Here’s two examples of well-crafted bile from the week worth noting in the blog:The British MP George Galloway may be a shady ego-manic, but he can hurl a great, almost baroque, insult. From the Gruaniad, which describes an exchange before Galloway proceeded to demolish a Senate committee ostensibly convened to grill the Scot on alleged […]
Just finished Brian Fagan�s The Long Summer, whose subtitle �How Climate Changed Civilization� sums up the book�s premise. Specifically, Fagan describes the coincidence of the rise of human civilization in about the last 15,000 years with a period of unusual warmth and climactic stability in the millennia after the end of the last ice age. […]
Lenihan should not quit, says Minister states the Irish Times in relation to the moronic “kebabs” remark made by junior minister Conor Lenihan.Er, yes he should. Lenihan’s boss, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, claims that ‘the remarks had been made “in the heat of the moment.”‘ But even if they were, such a verbal […]
On the seemingly interminable (10+ hours) flight back to Ireland from Arizona, I managed to finish Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s slim, amusing, and mercifully short novel, Television (translated by Jordan Stump). Its slight premise–in short, a man decides to stop watching television for good–had a certain appeal after three weeks’ exposure to U.S. TV. (It’s not really […]
Years ago, sitting in a chaotic restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city (how’s that for showing off!), our Vietnamese hosts on learning that I was Irish beamed and gave me an international greeting – “Roy Keane – Irish – Yes”. In the days before Keane’s childish Saipan tantrum, this was a novel and welcome greeting. Better that you be recognised for the on-field achievements of Keane than for the explosive abilities of the IRA.
Aside from saving me that potential embarassment, it was a potent reminder that football, soccer, calcio, call it what you will, is a global sport/industry.
Watching the Italian serie A, one might wonder why? This year, as is the case most years, the championship rested between the two richest teams Juventus and AC Milan. The competition is plagued by dodgy refereeing decisions, scandals, and the suspicion that perhaps it’s more than just nimble feet and fantasia that count.
Ah, holidays–a time of year to wander around a video store 5,000 miles away from home and realize that Blockbuster, although significantly cheaper than your local video store (whose late fees kick in around 12 seconds after your five-plus euro 24-hour rental is up), has exactly the same range of offerings. (Remember the good old […]
Last year was the 10th anniversary of the founding of Silvio Berlusconi’s political party Forza Italia.
The party was founded at a time when the established political order appeared to be crumbling, due to corruption charges left, right and centre (in every sense).
A report in today’s newspapers show that the wealth of Berlusconi’s family has tripled in the 11 years since he graciously entered politics to save the country [we’ve been reading his autobiography!]
When he entered politics his family’s wealth was calculated at 161.9million Euro. Now it’s an estimated 983.8million Euro.
This is the first post of May. The gap in posts is not just down to being on vacation (on vacation from what? some might say) but can also be explained by various dull Internet issues, flaring back pain, yada yada yada. In the past week or so, I have actually used to time that […]
April was a turbid time in Italy, with two focal points of leadership coming to an end. This column, when not taking a shifty break (as may have been noted by its absence for almost a fortnight), was focused primarily on the power changes going on in the Holy See. At the same time, though, […]