Map reading
It is a delight to sit with a map. It is a delight to spend time following each road, noting the features of each settlement, tracing the course of each river, examining the route of each railway, pondering how close were places that seemed distant and, sometimes, how distant were places that seemed familiar. The fascination goes back to childhood … [continue reading …]
Paddywhackery on the BBC
“Paddywhackery” is defined as fake or staged Irishness. It is the depiction of a people as overly fond of alcohol, as given to singing dirge-like songs in public houses, as given to a rebellious spirit and fighting. It is the stuff of the writing of lazy journalists and television producers. The episode of Who do you think you are? featuring … [continue reading …]
Economics doesn’t tell the whole truth
Pitney lies three miles distant from High Ham. A tiny village tucked into the fold of the undulating Somerset countryside, it has suffered the fate of many similar villages. Its school is long closed. The church of the parish of Pitney Lortie, a compact medieval building, has not seen a priest of its own for decades. The village’s public house, … [continue reading …]
TELEGRAPHIC TRANSFER NOTICE ,
This was spammed by Google. It is very amateurish. Zenith Bank (UK) Ltd 39 Cornhill London EC3V 3ND United Kingdom tel: +44 70 8646 8527 Fax:+447043071539 Dear Esteemed Customer, TELEGRAPHIC TRANSFER NOTICE. We are hereby officially notify you concerning your fund Telegraphic Transfer through our bank, Zenith Bank (UK) Ltd United Kingdom, to your bank account, which has been officially … [continue reading …]
Naming places
In Pursuit of Spring is Edward Thomas’ account of a bicycle ride from London to Somerset in March 1913. Riding westward to meet the signs of springtime in those days when the season arrived much later than it does a century later, he left the capital on the morning of Good Friday, 21st March 1913. At Garratt Green in south-west London, … [continue reading …]
Sunday thoughts for 12th August 2018
The word “life” in the Gospel reading for today provides four letters with which to think about what Jesus says. “L” for “listen”. The people in the story listen to Jesus and are not happy at what they hear, Saint John Chapter 6 Verse 41 tells us, “Then the Jews began to complain about him.” One wonders if they were really prepared … [continue reading …]
Slow androids
To many of those of a certain age, the word “android” has particular associations. In 1978, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy included the character of Marvin, the paranoid android. Marvin claimed to be fifty thousand times more intelligent than a human being; he confused the capacity to store and compute information with the extraordinary complexity of thinking and behaving … [continue reading …]
Let it be
Ball of Confusion was a song that captured the atmosphere of its time. The lyrics of the 1970 song by The Temptations attempted to express a profound sense of unease at the state of the world. The song was a narrative of the eclectic and contradictory trends of the time, an impressionistic picture of a society where former certainties had disappeared. … [continue reading …]
Settling the account
This story was expanded from a piece of flash fiction. It was entered for this year’s RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Competition. The evening classes at the college gave her the opportunity. It was a computing class that had taught her to use the Internet, something of which she had been frightened. It had been the stories in the papers … [continue reading …]