They Call Him Philthy

Every so often the stars align and magical things happen. Things like the first moon landing, USA upsetting the Russian hockey team in the Olympics, and of course the brilliance of David Hasselhoff on "BayWatch."

Well friends, the stars have come together once again for another special moment in our lives. St. Patrick's Day and the opening day of the NCAA basketball tournament have fallen on the same day! Let's examine them both.

St. Patrick's Day celebrates the life of the most beloved Irish saint in the Catholic church. He died on March 17th. Boston in 1737 was the place and time the holiday was officially honored in this country. It's generally linked to green, Ireland, and beer. In other words, this has become a day Americans love to take off work and just go drinking.

Meanwhile, the opening day of the NCAA Tournament is a glorious time for any sports fan. The brackets have been out for a few days, the buzz has been building for even longer, and all at once on Thursday, there's an explosion of basketball. 16 first round games tipoff on this day and every game is available on TV in one way or another (go to a sports bar). In other words, this has become a day Americans love to take off work and...yep, go drinking!

So we have these two giant days of alcohol celebration rammed into ONE day. Is it possible? Can we even be expected to handle it in a safe fashion? I do know this, I'll be over to my friend's apartment by no later than 9:00am tomorrow, and we will arrive at McFadden's (bar in DC) no later than 9:30am.

I must tell my readers this; First, if you are under-21, don't drink. Who am I kidding, DRINK! Just don't try to buy the beer yourself. And don't drink and drive (that of course applying to the crowd under AND over-21). Second, I'm not an alcoholic. Don't get the wrong idea about me. Heck, I don't drink terribly too much at all. I just believe that if you ARE going to go out and drink, at least make it count.

That being said, McFadden's is an Irish bar. It's not officially a sports bar, but it advertised that it would carry every single NCAA game tomorrow. So for at least one day, McFadden's will be an Irish sports bar. And on St. Patrick's Day and the opening round of the tourney! I'm in heaven!

It gets better. Starting at 9am, this bar offers $1 beers. Starting at noon, pitchers are $2. Starting at 3:00 there's some other ridiculously cheap beer offer. In other words this place is promoting heavy drinking for tomorrow. And I'm fine with that. That's why my in time tomorrow is approximately 9:30am.

My thing is this; if we allow bars to promote binge drinking to our citizens, how do we continue to say that marijuana is illegal in this country? I don't get it. We promote heavy drinking, something that has been proven to tear apart your liver and increase your excitability or angry emotions. On the other hand, we've got pot. Something that calms you down, has been proven to work in some medical conditions, and enhances your senses of touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing. We don't want that? Anyway, that little tangent was caused by catching part of a radio program late last night promoting the legalization of marijuana. I'm just saying, think about it!

Back to beer. I hope you're ready! 2 large events whose intentions are simply to drink beer and have fun. I'm ready, are you? Post your St. Patty's Day/NCAA tournament plans no matter how boring or how bizarrely cool. Just click on comments here at the bottom of this post and share your day!

Stay tuned for more Philthy, We'll be Right Back.