Yikes, it’s Eric Sykes

I was overjoyed yesterday to read that Eric Sykes was celebrating his 87th birthday. This is marvellous news because it means, of course, that he’s not dead. Like Norman Wisdom and Leslie “I say, ding dong!” Phillips, I can never remember if Sykes is alive or dead half the time. It’s a shame that such great comic […]

Sure, crisps and rugby are a sexy combo

There’s quite a storm in a crisp poke about the new Hunky Dorys billboard adverts, which feature curvy young women in supposed-rugby gear alongside slogans like “Are you staring at my crisps?”, “Others Haka, we Hunky” and “Tackle these”. For those of a certain vintage and persuasion, I’m sure they’re a comforting throwback to the sexist humour of such […]

Scrabble: now available in “moron”

The world of ‘rules’ is in mourning tonight, after Mattel announced that the forthcoming new edition of Scrabble will make proper nouns acceptable. According to a ‘spokesperson’, “this is one of a number of twists and challenges included that we believe existing fans will enjoy and will also enable younger fans and families to get […]

Hail Mary

This blog has already warmly welcomed the Green Party’s proposal to introduce tax incentives for vegan converts but not even the most militant plant-eaters among us could have predicted it would receive the support of Mary Harney TD. While I and many others are still more than a little worried about the content of her forthcoming statement on the issue, word […]

So, this is what’s “Cúl4Kidz”, nowadays..?

OK, so what do we have here? A nice colour-it-in picture from The Irish Times’s Cúl4Kidz supplement – it depicts two burly hurlers in action, a nice bedroom wall or fridge adornement for little culchie children to colour in, while protecting themselves from the elements of rural Ireland, while they sit with their tumbler of Mi Wadi […]

The Sound of the Underwhelmed

Because I’m a parent, people, with the very best of intentions, always feel the need to recommend Trabolgan Holiday Village to me, as if I look like the sort of dad who needs to have a disc inserted where my imagination should be. I mean, yes, we are all aware of the difficulties in coping […]

It’s not rocket science

Bless, bless, bless the 12-year-old work experience kid who was asked to find a photo of “the man who presents The Krypton Factor” for today’s Irish Times’ TV page; didn’t said 12-year-old then duly come up trumps with the smiling fizog of its original presenter, the mild-mannered-as-an-art-form, Gordon Burns. Personally, I prefer not to see this as an error, but […]

Fred Wedlock 1942-2010

It’s with much sadness that I note the passing of Fred Wedlock, the Bristol teacher-turned- folk singer and humourist. For me and many other pop pickers of my generation, he’ll always be remembered as the man who made ‘The Oldest Swinger In Town’ famous, taking it to number 6 in the UK charts in 1981. Although Fred wasn’t the […]

A lovely new place to veg out

It’s with great delight and no shortage of tummy rumbling that I warmly welcome Adventures In Veg. – a new vegetarian food blog from the incredibly talented journalist and broadcaster Aoife Barry A.K.A. Sweet Oblivion. There’s already a great number of excellent Irish food blogs out there but, as a vegetarian of some 26 years and a […]

New Head Shop opens on Grafton Street

The national scandal – far worse than child-raping priests, profligate bankers or amoral, incompetent fuckwit politicians, all of which continue to be ignored or even tolerated – continues unabated with the opening of Gimme Head on Grafton Street.