Beware the Ides of March!

Welcome to The Crazy Writer Couple’s First Newsletter

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“The Crazy Writer Couple’s Crazy Anthology”

A Collection of Short Stories

by Elizabeth Horton-Newton & Neil Douglas Newton

Beware the Ides of March!

What does that mean?
The phrase “Beware the Ides of March” is a quote from William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, and is a soothsayer’s message to Caesar warning him of his impending death. In fact, Caesar was assassinated on March 15th, 44 BC. or the Ides of March!

Irish Themed Books by Indie Authors

“Shining Ones: Legacy of the Sidhe” by Sanna Hines

Read my review of this fascinating book here:
Shining Ones Review

Contemporary Romance Anthology

                                 Irish Fairy & Folk Tales

Children’s Books for St. Patrick’s Day

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CONTEST!

Write a short story (1000 words max) about the attached photo. Submit by March 15th, 2017

http://www.elizabethnnewton@outlook.com

Prizes? A Kindle copy of your choice of one of the Crazy Couples Books!

Winner announced in the April 2017 Newsletter.

St. Patrick’s Day: Legends and Facts

First the Facts

1.  St. Patrick was not Irish. He was fromWales.
   2. The humble shamrock was originally a teaching tool. St. Patrick is said to have used the three-leaved plant to explain the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to the pagan Irish.
   3. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York in the 1760s.
   4. For many years, blue was the color most often associated with St. Patrick. Green was considered unlucky. St. Patrick’s blue was considered symbolic of Ireland for many centuries and the Irish Presidential Standard is still blue.
   5. For many years, Dripsey in County Cork had the world’s shortest parade, just 77 feet, the distance between two pubs – The Weigh Inn and The Lee Valley. Currently, the town of Hot Springs, AR claims to have the shortest parade – a 98 foot route on Bridge Street. Recent participants included the Irish Elvises and the San Diego Chicken.
   6. In 2010, the Sydney Opera House went green to mark the 200th anniversary of St. Patrick’s Day there. In Sydney, St Patrick’s Day was first marked in 1810, when Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of New South Wales, provided entertainment for Irish convict workers.
   7. Irish flee the country. In Ireland on March 17 you’ll find many public figures, musicians, and dancers have traveled abroad to work on lucrative gigs elsewhere. Politicians also travel to drum up trade.
   8. In Chicago every year, the Plumbers Local 110 union dyes the river “Kelly” green. The dye lasts for about five hours.
   9. Traditionally, every year, the Irish leader hands a crystal bowl full of shamrock to the US President. The shamrock, grown in Kerry, is immediately destroyed by the Secret Service after the exchange.
   10. Guinness sales soar on St. Patrick’s Day. Recent figures show that 5.5 million pints of the black stuff are downed around the world every day. On St. Patrick’s Day that figure is doubled.

And the Legends…

1. St Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. It is said he after giving a sermon from Croagh Patrick mountain, Co Mayo, the Saint rang his bell, all the snakes in Ireland fled into the sea and drowned. However, it is very unlikely that Ireland had any snakes. The snakes were later used as a metaphor to represent paganism.
   2. St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland.
   In 431, before Patrick began preaching in Ireland, Pope Celestine reportedly sent a bishop known as Palladius “to the Irish believing in Christ”—an indication that some residents of the Emerald Isle had already converted by then.
   3.Corned beef is a classic St. Patrick’s Day dish.
   On St. Patrick’s Day, countless merrymakers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere savor copious plates of corned beef and cabbage. In Ireland, however, a type of bacon similar to ham is the customary protein on the holiday table. In the late 19th century, Irish immigrants in New York City’s Lower East Side supposedly substituted corned beef, which they bought from their Jewish neighbors, in order to save money.
   4. St. Patrick’s Day festivities have their roots in Ireland.
   Until the 1700s, St. Patrick’s Day was a Roman Catholic feast only observed in Ireland—and without the raucous revelry of today’s celebrations. Instead, the faithful spent the relatively somber occasion in quiet prayer at church or at home. That started to change when Irish immigrants living in the United States began organizing parades and other events on March 17 as a show of pride. For many people around the world, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a secular ode to Irish culture (or at least an oversimplified version of it), characterized by parties, music and iconic foods.

Famous Authors Born in March