IT’S TODAY: A third-generation Irish-American who has kissed the
Blarney Stone sent along the following Irish blessing to help us
mark St. Patrick’s Day:

“May those who love us, love us

And those that don’t love us,

May God turn their hearts;

And if He doesn’t turn their hearts

May he turn their ankles

So we’ll know them by their limping.”

So… do you suppose we would all be limping if everyone prayed
this blessing?

The reader also notes that kissing the Blarney Stone is harder
than you might think, involving climbing narrow stairs to the top
of Blarney Castle, lying flat on your back and thrusting your head
through an open hole in the floor to kiss the stone while holding
onto an iron grate.

An Irish person is there to help, for tips of course, and
another snaps your photo to sell you as a memento.

LUCKY MAN: Larry R. Fay of Anchorage, Alaska, passes along an
article about an Alaska man who holds the world record for finding
the most four-leaf clovers – more than 160,000!

Edward Martin Sr., 76, of Cooper Landing has been painstakingly
searching clover patches and handpicking the clovers since he was a
child. He started in New York but soon moved to greener pastures.
In 1957, he moved to Alaska, finding fields of clover, a sharp
contrast to the sparse patches on the Brooklyn sidewalks. After
retiring from his work constructing roads and pipelines, Martin’s
pastime became finding four-leaf clovers in the beautiful Alaskan
outdoors.

Martin considers himself a lucky man, who has led a pretty happy
life. His clover-picking efforts have been aided by school and
community groups which have helped him organize, count, and
preserve the thousands of clovers he collected.

George Kaminski previously held the record, plucking over 70,000
four leaf clovers from prison yards in Pennsylvania. Kaminski
complained that Martin’s “got the whole world” while Kaminski
himself only had “two or three acres.” But that’s the price of
being a clover picker and convicted criminal. He died recently,
leaving Martin with no real competition in the clover contest.

Martin has considered selling his massive collection, but living
in remote Alaska combined with a lack of computer knowledge has
held him back. Maybe money can’t buy happiness, but one day money
may be able to buy luck?