Best Ever @ Missouri S&T

This year's parade will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 13, in downtown Rolla. The theme is "Board Games." (This means floats should have something to do with Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Mouse Trap, something from Milton Bradley -- not the contentious baseball player -- or Parker Brothers, or something a little more cool and recent, whatever.) For more parade information, contact the Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce at 573-364-3577. Or leave a question here, and we'll try to get it answered for you.  

P.S. Stephen Wright thinks it's odd that only one company makes the board game Monopoly.

Concert news is starting to come in. We'll post the details as soon as they're finalized. (In addition to music from the headlining band, we're pretty sure Grateful Dead tunes will be played at some point.) We're also hearing about the possibility of the coronationan ceremony being extra explosive this year. 

Missouri S&T will start issuing official press releases about the 2010 St. Pat's celebration in coming weeks. In the meantime, please let the Best Ever Blog know about things that you're working on (parade floats, events, contests, shillelagh stuff, questions, alumni correspondence, whatever). Feel free to comment below.

 

Wondering how long it is until the next St. Pat's Celebration at Missouri University of Science and Technology? There's an app for that.

A group of Missouri S&T students has developed an iPhone application that counts down the number of days - or "daze," in St. Pat's parlance - until the next annual celebration. The students created the application through a company founded in 2008 by Michael Orlando, a senior majoring in electrical engineering and interdisciplinary engineering.

The university's annual St. Pat's Celebration is a big deal among students and alumni, and Orlando hopes this mobile application will tap into that interest.

"We wanted to make something to let everybody know there was someone on campus making iPhone apps," says Orlando, a St. Louis County native who is also pursuing a master's degree in engineering management at S&T.

"We thought, 'What better way than St. Pat's to get everybody's attention?'"

Rodney Edwards, manager of Grellner Distributing Co. in Rolla, recently represented Rolla and Missouri University of Science and Technology's St. Pat's Board during the 250th anniversary of the St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, home of world famous Guiness Stout.

Sir Arthur Guiness signed a 900-year lease in 1759, and the St. James Gate Brewery has been home to Guiness ever since. Edwards, a Missouri S&T alumnus and Honorary St. Pat's Board Rep, says he learned the perfect pour for Guiness while visiting the brewery.

Edwards wore his St. Pat's Board jacket everywhere he went during his trip to Dublin. "People thought it was representative of a sports team," he says. "They were very interested and excited to hear that we Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day like they do."

The 2010 Honorary Knights have been selected. Congratulations to the following:

-- Bob Brinkman, S&T grad
-- Jim Duncan, supervisor of S&T's landscape services
-- Jay Goff, vice provost and dean of enrollment management
-- Michael Gross, grad, St. Pat in 1988
-- Kurt Kosbar, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
-- John Slowensky, band director, Rolla Public Schools
-- Paul Worsey, professor of mining engineering
-- Letha Young, sergeant, university police.

And the Parade Marshall will be Russell Perry, owner of Russell's Town and College Shop.

For a list of 2010 St. Pat's events, click here.

The Bronze Age of St. Pat officially began at around 2:30 p.m. CDT Saturday, March 14, 2009. That's when the 2009 Court, along with Chancellor Carney and longtime court photographer Bob "Fitz" Fitzsimmons, posed before the newly bronzed statue of St. Pat outside Missouri S&T's Toomey Hall. The statue was unveiled about 10 minutes earlier during special ceremonies connected with the 101st Annual St. Pat's Celebration. See more photos from the event -- and lots of other stuff from this year's Best Ever -- at the official St. Pat's photo site. We'll be posting more as the week goes on.

We just got back from the unveiling of the bronzed statue of St. Patrick, the patron saint of engineers, and we're here to tell you that bronzed version of the Olde Hibernian looks good. St. Pat now stands on the north side of Toomey Hall, facing Curtis Laws Wilson Library, which was his home since the early '70s. We'll have photos of the unveiling ceremony to share early next week. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy this beautiful spring weather in Rolla and have yourself the best Best Ever ever.

If you're not in Rolla, we're sorry. But you can experience St. Pat's vicariously via the photos on our official St. Pat's Flickr photo site.

P.S. - In other news, Missouri S&T junior Emma Kessler was named the Queen of Love and Beauty during Friday night's Coronation.

Saturday night's St. Pat's concert -- featuring Puddle of Mudd and Shinedown -- is sold out. For those who didn't get tickets for Puddle of Mudd, here's the next best thing: wrestling in a pool of mud during Follies.

Check out more great Follies photos on the St. Pat's Flickr site. (Also, we need your help identifying the people in some of these photos. If you can ID any of them, send the names and the photo number to rupertb@mst.edu.

St. Pat and his court arrived in downtown Rolla yesterday to "officially" begin the 2009 celebration.

There are already PLENTY of St. Pat's photos on flickr . Please help us identify people in the individual photos. Send the photo number and student names to rupertb@mst.edu.

P.S. We are taking an imaginary survey, and the imaginary votes are flooding in...Apparently this celebration is already the best ever -- at least since last year's celebration.

P.P.S. The theme for this year's parade (Saturday) is "statues and monuments."