For decades Miami University (Ohio) students and their favorite uptown bars
have celebrated Green Beer Day on the Thursday before Spring break.  A
hostile university administration, aggressive policing, and predicted bad
weather should make 2005 relatively uneventful.  Yes, the beer is colored
green.  And, yes, the bars do open early to help everybody get drunk before
breakfast.  Ironically, until the 1970s Dublin bars couldn't sell alcoholic
beverages on St. Patrick's Day which was considered an Irish religious
observance and not carnival.