Happy St. Patty's Day. In celebration, I'm working today.

I've never been to Ireland. I'd like to go. We had a girl from Ireland working with us once. She told us that it's beautiful country, but the people are in the middle of a Thousand-Year Ugly Epidemic. That's part of why she left.

It's as good a reason as any other. I mean, what if you were in an area where everybody was an eyesore? Sure, you'd tell everybody you were leaving for opportunity, but if you're constantly supressing the gag reflex, I'd say you'd look for nicer shores, too.

Not that I'll win any beauty contests, but I'm not causing mass exodus, either.

However.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are a couple of green facts:

The following information regarding the average life of a Federal Reserve Note was provided by the Federal Reserve System - please note that the life of a note depends on its denomination:
$ 1 .............. 22 months
$ 5 ................ 2 Years
$ 10................ 3 Years
$ 20 ............... 4 Years
$ 50 ............... 9 Years
$100 .............. 9 Years

I have a boring story: I got a $1 bill that was from a series in the early 80's a little while back. It was like tissue. It was faded, too. It must have been stored someplace (like the inside of a book or a pocket...or maybe a tissue box) to still have been in circulation in 2003. I don't know what I spent my tissue-dollar on. I wish I did. Now I'll be up worrying about it all night.

More from the U.S. Guvmint Money Folks:

Have you ever wondered how many times you could fold a piece of currency before it would tear? About 4,000 double folds (first forward and then backwards) are required before a note will tear.

You want to know something? I worry about a lot of stupid, stupid things. And I'm a moderately curious cat. But not once, never ever, have I wondered how many times you could fold a piece of currency before it tore. Not once, not at my most obsessive compulsive. Do you know who found this out? Probably a government worker. Whom we pay with our taxes. He probably was supposed to be doing something else, but instead he decided to run this "experiment." He spent the whole day counting how many times you had to fold the money before it tore. And in order to get a good survey sample, he probably had to do this with at least three bills, and probably more.

Yep.