Two must-visits
One serious, one hardly so
One serious, one hardly so
The most vocal of my visitors, I suspect, visit both of these blogs regularly as well, but even then there's no harm in a heads-up, and if you haven't to them recently, now's the time.
The serious topic is over at Between Friends, in which Sandra Bell Lundy has been exploring the topic of domestic abuse with a touch I find more compelling because it is so well integrated within her strip rather than a Very Special Between Friends segment. You'll want to scroll down and go through her postings on the story arc. However, the current posting also has a pretty funny discussion of her trip to Toronto for an interview on Canada AM, a national program, about the series. You'll get a good laugh at her attempts to find the studio, but be sure to check out the video. It's a good interview on a topic that could have been dreary or horribly self-important in the wrong hands.
And now for something completely different ...
Sherwood Harrington posts a video that shows why the Irish have a reputation for literate humor, a pub song from the West Coast (San Francisco, that is, not Donegal) with the chorus:
O'Leary, O'Riley, O'Hare and O'Hara
There's no-one as Irish as Barack Obama!
The entire thing depends largely on accent for any semblance of rhyme, my favorite example of which depends on the fact that there's no "th" dipthong in Irish speech:
He looks after his own; a true son of St. Patrick,
He chose as his 'mate Joe Biden, a Cat'olic
Proddies, Jews, Muslims, even the Dalai Lama,
No, there's no-one as Irish as Barack Obama!
He chose as his 'mate Joe Biden, a Cat'olic
Proddies, Jews, Muslims, even the Dalai Lama,
No, there's no-one as Irish as Barack Obama!
I don't think this is going to sway any voters, but it's going to make you laugh, even if you have to play it twice to cut through the brogue. And whether there's no-one more Irish, Obama's as Irish as Ronald Reagan, who played up his Celtic roots well beyond their genealogical merit.
Besides, as an editor, I was receiving letters to the editor about O'Bama well into the primaries, from people who hadn't quite figured out the naming convention in play.
I love Sandra's blog. She's so very... Canadian.
ReplyDeleteI agree the domestic abuse storyline is being very well-handled.
Being very familiar with Canada AM (it's what's on TV as Husband and I get up and get dressed each day), I found her story of her visit charming. (I've never seen Marci Ien in real life, but she IS gorgeous.) Sandra's account remnded me of my visit to Moncton for a meeting on Thursday evening, when I managed to miss not one, but two exits, and had the same panicked arrival at the venue. Fortunately I was NOT trying to make a media interview appointment.
As for the song about Mr. O'Bama, I've been of the opinion for some time that He Is Us. All Of Us. In a way no candidate in a long, long time has been.
ronnie
For those who wish to cut the time necessary to cut through the brogue, blogger Massachusetts Observer has printed them for you against a backdrop of shamrocks (site clued to me courtesy of the remarkable Lucile.)
ReplyDeleteSide note concerning the Irish eschewing of the thorn in speech: When Diane and I ventured into the midlands for the first time, we listened to Midlands radio (103.5 on your fm dial; available streaming on the web) and were struck by how cool these people are about their unrepentant dietary habits: they have two whole counties named after meat! (Counties Meath and Westmeath, as it turned out.)
The Between Friends arc is terrific - i liked it even before she revealed that this is an emotional abuse story and when that part came out i wanted to cheer. It's a harder form of abuse to get a handle on in a strip, as in real life, which makes it especially difficult to tell in this way. She's doing it well.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, i've had to share the O'Bama song with a few lucky people!
There's a long tradition of playing up one's Celtic roots - even if they are entirely absent.
ReplyDeleteOur county sheriff used to be Andrew Meloni, and I distinctly remember seeing him in the St. Patrick's Day parade one year with a sign reading "For today only - Sheriff Maloney."
Our current sheriff is named O'Flynn. Either he doesn't need to fake it or he's already taken things to the next level.