathed:

[T]he bottom line is that sports fans (and I count myself as one) are more homophobic than the population at large. In a sense, we have to be.

After all, we spend much of our lives watching the acrobatic heroics of other men — sweaty, outfitted in tight uniforms, sometimes even half-naked — and investing our sense of identity in their deeds.

This is the great unspoken truth of the modern sports industry: it’s predicated not only on allowing men to watch other men leap and grapple and pound into one another, but on making this voyeurism seem unassailably macho.

Thus, Almond says, sports fans might see Buckley “as a traitor to the fragile cause of American masculinity.” Hopefully, this won’t be the case.

Snakes on a train!

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A funny thing happened on the way to the office on Thursday. A woman announced she had lost her snake, causing unrest among fellow passengers and slight delay on the red line.

You might have read Eric Moskowitz’s brief about it on Metro Desk. Or Moskowitz’s story in Friday’s paper, in which you-know-who was quoted. Or, you might have read the first-person account.

Yes, this was a popular story on Thursday. That says a lot, considering what else went on that day:

  • Governor Deval Patrick was inaugurated for a second term
  • Ellen Weiss stepped down as the top news executive at National Public Radio
  • Former Massachusetts state Senator Dianne Wilkerson was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for taking $23,500 in bribes

And yet, the phantom snake slithered its way into the news cycle.

Of course, I still could see a snake on a train sometime:

The T does not expressly prohibit snakes. Guide dogs and other service animals are allowed at all hours, while nonservice pets are allowed only during off-peak hours. Dogs should be well behaved and properly leashed, while small domestic animals must be carried in lap-size containers and kept out of the way of exits, according to T policy.

Good to know.

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UPDATE

This story continued. Melissa, who lost her snake, put an ad on Craigslist (which has since expired). In an interview with WCVB-TV, Melissa shared pictures of Penelope, the missing snake.

Joel Abrams of Boston.com put together a dramatization of the event, using Xtranormal, a text-to-movie site.

Most of the dialogue comes direct quotes of Melissa, either from Eric’s story, my account or the Craigslist ad.

Web Comic: Ya Know It Gets Cold In Boston, Right?

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It’s been a month and a few days since I moved to Boston. It’s a great city, with a golconda of opportunities. There’s an active arts community. The umpteen colleges and universities provide no end to the conversations I get to overhear on the bus and at coffee houses. And the Red Sox are discussed every day, even in the off-season.

But one thing trumps those things in the perception of Boston.

“Ya know it gets cold, right?”

I’ve long hated “Ya know (fill in the blank),” but now, I fight the urge to scream whenever I hear it. Because it gets cold here, ya know.

In Case You Missed It: The Marisol campaign

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Sunday’s front page of the Boston Globe included a story about a couple who tried to use social media in the search process for their dog. On Nov. 2, Andrew and Anindita Sempere’s dog, Marisol, fled into the Middlesex Fells Reservation after being attacked by another dog.

Some of the techniques attempted by the couple, who met at the MIT Media Lab, which “values, above all, unorthodox thinking about technology”:

  • A blog, findmarisol.com, on which the couple posts daily with sightings, updates and notes to Marisol
  • A twitter hashtag, #MarisolSearch
  • Geo-targeted Facebook ads aimed at people who live in the vicinity of the Fells, and who list dogs and hiking in their hobbies
  • A $100-an-hour tracking dog followed Marisol’s scent and whose route was later mapped using GPS

But, as specialists told the Semperes, Marisol was no longer thinking like a pet. Before living with the Semperes, she’d been a street dog in Puerto Rico. So, any attempt to call after or chase her will be interpreted as a threat. The traditional ways of looking for a dog — actively seeking the dog — would only push her further into seclusion.

So the Semperes have tried a new approach: “comfort stations’’ using a small amount of food and the Semperes’ scent to lure her. When she gets comfortable returning there, they can try to trap her.

The print graphic I did explaining the comfort station (click for a larger view):

For the web translation of that graphic, click here.

For more information on the search for Marisol, visit the Semperes’ site.

For more from Globe writer Billy Baker, click here.

The effects of bullying, and how school could be

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The Boston Globe today ran its fourth story in its series of occasional articles on bullying and its impact on children, adults, and institutions. In this piece, several adults recounted the torment they experienced as adolescents. For many of those adolescents, the memories are vivid even now, decades later.

…while many of those bullied as children move past it and thrive in adulthood, a surprising number say they have been unable to leave the humiliating memories behind. Their accounts are supported by a growing body of research suggesting that the bullying experience stays with many victims into young adulthood, middle age, and even retirement, shaping their decisions and hindering them in nearly every aspect of life: education and career choices; social interactions and emotional well-being; even attitudes about having children.

