What a weekend.  Once the rain stopped late Friday, it was Chamber of Commerce weather combined with Textbook or better everything else.  Not sure I could swing the cold or heat or chaos, but there is nothing quite like New York City (and Hoboken), especially now.  This was yesterday.

Still, many (OK, actually none) have asked "Portico, why this trip, and why now?"

As I mentioned here last week, my birthday is 12/8, and it's been a tradition for Julie and me to visit Ol' Purple Label in NYC in early December for literally decades.  Things are a bit different now, but we've made a triumphant return and our undisclosed location within Hoboken is sweet. 

But I digress from today's topic.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of people have early- to mid-December birthdays?  Here is a list of friends, some readers of this blog and others not, that have birthdays right around this time.  It's quite a list.

8 of us born within a span of 11 days - kinda strange, no?  All born around the same time, and I know each of them?  That would imply there are even more people with birthdays around this period that I don't know.  I personally am not aware of a time of the year with that many birthdays.

But what am I even talking about?  I am talking about St. Patrick's Day, which is held on March 17 each year.

What do people do on St. Patrick's Day?  They drink and . . . well, can you guess what's about 40 weeks later? 

Now, some will certainly discount my theory, citing coincidence or just plain calling BS on the whole shebang (ha!).  But I have it from an excellent source - my own mother - that is how I personally happened. 

Don't believe me?  Here's my mother just a couple of short years before 3/17/1963.  It's a bit blurry, but yes, that's an ice bucket on my dear departed mother's head.  What could possibly go wrong?

So, this St. Patrick's Day, be careful.  You literally don't know what could result otherwise.

Fun Fact:  be even more careful between Christmas and New Year's Day.  That's actually when the most babies are put in the oven.

Who knew Rikki Aurich was such a boating advocate?

I completely agree - I'd say it's better than even just walking to work.  As I replied to Rikki - I've always felt a dream set-up would be walking to the ferry from your Sausalito or Tiburon home, cruising to SF's Ferry Building, and then walking to your office in Embarcadero Center.

Although being retired doesn't suck either.

Thank you to any one that is reading this newsletter.

No, no U2, as that's too obvious.  Instead, here's an album recorded in early 1963 and released in December of the same year - much like me.  Here is America's finest musician, Miles Davis, and the Textbook gem Quiet Nights. 

Well, maybe not that quiet, given today's subject.