The Sullivan Public Library Alliance (SUPLA) is made up of some very innovative Library Directors in the County and they have come up with a genuinely great service. The new program is called “Library-By-Mail” delivery service.

County residents who have a library card and are unable to get to their Library because they are temporarily or permanently homebound due to illness, injury, disability, immobility or facing transportation issue can get the library to deliver books right to their mailbox or to their front door. The homebound person can order up to three books or the Library can send out three of their most popular books.

There are nine local libraries that are participating, Grahamsville, Monticello, Fallsburg, Liberty, Livingston Manor, Wurtsboro, Roscoe, The Sunshine Hall Library in Eldred and the Western Sullivan Public Libraries which includes Callicoon, Jeffersonville and Narrowsburg. You will need to call your local Library and get an application for the Program.

Your books will arrive at your home in a heavy-duty green cloth mailer which can then be used to return the books to the Library. The delivery service is free and to get more information call your local library, or the Alliance at (845) 794-4660 or email langclouse@rcls.org.

Next weekend on Saturday March 14th is the Yulan Fire Department's 49th Annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Let's dip into a bit of culinary history here and dear readers I regret to inform you that a corned beef and cabbage dinner is about as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs. When the Irish immigrants came to America in the early 19th century they frequently ate in the many Jewish delis in New York City and actually corned beef and cabbage with potatoes all thrown into a pot was known in eastern European Jewish cuisine as a “boiled dinner.”

The Irish immigrants used the boiled dinner as a handy inexpensive substitute for the traditional Irish celebratory dinner of loin of bacon (ham) cabbage and champ (scalloped potatoes - without cheese) By the 1920's here in American St. Patrick's Day and corned beef and cabbage were inexorably entwined in our country's cuisine.

The Yulan Fire Department's St. Patrick's Day Dinner is an event I always go to and the food is always delicious, and the dinner comes with dessert and a beverage. But there are also other activities at the dinner worth knowing about. The Ladies Auxiliary of the Yulan Fire Department will be holding a raffle for a spectacular Irish products gift basket.

The raffle tickets are $1.00, six for $5.00 or like a Shaquille O'Neil “arm's length” for $10.00. Martha Worzel is making 24 of her very popular authentic Irish Soda Bread (without carraway seeds!) which always sell out very quickly. There will be a 50/50 and the traditional Money Wheel game.

The St Patrick's Dinner is from 4:30-7:30 p.m. and as with previous years they only prepare 325 dinners which are eat in or take out. Tickets are $15.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids under twelve years old. You can get tickets from any member of the Department, at the door on the night of the event or by calling 557-8431.

I leave you with an old Irish blessing “May your glass be ever filled, may the roof over your head always be strong and may you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you are gone.” (unknown) Happy St. Patrick's Day!