Mind the Melodica Deathship

Looks like good advice. Seen in Tara Street DART Station in Dublin:

The British Government's guide to finding faggots in Methuen

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a handy listing of "British Shops in Massachusetts". But, with my Irish radar on, I can't help noticing such entries in the list as "Cape Cod Irish Village", "Erin's Own Irish Imports", "Irish Imports Ltd", the "Irish Speciality Shop" and the "Irish Cottage". hmm...

Thwaites Market in Methuen is the real deal though. It is described as a "Retailer and importer of British meat pies and meatballs, pork pies, sausages, scotch eggs and faggots." It's good to know that the Her Majesty's Government is providing a helpful service for seekers of pork pies, scotch eggs, and faggots in Methuen.

Irish Government "Losing your job" Website

A sign of the times: http://www.losingyourjob.ie/ .The last item in the menu is a useful guide to "Leaving Ireland". I'm always impressed by the usefulness of the Irish Government sites, but this one if a bit depressing.

It''s interesting that if you view the page about leaving Ireland in Irish (as Gaeilge) then you see nothing (http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories-ga/ag-bogadh-tire/imeacht-thar-lear/eire-a-fhagail) but if you switch over to English then you see all the info. I guess they don't want the Irish speakers leaving :-) Or maybe the person whose job it is to translate the page to Irish lost their job and left the country.

The US is not quite at the point where the government would have a page about unemployment which includes tips on "Leaving America".

A collection jar for the IRA

Today's Boston Globe shows a photo of a money collection jar labeled "IRA". It's ironic that it's shown in a paper representing an area which historically collected a lot of money for the IRA, and that the photo has nothing to do with the actual IRA at all:

http://www.boston.com/business/taxes/gallery/yearendtaxtips?pg=4

Martha Coakley's weird accent

I guess I'm not the only person who thinks that Martha Coakley has a weird accent - a quick Twitter Search shows people remarking on her accent.

Listen yourself to this YouTube video and draw your own conclusions. With the lilting and the off-sounding vowels she sounds to me like she's from Fargo via West Cork. Certainly not Massachusetts though.

Massachusetts farm for sale - with promise of US Green Cards

The Irish Times reports a home, farm, and restaurant business for sale in Tully, Massachusetts (near Orange) which comes with the promise of a Green Card also, if the buyer employs 10 or more US citizens.

At about $1.5m (about 1 million euro) it's still a lot cheaper than the equivalent property in Ireland.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2009/1126/1224259470681.html

Quincy "Best place to raise kids in Massachusetts"

Judging by the photo in BusinessWeek, it's also the home of giant people who sit on the sidewalk teaching their kids to read:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/22.htm

Yousef Islam jeered at Dublin concert

A priceless quote here:

Radio presenter Gerry Ryan, who was there, said he had never seen such a “level of hate and bile and viciousness” from an Irish audience. He heard one fan shout at the singer: “play Peace Train, you f***ing b******” .
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1117/1224258981275.html?via=mr

US Teacher Fired for posting a picture from the Guinness Brewery

A teacher from Georgia visited the Guinness Brewery in Dublin on a trip to Europe, and posted the obligatory photo of her drinking the "free" beer from the Gravity Bar. A parent then reported her "alcohol use" photos (she had another of her drinking a glass of wine) and she was fired. Hard to believe. Full story on CNN.com

The "Jedward" thing

During my trip last week to Ireland, it was hard to avoid the "Jedward" thing. These are twins (John and Edward, hence "Jedward") from Dublin who are contestants in the X-Factor talent show with Simon Cowell.

My cousin, who lives in England, told me that the received wisdom in England is that it is Irish voters who are keeping them in the competition. Having watched them on TV, I can confirm that they are not very good singers by the standards of American Idol, but then again that is not such a big deal. They certainly have been shifting a lot of magazines.

Full disclosure: I went to the same school as the Jedward twins - KH school in Palmerstown, Dublin.

DeValera a British spy?

Certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence, according to a new book...

HalloweenTown this weekend

HalloweenTown looks like fun for kids, and it's close to the Children's Museum too.

If you are a Zipcar customer, you can donate $5 to pay for a kid to go to HalloweenTown, and Zipcar will give you $10 credit. Win-win.