March 17, 2007
SOD OFF
People will literally spend money on anything. That seems to be confirmed by this story in today's New York Times about entrepreneurs who are selling dirt dug up in Ireland to customers willing to pay $15 for a 12 oz bag. So far, the folks at Auld Sod Exporting Co. in Tipperary have shipped $2 million worth of soil. Some people want more than just a 12 oz bag, though.
For some, it is more than a novelty. An 87-year-old lawyer in Manhattan, originally from Galway, recently bought $100,000 worth of the dirt to fill in his American grave, yet undug. A native of County Cork spent $148,000 on seven tons to spread under the house he was having built in Massachusetts.
“He said he wanted a house built on Irish soil so he can feel like he is home in old Ireland when he walked around his house in Massachusetts,” Mr. Burke said.
Other dirt-related entrepreneurs are perfectly frank about the genesis of their inspiration:
On Irishsmoke.ie, $18 brings three pounds of Irish bog, also known as turf or peat, cut from Donegal fields, to burn in a fireplace or on a grill, something Jim Gallagher thought up one night when he ran out of charcoal during a barbecue and thought himself too drunk to drive to the store. “I cut up some peat and put it in the barbecue, and everyone said, ‘This is amazing,’ ” recalled Mr. Gallagher, a native of Pleasantville, N.Y., now living in County Donegal, who also sells incense and torches that smell like peat. “It’s the aroma of home,” he said by telephone from Ireland.
What Mr. Gallagher means by "the aroma of home" is unclear, since he is actually from Westchester, NY. Do they burn a lot of peat in Westchester?
As H.L Mencken correctly noted: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." I guess that goes double for Irish-American people.
Tagged: Ireland, dirt, irishPosted by Lexiphane at March 17, 2007 11:16 AM
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