Happy St. Patrick’s weekend. Here’s your St. Patty’s joke:

Q: Why do leprechauns wear shamrocks?

A: Real rocks are too heavy!

(That’s for you, Bruce Campbell!)

Ireland is famous for playwrights Marina Carr, Oscar Wilde and Emma Donoghue.

In that spirit, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 17, Bill McCann Jr, Michael McCord and Catherine Rhoden-Goguen, three Kentucky playwrights will presents readings of their one-act plays, each running about 30 minutes, in the Clark County Public Library’s Rose Mary Codell Brooks Community Room. Discussions will follow.

McCann’s “Southern Gothic” explores whether or not an elderly man suffering from dementia can help solve a decades-old murder mystery.

Lexington playwright McCord’s “Dinner at Zuck’s” is a comedy about a young man’s meal with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Barbourville playwright Rhoden-Goguen’s play “Unstoppable by Design” explores the gut punches Matt endures on his quest for success despite the probability of failure. Will his drive and perseverance be enough, or was his fate sealed with the first blow?

Kentucky Playwrights Workshop is a 501(c)3 public charity that encourages development of new stage works.

In addition to Sunday’s afternoon of readings others are being developed for regions and cities across the state. Six are planned for 2019. Follow KPW’s Facebook page or visit their website for more information and updates.

These performances are free and open to the public. You need not register to attend.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Benchmark Family Services Foster Care will present “How to Become a Foster Family.”

This will be an open information session to learn the basics about becoming a foster parent with Benchmark Family Services.

BFS is a network of professional, therapeutic foster homes and committed staff across the state of Kentucky with the goal of providing stable out-of-home placements for children in need.

Information covered will include qualifications for becoming a foster parent, steps to become a licensed foster home, agency mission and services provided. There will be a question and answer session. Light refreshments will be provided.

This program is free and open to the public. Please register to attend by calling the Library, 859-744-5661, or by using the Evanced online registration system at clarkbooks.org.

If you need information about the session, call Benchmark Family Services in Lexington at 859- 260-1412.

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Kentucky Picture Show presents a stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.

When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas (Charlton Heston) begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles). When Vargas begins to suspect Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies (Joseph Calleia), are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly puts himself and his new bride, Susie (Janet Leigh), in jeopardy. Rated PG-13; So it’s really not very perverse, but the drama gets delightfully campy. Great with popcorn.

At noon Thursday, the Book Lunch posse discusses a classic supernatural crime novel, “The Red Lamp,” by “the American Agatha Christie,” Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Rinehart, in her day, was almost as popular as Christie, but her style is different. She weaves a complex plot.

A popular library classic video is “The Bat,” (starring Vincent Price and Agnes Morehead, highly recommended). The movie is from a play written by Rinehart. In her novel, “The Door,” she created the crime cliché, “The butler did it.”

Crime and spiritualist fiction fans will get a kick out of “The Red Lamp.” Please register to attend.

Happy Vernal Equinox. Spring has sprung!

John Maruskin is director of adult services at the Clark County Public Library. He can be reached at john.clarkbooks@gmail.com.