The Luck of the Irish

Today is St. Patrick's Day.

A year ago, when he was still running for president, Barack Obama wore a green necktie on St. Patrick's Day and, when asked about it, observed that it never hurts to align yourself with the Irish on St. Patrick's Day when you're running for president.

I learned yesterday, as I watched the evening news (I forget which anchor it was who provided this little tidbit of information), that Obama is 3.1% Irish — on his mother's side.

That isn't as much Irish lineage as many presidents have had. But it's what we've got. And, with a new CNN.com poll showing that the number of respondents who think that the recession could become another Great Depression within the coming year has gone up seven points since December, we need all the luck of the Irish we can get.

By the way, it is my understanding that blue, not green, was the color that was originally associated with St. Patrick. Green apparently became the color of St. Patrick's Day as a by-product of the phrase "the wearing of the green," which referred to wearing a shamrock on your clothes. It was also affiliated with Roman Catholicism, since the shamrock is a three-leaved plant and, thus, symbolic of the Holy Trinity.

Anyway, that is my trivia for today.

Have you had enough of the recession? I know I have. Let's get on with the next boom.