It's a great day for the Irish…

So, you can wait until St. Patrick's Day to enjoy the spectacle of drunken Irishmen running amok, or you can get on a plane headed to Cuba with a well-lubricated pack of them now and see the melee up close and personal.

As an aside, I especially like the account that referred to the fighting Irish as "hooligans," because I couldn't help but wonder whether the author was making an especially subtle joke at the expense of the sons of Eire. It's generally accepted that the etymology of "hooligan" lies in the long-standing perception that the Irish are a trouble-making lot, whether it's a corruption of the surname "Houlihan" or an allusion to a real-life family of rowdies named Hooligan.

And don't get me started on "paddy wagon."