Sat. March 17—New York City—St. Patrick’s Day. Woke up, got out of bed, worked at my play for a couple of hours and then bundled up and headed downtown, to 9th Ave and 42nd Street to buy tickets to Fool for Love, the Sam Shepard play. I stopped by Brooks Brothers on the way to buy a new coat and with the St. Patrick’s crowd milling around and my shamrock tie and pretty dreary looking coat, the 2nd floor guy didn’t hardly give me the time to say what I was looking for before he told me categorically that they didn’t have any such thing and then ushered me out the door.
I fought my way back uptown and watched the parade for quite a while from in front of Gimbel’s then came home and ate apple, cheese and a bagel then out again. It was quite cold really, with periods of bright sun, but it was blustery and grey most of the time. The parade this year seemed kind of subdued emotionally. I think politics is creeping in to a damaging degree. I was appalled at the make-up of the Irish Northern Aid committees. I thought to myself they’ll need more help than that.