Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The official end of Mardi Gras is when the police drive down Bourbon Street at midnight with water hoses.  This merely disperses the crowd.  It does not end the festivities.  The slovenly party-goers retreat to less mainstream drinking venues, where they form pockets of drunken resistance.  The next day many people leave town.  But among the locals there are embers still linger.

And that is why, when St. Patrick’s Day rolls around a few weeks later, it doesn’t take much to fan those embers into a full-fledged party bonfire.  One place where the flames rise up quickly is Molly’s On The Market, a great bar owned by a fellow named Jim Monahan.  Yesterday I grabbed my camera and rode my faithful scooter over to Molly’s to check things out.  I ran into Tom O’Connor (go figure!) and we chatted for awhile.  And then Monahan’s Lieutenant, Bryan, invited Tom to join the horse carriage parade that was forming outside the bar.  I waved goodbye to Tom and took a few pictures of the crowd, which was motley to say the least.

I was hoping to get a good one of the goat on a leash, but just couldn’t pull it off.  Oh, well.  Maybe next year.  Apparently, the goat’s a regular at Molly’s, although he lives in the Bywater.

I hear he’s Irish too, but I’m not buying it.