For example, one of the adults — Anthony Testaverde — feels his path in life could have been greatly different if not for the effects of his bullying:

Testaverde was an honor roll student who dreamed of a career in technology or engineering. But he also suffered from a spinal deformity, and said he was ostracized as a “freak’’ and “hunchback’’ throughout his high school years. He never went to college, largely because he feared being bullied again. A self-taught electrical technician, he said he might have done better for himself if it weren’t for the bullying. Deeply self-critical and preoccupied with what others think of him, he said he cannot be at ease in large groups and has found it hard to stay at one job, because even minor workplace conflicts trigger fears and the urge to flee.

“A part of my life has been robbed,’’ he said. “It’s like the show ‘Lost,’ where there are two storylines — one on the island, and one if the plane never crashed. Sometimes I think about what would have happened, if I hadn’t been as depressed, if I could have taken more risks.’’

In my experiences, many adults are remorseful for how they acted in high school, even if they weren’t bullies. I’ve seen people reach out to old classmates to apologize for perceived slights, even if the bullied student doesn’t remember the incidents. But for people like Testaverde, the damage was more severe than being made fun of for liking Marilyn Manson, Charles Bukowski and fine art. For him, the damage had life-changing effects.

By the time many of these bullies become wiser with age and maturity, the damage is done. They realize a fraction of the pain they caused, and now can’t do anything but apologize.

Another piece in Sunday’s Globe explores the effects of bullying on the teenage brain:

A new wave of research into bullying’s effects, however, is now suggesting something more than that — that in fact, bullying can leave an indelible imprint on a teen’s brain at a time when it is still growing and developing. Being ostracized by one’s peers, it seems, can throw adolescent hormones even further out of whack, lead to reduced connectivity in the brain, and even sabotage the growth of new neurons.

These neurological scars, it turns out, closely resemble those borne by children who are physically and sexually abused in early childhood. Neuroscientists now know that the human brain continues to grow and change long after the first few years of life. By revealing the internal physiological damage that bullying can do, researchers are recasting it not as merely an unfortunate rite of passage but as a serious form of childhood trauma.

I think that bears repeating: the brains of kids who are bullied in school can resemble the brains of kids who are physically and sexually abused. Chilling, eh?

Both are sobering reads, but eye-opening.

Another Sunday read shows how high school could be. In today’s Florida Times-Union, Mark Woods tells the story of Cara Stieglitz, a high school student with Down syndrome who was voted homecoming queen in a landslide. When Cara was a freshman at Fletcher High School, her parents Dave and Melanie Stieglitz prayed that God “send a friend to Cara. One friend. Someone to sit with her at lunch.”

“As a parent, that pulls at your heart,” Melanie Stieglitz said of picturing her daughter sitting alone.

So every Tuesday, she went to school and ate lunch with Cara. And on Sundays, they prayed that someone else would join her.

Of course, the story ends happily. Not just for the Stieglitz family, but for the school. Cara could have been the prime target for bullies, but she ended up being their homecoming queen. How she, her family and her classmates persevered for this to happen is a great bookend to the Globe pieces mentioned above. The story reminds us that the stories of the outcast students don’t have to end with misery and tragedy.
These stories can end with a different kind of tears: the tears of joy that a parent can experience watching his daughter with Down syndrome become homecoming queen. The tears that teachers at her school can have, knowing their students rose above the nature of bullying and became heroes. The tears of strangers reading her story, miles away in Cambridge.  Because however out of place one might feel, there’s Cara, who became an emblematic example that bullying doesn’t have to be the norm in our high schools.

Florida to Boston: The Tally

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My dad flew to Jacksonville from St. Louis on Wednesday. On Thursday, we finished packing, loaded the truck and cleaned the apartment. Friday, we did the final inspection of the apartment with the landlord. And then, as they say, we were off and up out.

Friday: Jacksonville to Fayetteville, N.C.
Saturday: Fayetteville, N.C., to Norwalk, Conn.
Sunday: Norwalk, Conn., to Medford, Mass.

Dad and I had one companion throughout the trip: the GPS. She was dubbed “Pam” a few years ago by my nephew, who liked Pam from “The Office.” That character, though, was well-liked. Pam, the GPS, did not receive as glowing a review. Particularly on the George Washington Bridge. The AAA Trip-Tik underwent a redesign since the last time we used one, though, so we didn’t use that as much. But, we got here, and that’s the most important thing.

The important stats between Florida and Massachusetts are as follows:

Those dead deer were deer we saw, already dead, mind you. The truck was a peaceful truck, though energetic. Not unlike a Springer Spaniel, we decided.

Other noteworthy observations Dad and I made:

1 firetruck graveyard (Off I-95 in N.C.)
1 lot full of swimming pool inserts (Again, off I-95 in N.C.)
2 signs for the Pee Dee River (or creek or whatever, in S.C.)
1 frost on the windshield! (Saturday morning, in N.C.)
4 irreplaceable friends awaiting us at storage unit
Countless new adventures