Friends, it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago. Time to pick your parade outfit, find your favorite Irish pub, and celebrate with friends and family.

I’ve teamed up with Phil Thompson of Cape Horn Illustration to create a card that celebrates the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago. My meditation on the subject (see below) inspired his wonderful illustration and it’s our gift to you.

Please feel free to download the card here and we hope you’ll share the work with friends and family, near and far. If you’re interested, there’s also a high quality image of the card here as well.

St. Patrick’s Day, Chicago Style: A Meditation by Max Grinnell

In the Windy City, the Chicago River is everything and nothing. People pass over it on rusty old bridges without a second thought, and whether on foot, bicycle, or car, it is nothing.

On St. Patrick’s Day, it is everything.

People travel thousands of miles to experience the dyeing of this much maligned body of water. As the green dye (natural, you know) courses through the river’s very being, the crowds gather close, they huddle on the Michigan Avenue Bridge, they amble around down on the Riverwalk, they make merry on the packed all-you-can-drink party buses, and so on.



And this tradition? Is it as old as the Cliffs of Moher? The arrival of the first Irishman to this here Wild Onion gathering? Or the first pint of Guinness poured in these here parts?

No, no, and no: it just stretches back to 1962, when one Stephen M. Bailey first tossed out the idea of turning the river oh-so-kelly green. This first generation Irishman by way of Bridgeport brought together his plumbers and 100 pounds of dye that first year to make it all come true.

Yea, the river ran green for a week and some said if you squinted your eyes you felt as if you were on the River Shannon.

That’s a bit of exaggeration indeed, but no one ever accused an Irishman of understating anything, don’t you know?



This year will be just like every other year, but the participants will change, of course. Some from last year’s celebration will be gone and others will have come to take their place.

But why don’t you come on down? Take a look at the river, see how she flows.