High time I took a break from my self-absorption (thanks Maxi) and shared some moving, joyous and simply bizarre goodies from elsewhere.
Parachute sex & frisky turtles from SamHenry. She usually keeps a beady eye on US politics and economics, but amorous airborne antics are distracting her. It’s a funny news story, played straight for more laughs. And then there are the turtles – very very… intrusive? C’mon, if you were a turtle, or even if you weren’t, would you want someone filming your orgasm face?
The Secret of Molten Lava from Kristina at Ten Minute Missive. Firstly, you get a nom-nom recipe for molten lava cakes – the result of a happy accident. Secondly, you get a brave, honest, moving and enlightening account of coping with depression. It’s better than I’ve made that sound.
T
wo books to read (& even buy) by Gerard Butler Brennan at CrimeSceneNI. As well as being top bloke and providing a thriving online forum for the new wave of Northern Irish thriller writers (and some from south of the border, Scotland and the USA), Gerard also has Wee Rockets published as an e-book and The Point out in paperback. Oh, and if you want to hear and see him blethering on in person, he’ll be on a panel at Derry Central Library on Tuesday (Oct 18th) talking about the Booker Prize winner as the award is announced.
Still looking for something new and noirish to read – let Sean Patrick Reardon guide you. Don’t let the hat put you off. He writes himself – he’s the author of Mindjacker – but he also consistently links to other interesting new writers – lots in the USA, with a bias towards crime and mystery.
Póló falls foul of the tourism propaganda police in Dublin. Sure, tourist boards aim to put forward an appealing face of wherever they’re promoting. But when they announce a flickr forum and claim to welcome everyone to contribute with the sole proviso that the picture content is related to Dublin, should that bar the the inclusion of beggars? Should only the glitzy primped preened and sanitized version of the city by shown? Should Póló’s images be banned from next year’s tourism calendar? See for yourself here.
And finally…Liverpool Salad and Sheffield Panino. Add a foreign placename and a dish or phenomenon suddenly sounds exotically appealing. Wonder how well that would work if you were to encounter English placenames used in the same way abroad? Journo and travel writer Rudy Noriega did in Palermo, and reveals all at his Gullible’s Travels blog. Made me smile anyway.
Blackwatertown 
Plenty to keep me quiet with my coffee after dinner!
I wonder if ‘The Bull’ was in Coláiste when Póló was a pupil? No. I didn’t go to school there, but one of the brothers did. Small world.
Perhaps Póló can answer that one.
Scuse the delay. I was canvassing my class (of 1963).. Nobody can place this brother. We certainly didn’t have him as a teacher. Some of us think the name sounds familiar but can’t come up with any particular indivdual.
I’ve just been told that there was a Jesuit known as the Bull in Belvedere while we were in Coláiste, but I guess there was probably a Bull in most schools in those days.
Wildly curious to know name of Grannymar’s brother and when he was in Coláiste. I have the 1981 fiftieth anniversary booklet with loads of class photos, but the only stuff I have put up online relates to my own class, arising out of a request at a class reunion to do a webmaster job.
http://photopol.com/colaiste/fcolaiste.html
Tiny world. And since I started “doing” my family history it is getting progressively smaller.
I forgot… No I was not all excited at the thought of sex by parachute! Nothing surprises me any more. Try reading Bonk without laughing!
That book is described as being “Rich in dexterous innuendo” – what an acolade! I’d like to have that at the top of my cv.
Love your blog Paul- so witty and clever. I look forward to following it. Good luck with getting the book published- you deserve every success.
Hey Paul – Emma pointed me towards this. Good stuff, I enjoyed the reference to the photographs of Dublin.
All the best – Damian.
@ Emma & Damian – Thanks a lot for dropping by and encouragement.
“This time next year Rodney, we’ll both be millionaires.”
GrannyMar – a thousand pardons but I inadvertently deleted your comment over at my blog. I did answer you and was delighted with your visit.
No problem, I have hit the wrong button in the past myself!
Paul- tremendous links all, with the exception of that Yank in the foolish lucky charms hat 😉 I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the turtle video. Thanks for the mention, and I’m furiously looking online for tricorne hat or a powdered wig as worthy replacements.
Oh no – your hat has disappeared from your avatar. Come back, all is forgiven.
I’m the last one to be able to point the finger when it comes to hats http://wp.me/pDjed-110
Ha, touche, Paul. It was time for a change anyway, now that my hair-plugs have taken hold 😉 Plus, can’t very well be commenting on Malachi O’ Doherty’s blog with a hat like that now, can I?
Why the turtle video was not any more damaging than a lab class. One has to look at these things clinically or perhaps cynically since I think I said in my post it is intruding to have filmed it. I thought you meant my ears were a lucky charm hat LOL. Yours in sensitivity, SH
The title alone — provocative — certainly caught my attention 🙂
I enjoyed the many reads (plural) that you offered up. My favorite was from Kristina at Ten Minute Missive.
There’s nothing like a good headline.
And yes, Kristina is thought provoking.
Any tourism body that tries to promote only positive images of the place is fighting a losing battle, because we all get the grittier images from the media anyway. And everyone knows that every big city has its share of beggars, prostitutes, drug addicts, slums etc so who do the tourist boards think they’re fooling?
It’s the arbitrariness of the thing that got to me. What I put in was 100% in keeping with the rules, and, as I implied, I had no hopes of winning the prize. In fact I was consciously excluding myself from that. But the competition was a good stimulus to keeping my eyes open and my wits about me as I wandered round the town.
As it happens, I just spotted that lady and thought of a photo. That’s what I normally do. I don’t go looking for photos.as such. Mind you, if I put my mind to it I’d have no difficulty populating a century of calendars with shots of all the above type of inhabitants of my native city.
@Póló, My brother left in ’63. I’ll pick this up at your place.
@Grannymar
My place then 🙂
Really nice blog, keep it up.
You are right Polo…
“They were thinking Tourism and Calendar.”
I love your blog. It’s excellent.
Great post. Regards from the Highlands of Scotland.
Keep up the good work.
JM