Happy St. Patrick's Day

Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, a holiday with an interesting history in terms of Anglo-American relations. The English don't celebrate it, or at least didn't when I was living in the UK; they didn't seem to be aware of it. It's an Irish holiday, and therefore has functioned at times as a statement of defiance against England's historical domination and colonizing of Ireland. But because immense numbers of Irish emigrated to the US, and particularly to America's northern cities, St. Patrick's Day became a big deal, almost an unofficial national holiday, in America. There are big parades marking it in Boston, New York, and Chicago. The Chicago River is dyed green for the occasion, as in the photo here, and tradition calls for wearing green items of clothing and drinking green-colored beer, and lots of it. (If green beer isn't readily available, tradition permits drinking beer of any color at all. Irish whiskey is also encouraged, as is "Irish coffee." The Irish, as you probably know, are stereotyped as big drinkers.)

Like every other American holiday, St. Pat's is also the occasion for big sales and (alleged) discounts in most of the stores, including those whose business has nothing to do with Ireland. Here, though, is an example from one business that does.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

Why don't the French speak better English?

That's the question discussed in this article, which cites statistics showing how relatively poorly the French do on tests of English. Various theories are then proposed to explain this, ranging from the way French children are raised to the way languages are taught in French schools to the fact that most English TV and movies in France are dubbed rather than subtitled. I would be interested in knowing how the factors described here are different in the Czech Republic. The students and others I deal with at the university here (luckily for me) speak fine English, as do a surprising number of waiters, store clerks, ticket agents and train conductors. What are Czechs doing to teach and learn English that the French aren't?

America - Land of Free

Free something but if Bloomberg has his way not a free choice. The mayor of New York, Bloomberg, prepared another ban. After banning smoking in public, he decided to ban the sale of large soda drinks. Apparently Americans are getting too fat and are not fit to choose for themselves what to eat and drink.
Fortunately, not all common sense is dead and his ban was turned down on the grounds that there are too many loop holes.

The Falklands Referendum

Islanders will go to the polls on March 10-11 to vote on a simple yes or no question: "Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?"

The Government of the Falkland Islands has arranged for outside observers to monitor the referendum in order to prove it is free and fair.

Argentina claims British forces stole the territory from them 180 years ago and have ruled it as a colony ever since.

Islanders have predicted an overwhelming vote for "yes."

The authorities in the Falklands hope the vote will send a firm message to Argentina that islanders want to remain British.

In the 80s there was a war between the Argentina and Britain over the  Falkland Islands. It finished then with a great victory for Britain and Margaret Thatcher's government.