The St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in South Boston is akin to binge drinking, which is somewhat apropos because that is what happens afterwards on the parade route up Broadway.
The first time is a heady mix of people and politics. The regret comes later, and the bad jokes get tougher to stomach as the years go by and you get older.
Gov. Deval Patrick once submitted as part of his routine a video of a fake press conference, which featured him wearing a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency vest. When asked why, Patrick said, “because this breakfast is so often a disaster.”
But the pols still keep coming. On Sunday, Gov. Maura Healey and others will stuff themselves into the Ironworkers Hall. Sen. Nick Collins will take the stage as the host, along with Helen McEntee, Ireland’s minister of defence and minister for foreign affairs.
The jokes, crafted with help from sometimes-reluctant aides, take flight, and some crash down. (“I hate this event. I hate it so much,” one Beacon Hill staffer muttered to MASSterList earlier this week.)
Delivery is one problem these days. Most politicians know to ask for votes, but few are aware that asking for a laugh is something that experienced comedians advise against.
An election year adds another layer. “The barbs are a little sharper,” said Rep. Bruce Ayers, a Quincy Democrat who has attended past breakfasts. Healey is running for a second term, and Collins is facing a Democratic primary challenger in Latoya Gayle, whose campaign manager comes from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s City Hall.
There is also occasional blowback for the jokes. Former sheriff Guy Glodis famously ran afoul of Mayor Thomas Menino and breakfast organizers after saying the mayor made a $2,000 suit look like a “sack of potatoes.” Glodis was not invited back for a while.
And some North End restaurateurs, angry with Wu over outdoor dining fees, tried to use her joke about their lawsuit and a recent snowstorm – “I’m getting used to dealing with problems that are expensive, disruptive and white” – against her by claiming it was evidence of bias against Italian men. A federal judge ruled in favor of having a sense of humor.
Sen. Sal DiDomenico’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner, which started 13 years ago in Charlestown and has become more popular among pols than the breakfast, has typically provided an opportunity to test drive some of the jokes, but this year it’s scheduled for March 19, after the singing in Southie.
The days of Bill Bulger hosting the breakfast, when saints and rogues squeezed under one roof and reeled off jokes and rejoinders, are now fully in the rearview mirror. (For a long-ago oral history, Bulger recalled when U.S. Sen. Leverett Saltonstall, a Brahmin, claimed Irish heritage. Another pol, Sonny McDonough, cut in by saying, “It’s on the chauffeur’s side.”)
But hope springs eternal for South Boston. Maybe one more time won’t hurt. “I hope it’s fun,” said Patrick, the former governor, earlier this week.
His days on the dais are behind him, but he did offer some advice as someone who was a target for jokes in the early days of his governorship. “Whoever is on the menu this year should just relax, not take it personally, and enjoy the music,” he said.
I once made a constituent service request to Rep. Stephen Lynch, asking him at the next breakfast to retell the one about the man who fell in a vat of Guinness. (He didn’t.) If you plan to be in Southie on Sunday, come over and say hello. I’ll be the one not wearing any green. If you plan to watch from your couch, send your unfiltered takes to: gin@massterlist.com.
HAPPENING TODAY
8:30 | Charles River Regional Chamber holds fireside chat with Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of Meet Boston, about upcoming events like the World Cup and the American Revolution’s 250th anniversary. | Charles River Country Club, 483 Dedham St., Newton Centre | Register
10:00 | Sen. Ed Markey holds a press conference on how the war in Iran is affecting oil and gas prices. Dan Gatti, director of the Acadia Center‘s transportation program, is set to join Markey. | Mobil gas station 333 Eastern Ave., Malden | Livestream
11:00 | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu offers remarks at The Irish Pastoral Centre‘s annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. | Florian Hall, 55 Hallet Street, Dorchester
12:00 | Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos attend the third annual Dominican Independence Day Breakfast. | 20 Ericsson Street, Boston
6:45 | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll attend the South Boston Citizens’ Association‘s annual Evacuation Day banquet. | Menino Convention & Exhibition Center, 415 Summer Street, Seaport
‘THE CELL PHONES WERE BURNING UP’
Sen. Paul Feeney’s wife Laura runs a daycare in Foxborough. When asked who had the harder job this week, as he helped wrangle members of the select board and local organizers of the World Cup, the senator said, “She has the toughest job on the planet Earth dealing with preschoolers. But this has been quite a process, it really has. I mean, anytime you get into negotiations like this and kind of back and forth, it tends to get messy.”
The select board wanted an upfront payment to cover security costs, and faced off with the Kraft Group and Boston Soccer 26. They finally reached an agreement, announced Wednesday night, after multiple meetings in which select board members threatened to withhold a key license for the soccer matches to be hosted at Gillette Stadium.
“The cell phones were burning up,” Feeney said, crediting Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Congressman Jake Auchincloss for also getting involved. “It came together over the last few days,” he said. Next week’s deadline, when there was another select board hearing, was a key motivator, he added.
“It was a commitment by everybody to stay at the table. That’s what got this deal done. People being committed to moving forward, not putting the line in the sand,” he said. “The town of Foxborough was right and steadfastly resolved to ensure that taxpayers didn’t bear the burden of funding, and that the police and the fire chiefs had exactly what they needed to run a safe event this summer.”
Lawmakers and their staffers will get an update Wednesday at the State House on funding, transportation, and public safety issues surrounding the World Cup. At the meeting, which is closed to press, they’ll be hearing from officials in Gov. Healey’s budget office, as well as other state agencies involved in World Cup planning.
FROM BEACON HILL
CONSTITUTIONAL OPINION: Senators are asking for an advisory opinion from the Supreme Judicial Court on whether two proposed ballot questions violate the state constitution. One expands the public records law to cover the Legislature and the governor’s office, and the other would regulate legislative stipends. – State House News Service
MARIANO’S EPISTLE: Responding to a column by Joan Vennochi, House Speaker Ron Mariano penned a letter to the Globe, calling Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s quest for a legislative audit “unconstitutional and politically motivated.” – Boston Globe
CHARTER SCHOOLS: The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the state attorney general’s office, which argued that charter schools must comply with the public records law. Mystic Valley Regional Charter School’s refusal to comply was at the heart of the case. – CommonWealth Beacon
EMAIL ASK: MassFiscal, a group critical of the climate industry, released emails obtained through a public records request that they say show Jamie Van Nostrand, the former chair of the Department of Public Utilities, networking for a post-government job. – Boston Herald
NEWS NEXT DOOR
NEWTON’S NIGHTMARE ENDS: The Italian Street Crisis appears to be finally over. Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s instructions last summer for her public works department to remove red, white and green lines from a street in Nonantum sparked multiple news stories. The new mayor, Marc Laredo, figured out a way around Fuller’s argument that state law called for the removal: Adding parking lines. – Newton Beacon
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: A UMass Amherst program is looking to help airports and the FAA deal with a shortage of air traffic controllers, and inviting high school classes to its Chicopee simulator facility. – GBH News
SCHOOL SPENDING: Lenox’s proposed school budget is expected to see a 9% increase in spending, due to special education and benefits costs. – Berkshire Eagle
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THE SUNDAY SHOWS
@ ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Rep. Richard Neal, the dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and ranking member of House Ways and Means.
ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is South Boston Sen. Nick Collins.