Today is the day to testify.

Book By Its Cover Review: Wearing a Huge Novelty St. Patrick's Day Hat

I did go to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago this year and I did have a good time, drinking various kinds of liquors and beers, eating Dubliner cheese, eating soda bread and even at one point (sorry, mom and dad), wearing a necklace of green beads that I caught in the air. Then I went home.

Since I'm not Irish and since I make a half-hearted effort not to drink during the week, St. Patrick's Day isn't that big a deal to me (other than the excuse to do the above.) Every year, though, there are a group of people who deem that the best way to celebrate the holiday is to put on a weird hat.

I know some Irish traditions, like what St. Patrick did and what the Blarney stone is and the importance of potatoes and all that. But the hat hasn't really been explained to me. I know that leprechauns typically have a little bowler or maybe a tastful top hat in images, but rarely do they look like this.

But people like dressing up, I guess. (I admit I wouldn't mind showing up to the Kentucky Derby in a fetching new chapeau one day.) And I think that if there is any doubt about whether you are a person who likes to 'get down' on St. Patrick's Day--if the beer, face paint, stickers, beads and t-shirts aren't enough--the hat is the finishing touch to really tell the world that you are a party guy/girl.

Plus, it keeps your head warm, gives you a place to throw up, and are really coming back in style this season anyway.