When Irish eyes are buyin': St. Paddy products offer a host of green

By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES The 8-inch "Shamrock Orbee Bone," made of a secret, scented plastic compound, goes for $12.95 at www. planetdog.com.
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More than 110 million Americans will celebrate the day in some fashion, including 19.2 million who'll go out on the town and another 14.2 million who'll attend private parties, says the National Retail Federation.

And whether you're looking for something to eat, drink, wear, laugh at, toss to your pet or perk up your bathroom, sure 'n' there's somebody out there selling it. Have you considered:

• A bright-green dog bone?

• A hand-cranked "Danny Boy" music box?

Seattle goes Irish There's more than one way to celebrate an Irish saint. For more events and information, see www.irishclub.org and click on "Irish Week." Friday 3/12: Green Stripe Laying on Fourth Avenue, 7 p.m., starting at Jefferson Street. Saturday: St. Patrick's Day Parade, 12:30 p.m., north on Fourth Avenue from Jefferson Street. Irish Week Festival events noon to 6 p.m., Seattle Center House, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday: St. Patrick's Day Dash, 9 a.m., from T.S. McHugh's, 21 Mercer St., to Safeco Field; 206-522-7711 or www.stpatsdash.com. Irish Week Festival events noon to 6 p.m., Seattle Center House. Wednesday: Mass for Peace, noon, Plymouth Congregational Church, Sixth Avenue and University Street. St. Patrick's Day Celebration, 11:30 a.m., Seattle Center House.

• Shamrock toilet paper?

• Reusable Irish "body crystals"?

• A human-size leprechaun suit?

• A key chain with a tiny book of Irish jokes? ("I was going to give him a nasty look," says O'Leary, "but he already had one.")

That's but a wee sample of what's on the Internet and in local shops such as Galway Traders in Ballard, a menagerie of Irish and Celtic items stuffed into six small rooms of a 1912 house.

St. Patrick-themed items at the shop on 15th Avenue Northwest range from 10-cent good-luck mints to a $180 nine-inch handmade clay statue of the saint. New items this year include the $16.95 music box, a little bigger than a matchbook, which plays the first four lines of "Danny Boy."

Retired psychiatrist Hugh Murray, born in New York to Irish immigrants, opened the shop 20 years ago with his wife, Eveline, who needed something to keep her busy after the couple's three children headed to college.

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Get cranking: A person-powered "Danny Boy" music box is available at Galway Traders in Ballard for $16.95.

Although it carries some novelty items, such as a 50-cent vial of "Blarney Bubbles," the shop also offers books and videos exploring Irish culture, history and language.

"It's a rich and interesting culture, and Irish people are taught to save and revere it," Murray said. "The Irish people were nearly killed off several times."

The shamrock, St. Patrick's Day's most recognized symbol in this country, is actually a "slightly negative cliché" to Irish in their homeland. "We'd been trying to avoid 'shamrockery,' but I see some of it has crept back in," Murray said, glancing down at a shamrock-dotted place mat.

But if shamrocks can be off-putting by themselves, what about printing them on a roll of toilet paper?

That $4 item, first offered last year, can be found at www.planetpromotions.makesparties.com, right there with shamrock-laden derbies, beads and party lights.

"I haven't heard any objections to it," said Cleo Demeiser, Internet-division spokesman for makesparties.com of New York. "We have toilet paper for various holidays, like New Year's and Halloween, and for 40th, 50th and 60th birthday parties. People take it in the spirit of good, clean fun."

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Keeping it clean: Not every son of Ireland may see the humor in "Shamrocks Toilet Paper;" $4 a roll at www.planetpromotions.makesparties.com.

Fun is also the key at downtown Seattle's Three Dog Bakery, which bakes up Irish Setter Shamrocks for the occasion. They're made from whole-wheat flour and applesauce, colored with ground spinach powder and topped with a brown carob paw print.

Despite the name, the $3.95 treats are not breed-specific. Three Dog Bakery owner Randy Randolph says, "I've seen a miniature rat terrier devour one in minutes."

Even dogs have choices on St. Patrick's Day.

Planet Dog, www.planetdog.com, of Portland, Maine, is offering flexible, bright green, nontoxic (one would hope!) chewable bones and Orbee balls that look like little emerald globes.

"We wanted to develop something for the four-legged leprechauns who want to enjoy the holiday as well," said Catherine Frost, marketing director.

Few holidays go by without notice at Seattle's Display & Costume store on Roosevelt Way Northeast, where $170 gets you an adult-size leprechaun outfit with green jacket, green pants and a shamrock-bedecked vest. Or save a few pennies and choose a "Kiss Me. I'm Irish" headband for $1.50.

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES All that glitters: Stick-on "Irish Body Crystals" are 98 cents a pack in 72-pack cases at www.dollardays. com.

For those who want to display their Irish connections, real or imagined, on their skin, "O'Malley's Irish body crystals," are made in that hotbed of Irish culture, China. Sold wholesale on www.dollardays.com, the little strings of pinhead-size colored dots form shamrock shapes or spell out phrases such as "Irish princess."

"A lot of what we might call 'small holidays' are becoming bigger," said the dollardays.com's marketing VP Martin Lakin.

Each year, manufacturers make more items not just for super-occasions such as Halloween and Christmas, but for a growing array of other special occasions. He wholesales the body-crystal sets in 72 packs for 98 cents apiece and suggests retailers ask $2.50.

And finally, a key question these days: Can you really have fun without consuming something low carb?

Oliver's Lounge to the rescue. Asked to concoct an Atkins-friendly cocktail at the bar in the Mayflower Park Hotel, lounge manager Steve Burney combined gin, which has no carbohydrates, with just a "wisp" of Chartreuse liqueur for color and flavor. The result: "The Lean, Green Martini."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company