Robert Lockard

I found a fun little article in The Seattle Times today entitled "Get your green on: ‘Tis St. Paddy's Day." Not only was the article lighthearted and fun to read, but it also included a nice photo of John Harvey Losh, the father of LuxuryRealEstate.com President John Brian Losh. The elder Losh looks completely enraptured in the spirit of this holiday, even wearing giant Leprechaun (or maybe Vulcan) ears.

What a fun photo.

I have heard different stories about what St. Patrick's Day actually celebrates, so I thought I would just go through and try to set the record straight. According to the History Channel, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional feast-day celebration held on what is traditionally known as the day that Saint Patrick died in 461 A.D. Saint Patrick's life is actually bathed in mystery because most of the stories about him have been exaggerated and mythologized.

While this holiday used to be purely religious, it has morphed into a cultural celebration of Irish heritage in the past century.

By the way, here's an interesting fact: The first St. Patrick's Day parade wasn't held in Ireland. It was actually held in New York City on March 17, 1762 when Irish soldiers in the British army marched through the city playing music. How beguiling!

Woodinville, a suburb of Seattle, suffered a sad event on Monday, March 3, 2008, according to an article I found in Yahoo! News. Three luxury homes were burned and two others were damaged in a case of arson. Thank goodness the homes were unoccupied and so no one was injured.

These homes were part of last year's Street of Dreams, an annual event that allows people from all over the Puget Sound to walk through and experience the incredible features of cutting-edge luxury homes.

The homes that were destroyed were actually much smaller than some of the more opulent homes that have been showcased in the past - measuring about 4,000 square feet each. They were also built with special "green" features, including water-pervious sidewalks, super-insulated walls and windows and products made with recycled materials, like carpet pads.

There is some evidence that this arson attack was perpetrated by extremists who claim to be acting in the best interests of the planet. Apparently, efforts to "go green" aren't enough to alleviate these people's fears that we are damaging the environment too much. I can't really relate to this feeling of hatred that would lead someone to burn down a house and cause millions of dollars in damage. I am so glad that no one was killed in this tragedy.

Ironically, I'm actually planning on writing an editorial on "green homes" in the summer issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine. This might be an interesting topic to discuss in that editorial - the idea that our efforts might be soon as too little in some people's eyes. I trust that most people are good, and I'm sorry to talk about such a sad topic. I hope that we will all be careful in protecting ourselves and our property.