Quote of the Day (Joni Mitchell, on Her ‘Irish Blood’)

“I couldn’t walk. I had to learn how again. I couldn’t talk. Polio didn’t grab me like that, but the aneurysm took away a lot more, really….I got my speech back quickly, but the walking I’m still struggling with. But I mean, I’m a fighter. I’ve got Irish blood!” — Canadian-born singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell quoted in Cameron Crowe, “Interview: Joni Mitchell: 'I'm a Fool for Love. I Make the Same Mistake Over and Over,'” The Guardian (U.K.), Oct. 27, 2020

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress accompanying this post, showing honoree Joni Mitchell, was taken at the Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Ceremony at the Library of Congress, Dec. 4, 2021.

Quote of the Day (Bairbre McCarthy, on the Irish Lephrechaun)

“Often he is seen sitting cross-legged with a tiny hammer in his hand, working on a fairy shoe…. He is no bigger than three feet tall and sometimes as small as twelve inches. Usually, he wears a suit of green and has fine leather shoes adorned with silver buckles. Sometimes he wears a cap with a feather. The leprechaun is the keeper of the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow and he knows where all the wealth of the world is buried. If you are lucky enough to catch him, you must keep your eyes on him at all times and not allow him to distract your attention or he will disappear. If he does not outsmart you he can make you very wealthy and make your wishes come true!”— Irish storyteller (and County Clare native) Bairbre McCarthy, Irish Leprechaun Stories (2018)

Bonus Quote of the Day (JFK, on the Irish, Later Immigrants, and Nativism)

"The Irish were the first to endure the scorn and discrimination later to be inflicted, to some degree at least, on each successive wave of immigrants by already settled  ‘Americans.”—President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), A Nation of Immigrants (1964)

My deepest wish is that the ugly un-American instinct of nativism dies at the hands of an Irish-American leader!

(A tip of my cap to my longtime friend Rob Polner for bringing this all-too-apropos quotation to my attention in the Age of Trump.)

Quote of the Day (Brendan Behan, on the Irish and Cynicism)

“It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.”—Irish man of letters Brendan Behan (1923-1964) quoted in Brendan Behan, Interviews and Recollections (1982), edited by E. H. Mikhail (1982)

Photo of the Day: Fountain, Forsyth Park, Savannah GA

The choice of this fountain in Forsyth Park in Savannah for my "Photo of the Day" was entirely arbitrary; I could have taken almost any other picture of this lovely, tree-lined antebellum park and the selection would probably have been as good. Indeed, my only regret was that I didn’t take even more pictures than I did in the five minutes or so I spent there on a tour of the city two weeks ago when I was on vacation.

The fountain was placed at the north end of the park in 1858, three years before the Civil War. Both long-time residents and tourists such as myself have, through the years, been grateful that somehow this Parisian-style urban landmark was spared the ravages of the conflict that tore so much of the rest of Georgia apart.

That is just as well; this part of the city had already, 80 years before the war, seen some of the bloodiest scenes of the American Revolution, as French soldiers dug trenches to help their Continental Army allies in the siege of Savannah in September and October 1779. American and French losses in the defeat amounted to 244 killed, 584 wounded, and 120 captured, while the British suffered 40 killed, 63 wounded, and 52 missing.

Since then, the city has seen not red blood, but once a year, on March 17, a far different color. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, the water in the fountain is dyed green. It must be quite a scene here during one of the biggest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the U.S.

Years ago, a Savannah native autographed my copy of his first novel this way: "You've been bitten by Savannah. Are you in love?" With scenes like this in Forsyth Park, how could I not be?