I will now offer a running or should I say marching joke of more than, see the headline of the post below, “Gee, a wee bit of McGee,” about Upper Midwest parades that glamly bleed Irish green — going both east and west statewise from the Twin Cities. So you could call this a “yarn,” another four-letter word. I don’t know if posted inside the Irish Gazette, which I contributed to, publisher Brooks found a way to get around to this yet, or if he for sure will because of multiple health considerations that go way past what most humans face, and that’s a huge statement, but he took special effort to pen a piece about a parade that rivals what you will see crowded into St. Paul. This being set in of all places sparse South Dakota, I think in Sioux Falls — Fargo too was mentioned — but regardless, it should soon be in his online edition of the Gazette. (Both versions include all things Irish you need to know. And this website, too, is packed with more St. Pat’s info, some of which you can already see below.)
This parade-and-more data, broadly, amazes me, along the lines of what you’ll see written on this site and hopefully also in the Gazette, because these places that are like River Falls and New Richmond in western Wisconsin, even if lacking the tens of thousands in their metro area — if they even have a metro area — still have lineups that will see thousands lining the streets to watch. Dressed all in green and seeing, parading in front of them, more green, of so many shades it approaches gold, on the streets themselves. Shamrocks and such will put parades of other holidays to shame.
So if you are in Minneapolis, boring on St. Pat’s Day as opposed to St. Paul, and don’t want to stay put too far, consider straying and making a road trip east or west — whether it takes mere minutes or several hours, as I freely make comparisons. Forego foraying north or south, and then there’s North versus South Dakota, so Iowa and the Iron Range loose out.
OK, I will now name my man that started this, being my charade written in a department inside this website, of words running on, because it is oh so Irish. His name is Fenn.
And the referenced names of O’Connor and O’Connell, as a lettered postlude past The Story of O, start with six. And as I also referenced four-letter-words — beginning but not ending with my main doorway, but no, not backdoor man — the band Motley Crue, embodying both lengths, and led by musician Nikki Sixx, although it could be Thin Lizzy. And is there not an Irish name Sinn? And between those first numbers, namely five, there are those in “music lover,” in both its words, and one of those is the just shorter Fenn, who is forever tied in my mind to Dibbo. The “icon rock club,” more letters that are four invoked, after five and six.
But where does all this health consideration stuff weigh in? The wife of Brooks known as Mary Sue, his editor, has penned a big part of her stroke of a journey — I’ll let it speak for herself, as the first-person story is on the newsstands now via the Irish Gazette — and she is the Distinguished Irish Woman of the St. Paul parade. The other half of this regional “power couple,” five and six letters again, has kept himself as busy with being a caregiver to her, as he has been putting out the latest Irish paper edition. Just as much, Brooks said that on the production end of things is something he has not seen in 37 years in his position — for you newbies that goes back as far as Reagan and Carter, more six letter words — were woe after woe, and he really feels for the guy he’s worked with for that long who had now been working away as best he could through his own health difficulties, minute by minute, to do more than a journeyman’s job. It seems for Brooks and Crew, more such letters, although not complaining, one health problem after another confronts them. And has in one form or another, for years.
That is the short story of where you will find what, on holiday parades and the like, in both of our publications, whether in print or online. (More of my stuff was supposed to get in, there as well, but ended up getting axed because the number of pages were cut in half. So from a selfish standpoint, this is a guide on where to find my posts.) And the Irish Gazette is on the stands all around the metro, and will soon include the Hudson area, after my nap, as your starting point to this journey — even though you are reading about the ideas first in the instantaneousness of being online.
A last way to salvage my “bad dad joke” online, inside material. River Falls until 2020 had bed races as part of its annual Irish extravanganza. Many of the each-room hospital kind. Can they adjust neck versus leg height from the tile floor, or pavement, for reason of comfort or competition?
My dad has had to shift nursing homes, and that’s no joke. And not funny. But what is, is the (back)story of simply making the bed you sleep in, as in you have to possess one to make it. Where he was, the bed came with the (astronomical) price. Where he is going to, provide your own. Or rent one of there’s, for a daily rate that rivals what you’d pay monthly for apartment rent. To defray? Go through Medicare or Caid? Go figure. To arrange for one — in what should not be rocket science to have one where you can raise your feet, as opposed to the rest of you, different in their provision — you might be on the phone for hours with someone from a country where most people sleep on a mat on the floor. Shifting your voice that no one will hear or understand anyway, from one operator to the next. And the supervisor is out until April.
The ending joke to this rant? If mom and dad invest enough money to get the Gonzo 5000 version hospital bed, they could recoup their costs by winning the River Falls bed races in all categories — including the appearance one, as my stringingly-legged old dad is still as attractive as myself his son, and that’s non-jokingly an ouch, although we just did the joint photo-cover-shoot for Bed-Ridden Quarterly — but wait, that would require further investment in time travel, as the races became deceased in 2020! All full 5000 circa 2020? More four-letter words.