We're going to lay off our typical beer-centric blog today in anticipation of having to talk about beer non-stop for the next 24 hour period. 

Let's see, it shouldn't be hard to find a topic, as brewers we're used to combining seemingly incongruous ingredients to make something interesting.

Well, St. Patrick's Day is upon us.  That could be one ingredient.  It's a fine holiday if you ask us but people seem to have lost touch with the reason for the celebration; St. Patrick himself.   Because of this we've petitioned the government to change its name to "Beer Day".

No response as of this writing...

Ah-Ha!  Here's a good second ingredient; we are currently eyeing our U.S. Census form.  So let's see what we can come up with in terms of Irish related Census numbers...

36.3 million

Number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2008. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself - 4.4 million. Irish was the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.

135,000

Number of Irish-born U.S. residents in 2008. Those from Ireland are much older - a median of 56 years old - and have a higher median household income - $70,591 - than U.S. residents as a whole - 37 years and $52,029, respectively.

24%

Percent of Massachusetts residents who were of Irish ancestry in 2008. This compares with a rate of 12 percent for the nation as a whole.

Irish-Americans today

32%

Percentage of people of Irish ancestry, 25 or older, who had a bachelor's degree or more education. In addition, 92 percent of Irish-Americans in this age group had at least a high school diploma. For the nation as a whole, the rates were 28 percent and 85 percent.

$59,290

Median income for households headed by an Irish-American, higher than the $52,029 for all households. In addition, 9 percent of people of Irish ancestry were in poverty, lower than the rate of 13 percent for all Americans.

39%

Percentage of employed civilian Irish-Americans 16 or older who worked in management, professional, and related occupations. In addition, 27 percent worked in sales and office occupations; 15 percent in service occupations; 10 percent in production, transportation, and material moving occupations; and 8 percent in construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair occupations.

71%

Percentage of householders of Irish ancestry who owned the home in which they live, with the remainder renting. For the nation as a whole, the homeownership rate was 67 percent.

Places to spend the day

Four

Number of places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, Texas, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,807 residents. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 153 residents and Shamrock, Okla., 123.

Nine

Number of places in the U.S. that share the name of Ireland's capital, Dublin. Since Census 2000, Dublin, Calif., has surpassed Dublin, Ohio, as the most populous of these places - 44,297 compared with 38,536 as of July 1, 2008.

There's also Emerald Isle, N.C., with 3,641 residents. Other appropriate places to spend the day: the township of Irishtown, Ill., several places or townships named "Clover" - in South Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania -  and the township of Cloverleaf, Minn.

SLAINTE!  And be careful out there, they don't call St. Patrick's "amateur day" for nothing.

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There are so many subjects of topical interests this week, I feel like a fat guy at the Golden Corral: health care reform, congressional tickle parties, my fantasy baseball draft, St. Paddy's Day and Bracketology; and they're all wrapped in delicious bacon for around ten dollars...sorry about that Marie!  Don't worry, we'll find a suitable vegetarian metaphor for all our non-meat eaters.  Souper Salad, perhaps?  Anyway, bring on the buffet!

NCAA's - No Calhoun, UNC, or Arizona - it's going to be the most exciting NIT ever.  Seems like Virginia Tech and Mississippi State got hosed, and the Midwest bracket is way too loaded.  Did Duke get an unfairly favorable position?  Can Syracuse survive the first two rounds without their starting center?  Will your bracket be in shambles by early Saturday afternoon?  The answer to all these questions is likely yes.

St. Patrick's Day - There's not very much to be intrigued by in the history of St. Patrick and his day, save for the fact that he wasn't Irish or even an alcoholic.  Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the answer to this question, as posed in the movie The Fugitive:  If they can dye the Chicago river green on Wednesday, why can't they dye it blue the other 364 days of the year?

Health Care Reform - We've heard this before, but it does look like we will finally have a vote through the house this week.  So if you're over 65, you'd better take one last look at your will because the death panels are coming.  I find this genuinely frightening - does it mean the end of 60 Minutes or will they just hand it over to Anderson Cooper?

Former congressman Eric Massa - I've always considered the Village People as the ultimate authority on homosexual subtext, and now I feel like they've let us all down big time.  Where is the snorkeling reference in "In the Navy"?  And why isn't there a conservative politician represented in the group?  Can't we switch him out with the guy in Indian headdress?  That dude never really fit in and it seems racially insensitive too.

My fantasy baseball draft - Don't worry, that was a joke.  Fantasy teams are a lot like children: endlessly fascinating if they are yours, almost completely uninteresting if you've got no stake in them.