St. Pat's is widely celebrated by Bay Crossings readers who rejoice (sometimes too much) while invoking "Ireland until eternity."
BY PAUL DUCLOS
Published: March, 2018
St. Pat’s is widely celebrated by Bay Crossings readers who rejoice (sometimes too much) while invoking “Ireland until eternity.” March is also the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, they say. But how about them Bears?
Celebrating 102 years of Cal Boxing, the 2018 University of California Boxing Invitational is hosting competition among several universities on March 3 at the Haas Pavillion. It’s not a brawl you’ll be seeing, though. This is all “sweet science” amateur boxing featuring closely regulated three-round bouts.
The National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) sanctions dozens of college invitational shows each season, culminating in three regionals and one national tournament in the spring. The regional tournaments in March give teams a chance to enter their athletes in the official brackets and out of tournament matches. The top finishers in the tournament brackets advance to the national tournament in April.
For more information, see calboxing.weebly.com.
St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations at the United Irish Cultural Center
While the Fighting Irish have become legend in this country in all manner for sport and military history, St. Pat’s will be a gentle affair at the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco this month. A California nonprofit corporation organized to provide its members with beautiful dining and banquet facilities for social, recreational, athletic and cultural activities, it will host a dinner on March 17 for all who wish to come.
Holiday celebrations get under way on March 9 at the center when Kerry Irish Productions presents an Irish “hooley” (“boisterous party”) featuring performances of instrumental music, song and dance.
Lovers of Irish-American culture may also wish to check out another event at the center on March 11: the Irish Literary & Historical Society’s Annual St. Patrick’s Banquet. Michael Casey, president of the San Francisco Labor Council, will speak about the history of the Irish in San Francisco’s labor movement.
For more information, see irishcentersf.org.
New Book Features Local Misfits, Merchants and Mayhem
Finally, those who wish to celebrate the famous (and infamous) characters whose charismatic personalities and perseverance created the institutions, businesses and cultural fabric of San Francisco might wish to pick up a copy of Misfits, Merchants and Mayhem by local author Lee Bruno.
This is a collection of essays and historic photographs containing tales of some of the enterprising entrepreneurs, reckless financiers, tireless reformers, visionary architects and city planners, and bohemian artists, musicians and poets who all heeded the call of promise and headed to the Bay Area.
Ever since discovering his great grandfather Reuben Hale’s inspiring letters and speeches, Lee Bruno has been digging into San Francisco’s rich history. Bruno, who received his master’s degree in science journalism from Boston University, is the author of Panorama: Tales from San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition (Cameron + Company) and has been writing for over 20 years about business and technology for The Economist, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Red Herring magazine, and Wired, among others. He has lived in San Francisco for more than 30 years, raising a family of four boys with his wife and enjoying long open-water swims with the eccentrics at the South End Rowing Club.
The book’s engaging introduction is written by Charles Fracchia, the founder and president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, who has given talks on a variety of historic subjects to such groups as the Commonwealth Club and the Mechanics’ Institute. He currently lectures at the Fromm Institute at USF. Charles has a BA from USF, an MLS from the University of California, an MA from San Francisco State, and an MA in theology from the Graduate Theological Union/Berkeley. He was one of the founders of Rolling Stone and has written many books and articles about San Francisco history.
For more information, see cameronbooks.com.
Follow Paul Duclos’ Cultural Currents online with his blog at: www.duclosculturalcurrents.com
