The Other Story of St. Patrick - Norwegians

     The reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day is because this is
when St. Patrick drove the Norwegians out of Ireland.  It seems that some
centuries ago, many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of
the Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time, and food
was scarce. The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the
area, leaving the  Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes.

     St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands, as most Irishmen do,
decided the Norwegians had to go. Secretly, he organized the Irish
IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians). Irish
members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that prohibited merchants from
selling ice boxes or ice to the Norwegians, in hopes that their fish would
spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a colder climate where
their fish would keep.

     Well, the fish spoiled, all right, but the Norwegians, as everyone
knows today, thrive on spoiled fish. So, faced with failure, the desperate
Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of
night and sprinkled the rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the
Norwegian invaders.

     But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought this only added to
the flavor of the fish, and they liked it  so much they decided to call it
"lutefisk", which is Norwegian for "luscious fish". Matters became even
worse for the Irishmen when the Norwegians started taking over the Irish
potato crop and making something called "lefse."

     Poor St. Patrick was at his wit's end, and finally on March 17th ,
he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to "GO TO HELL." So they all
got in their boats and emigrated to Minnesota...The only other paradise on
earth where smelly fish, old potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be
found in abundance.

     And now you know the rest of the story.