1. I’m wearing a really cool wool roll-neck sweater and barn jacket.
  2. My best friend repeatedly tells me he just can’t be my friend anymore.
  3. I’m baffled by the notion that my contemporaries are more concerned with becoming contributing members of society than drinking another warm beer.
  4. People look at me—some scornfully, some quizzically, some with pity—when I enter the pub.
  5. Someone chokes on a finger and vomits.
  6. The pint of beer is more than just a pint of beer. It is my refuge, my rock, and my salvation.
  7. Folksy Irish music, ranging from pithily optimistic to drearily ominous, punctuates the day’s events.
  8. Deirdre offers to show the townies her breasts in exchange for shots of Irish whiskey.
  9. Someone is being pulled from the lake.
  10. I repeatedly ask people who I know smoke to give me a cigarette and I become incredulous when they tell me they don’t have any more.
  11. I have nowhere to go because I have been banned from the bar for “bothering the women.”
  12. Depression and mental health amongst men are hinted at but never explicitly discussed.
  13. While others express some concern about their legacy, I elect to drink another warm beer.
  14. When I ask my best friend why he can’t be my best friend anymore, he says, “I just don’t like you no more.”
  15. Even the village idiot wonders what is the matter with me.
  16. My loved ones express concern that I might never leave this place.

1-7; 9-16: Banshees of Inishirin
1-16: My four undergraduate St. Patrick’s days

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