Erin Go Braugh

Am I missing something, or is there some point to St. Patrick's Day besides getting drunk?

I know, I'm showing my age and I have to admit that I did my share of vomiting on the lawn of the fraternity house back in the day. Journalists,especially like me of Irish heritage, have been known to have a quaff or two. Not not to sound too prim, but the first beverage we have run out of at the last few annual reporter shows has been, of all things, water.

But last night we were in downtown Albany to see a play, and were shocked(!) to see what the old cop shows used to call 'youths' weaving on foot through traffic with beers and other drinks in their hands, oblivious to traffic.

In the doorway of an office building, two guys were scuffling, apparently paying no attention to the cops who were trying to break it up.

Later, we saw a police car on the sidewalk in front a couple of bars, apparently trying to break up a group of drunken revelers.

A good sign: several parking spots in front of these establishments were reserved for taxis, so I have to assume people are smarter about drinking and driving than we used to be.

Not to go too far out on a limb here, but I'm guessing many were SUNY Albany students, voted one of the best "party schools" (most drinking?) in America a few years ago.

I remember an intern we had a few years ago (like most of our interns, a SUNY Albany product and, like most of them as well, first-rate) who told me, only half-kidding, that while he and his fellow students were very responsible on Wednesdays, weekends on campus tended to start on Thursdays and end on Tuesdays.

We're not often downtown Saturday nights, but I assume that the level of activity last night was greater than normal because there was a St. Patrick's Day parade earlier in the day to mark...what, five days before the holiday? All of the green shirts and green party hats tended to give us that impression anyway.

There. Pardon the holier-than-thou tone, but since booze and chemo don't mix that well, I can afford to be a modern-day prohibitionist.