So, I bought every $1 scratcher at Duane Reade and I embraced someone’s Irish heritage to see if I could leverage it into cold, hard cash. Now, as a half-Jewish American of mostly Eastern European origin, I’m not exceptionally Irish but I’ve been to Ireland and I own a green hat and certainly Irish culture has been appropriated for less.
Patrick’s day, rather than go into Manhattan for LepreCon, I stayed home and used the power of science to investigate this so-called Irish luck. The luck of the Irish: Is it a real thing or just a Disney Channel movie where a leprechaun plays basketball? We’ve all heard of our Celtic friends’ good fortune (fortune that didn’t prevent famine or centuries of oppression), a claim that apparently came from Irish American success in the Gold Rush (and it was kind of a “screw you” at that). Do these things bring lotto luck? Irish they did! Photos by Sam Weiss.
