A Very Happy, Very Special Saint Patrick's Day!

If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to British tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger.

-- George Washington, Valley Forge

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March is a very special time of year for my partner, Patrick, and me.

March 1 is St. David's Day, as the link in that blog entry playfully reminded readers.

March 17 is St. Patrick's Day. Like the legend about his namesake, my Patrick is pretty adept at driving out snakes, too.

In fact, Patrick has taken on the snakes at State Street Corporation for quite some time now.

This week, State Street (NYSE: STT) will publish its proxy materials, as it has in prior years.

In 2004, Patrick forced the Board of Directors to declassify itself: Directors feel the heat, By Steven Syre, Globe Columnist | December 23, 2004, which reads, in part:

Back to State Street: The board has been recommending votes against a similar declassification proposal filed annually by one annoying shareholder for years. But the vote was close in 2003, and it finally passed this year, by a substantial margin.

Now the board has changed its mind. Perhaps directors are just acting on the expressed interest of shareholders. You think?

The shareholder who pushed the issue in the first place was Patrick Jorstad of Alexandria, Va.

Then, in 2006, the Board of Directors was forced to rescind the company's poison pill, after Patrick brought a shareholder proposal to do so (search on Jorstad).

The vote tally wasn't even close:

Votes FOR the proposal: 192,531,658
Votes AGAINST: 54,064,665
Votes ABSTAINING: 3,266,725
Votes counted as BROKER NON-VOTES: 27,354,358

Gentle Reader, that thar is what could charitably be called a drubbin'.

On October 20th of that year, the Board of Directors filed two filings, announcing that they'd rescinded the poison pill, bowing to the clearly-expressed wishes of the owners.

So, this year, on the week of St. Patrick's, their proxy materials will be filed.

Now, anyone who knows anything about Boston on St. Patrick's Day knows it's a - shall we say - boisterous place on that particular box on the calendar.

General George Washington went and did Boston a major favor, by securing the orderly evacuation of British troops and British sympathizers from Boston on March 17th; he thereby gave a convenient fig leaf for drunken Brahmin trust fund brats to drink all Evacuation Day long.

Typical: mouthy Bostonians started a fight that took a Virginian to finish.

What new reforms might Patrick be bringing from Virginia to the snake's den this year?

Stay tuned.

- Dave