Loose Leaf Notes

1. I once had a bumper sticker that said ‘Why be normal?’ and I hung it on my car upside down.

2. Does “The Luck of the Irish” cancel out “Murphy’s Law” (if something can go wrong it will), or is it the other way around?

3. “Do you ever think how the grass feels being stepped on so much?” asks my 8-year-old grandson Bryce

4. It was Bryce who turned me on to Google Gravity, and we had a good laugh.  Click HERE and watch it go.

5. A dream / A sunbeam / An omelet / with olives / A new poem/ The news / A dustpan / and broom – Read the rest of “Day Job” HERE.

6. Shadow Patio art HERE. 

7. About the only thing I did this year to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day was to eat some Shepherd’s Pie, made by Daniel Weizenfeld at Floyd’s Blue Ridge Café, previously known as the Blue Ridge Restaurant.

8. But we’re going to hear Tom Rush at the Harvester on Friday and I’m planning on wearing my green Celtic triple Goddess scarf, which I have on in the video clip below.

9. Some Irish and American progressives are organizing a St. Patrick’s Day Rally Against Trump in New York on St. Patrick’s Day.  “We have a strong voice and we need to use it.  We have to say, ‘Look, on this day, on the day that everyone considers themselves a little bit Irish, we have to speak up for immigrants everywhere,” said Irish Labor Party Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, whose impassioned appeal for the Irish government to criticize Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric went viral in November. The rally, called Irish Stand will be held at Riverside Church and will feature speeches from a number of Irish civil rights advocates, including Ó Ríordáin and actor Gabriel Byrne.

10. “Bannon, Conway, Pence, Spicer, Flynn, Kelly, Ryan ― these are all Irish-Americans, these are all Irish names.  These are all people that in my judgment have completely forgotten their family history, because the Irish story is one that has been replicated now by other people… We were once the people who came to America as refugees. We were viewed by the British as being terrorists. We were people who suffered sectarian discrimination in the United Kingdom and in the U.S. as well.” – Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

11. Last week I went up the road to Tuggles Gap Motel to watch local singer/songwriter Morgan Wade make a music video. THIS is the finished product.

12. “With a gritty powerhouse delivery and her outlaw country twang, Wade comes across as rebel, but her songs are heartfelt.  She admits that her first public performance was to debut a song that she hoped would win back a lost love. “It made him cry,” she said.” – More from my Floyd Press story on Morgan HERE.

13. That’s me reading “My Grandmother’s Brogue” at a Spoken Word Open Mic on St. Patrick’s Day in 2007.

_________Thirteen Thursday