and think of all those complaints that have passed through the confessional box only they call them “sins” instead!
true tale, this:
My mate Chris [who’s a tad unwell] and myself were discussing exactly this, as I drove him home from chemo. Chris’s take was that although the flint hammer to make it was perhaps the first decent invention of ancient times,the wheel certainly takes some beating. Ok,fairy nuff-the wheel did certainly change the world forever…but my reply,as we wended our weary way home,was that the bloke who invented the axle did the real damage. Imagine no brought-to-a-halt-at-rush-hour motorways, no apopleptic drivers wildly gesticulating at one-another,no fumes, no ridiculous amounts of carbon in the air…and all the horse shit you could ever need for your garden. My,how different this world would be if those ancient hominids had invented the prophylactic sheath instead of the wheel…
they did have a prophy ‘well what he said’ sheath they called it WO…MAN!
they just didn’t realized it leaked!
It’s a good thing, that folks can be Differential.
well changing the topic - I’m listening to a run of Richard Thompson music what a great guitarist - cutting edge stuff he even sings romantic songs with a bite - a feast to be sure! nothing soppy about this man and Irish too!
First saw him on the box, mid 80s, after a night out, could have been the Whistle Test, anyway, I remember he did “Tear Stained Letter”, which got progressively faster, it was mind boggling, on top of the Ale.
I had never heard of him Gummy, but he was a member of Fairport Convention, was never into them so that would explain that. He’s a Londoner, my favourite people after Dubliners, I can’t comment on his music until I’ve heard it, I must play his stuff when I’m alone with the dog having a few fair ports.
I see he plays the Appalachian Dulcimer and the Hammered Dulcimer, he must be a genius, I don’t even know what they are, I thought one had to be a Blacksmith to hammer a Dulcimer and an Apache to play the other thing.
I learned to play truant as a nipper - does that count?
Of course it does, guys like us felt great responsibility, we were hyper aware of the plight of Truancy Officer, and how likely they were to become outmoded, by the self righteous, goody two shoe kids, who only thought of themselves. Mr Brookes, if you are still with us, I would like you to know, I did my best, to prolong your employment situation, and enable you to put food on the table.
We called missing school “Mitching” “On the hop” or “On the jayer” don’t ask me how these names came about but the word “Truancy” was never used, well not on my side of the city anyway, maybe some of the toffs in Dublin 4 used it, but then toffy kids didn’t mitch from school so they had no use for the word.
The brother and me tried it once but never again, it was a disaster. The sun was shining when we set out for school and we decided we’d go swimming in the canal instead. The first thing we had to do was to hide the school bags (we didn’t call them satchels either), they were the cheap cloth bags and they contained four books, a jotter and an exercise book, a pencil with a rubber at the end of it, and a pen with a spare nib, some of the better off kids had fountain pens.
As we were enjoying our swim the heavens opened up and it lashed rain, our clothes on the bank were soaked and the books in the two schoolbags were sapping wet, we had hidden them in a ditch and the rain seeped through the cloth bags.
When the rain stopped and the sun came out again there was nobody around so we used a magnifying glass to light a small fire to dry out our clothes, I scorched me trousers and the brother burnt a hole in his shirt by moving it with a hot sparky stick. We walked through fields all day long avoiding the main roads for fear someone would know us and report back to the granny.
When we got home, after what seemed like years in the wilderness, we looked like two starving half drowned rats, it didn’t take much grilling from the granny to get at the truth, our resistance was completely broken down, but she fed us and forgave us. We never tried mitching again, only the hardiest of lads went mitching on a regular basis, or else they had a system unknown to the brother and me.:shock:
Ah,the difference is,Jem,even at such a young age,I played LEAD Truant!
Yep-I was a star in the making-in fact,my Nickname was "Implosive Fusionally Reactive Nebulus-aka “Tigger”. ANYWAY [shuddup,gumbud!] that brings me to the time of the Solar Eclipse…we were all there,trying to observe the Moon’s progress across the face of the Sun,all we kids,desperately trying to capture the historic moment in our young memories. Naturally,it was difficult AND dangerous to observe this stella phenomenon…so I had one of my BRILLIANT ideas [move over,Copernicus,Gallileo,et al] and used a colander to observe the shadow cross…
…which really strained my eyes…
…and now I ask myself…was that joke worth the effort?..
Well I enjoyed the joke Pug old boy, very creative. ;-)
My old eyes need extra magnification when I’m working now, God be with the days when I could thread a needle blindfolded.
I didn’t get me first pair of specs until I was into me early sixties, in my ignorance I said to the optician “I believe that once you get the first pair of glasses you have to keep getting stronger ones for the rest of your days, is that right?’ He didn’t answer me, just smiled a broad grin, that said everything. So stay away from opticians for as long as you can.
“She had lovely blue eyes, one blew left and one blew right.
Her lips were like petals, bicycle peddles”
Now where did I hear that before?
erhhm erhhm erhhm erhhm erimas rubicans halogens halogens masses me old phyiscs teacher used to exclaimed as he became more and more excited as the experiment grew and grew ah yes where was I colanders I see they know come in a multitude of colors which is what you must have looked like pug a veritable pin cushion and I bet they called you spotty you for many a day no need looking for Tiggers he stuck out like a sore thumb. :shock::shock::shock:
Ah Gummy, that reminds me of Father Jack Kavanagh, known locally as Flash Kavanagh on account of him serving mass in seven minutes flat, a record time for the old latin mass back in the 1950’s, I was an altarboy serving at that mass and timed it on the new watch I got that Christmas. It was no wonder that everyone packed the church at his masses, they were in and out like Flynn, the queue outside his confession box was the longest of the other four priests in the parish, Flash just wanted to get them out as quickly as her could so he could get in a few pints and a game of darts before closing time.
But he was a victim of his own efficiency, the faster he got the more the sinners flocked to his confessional box, even from outside the parish, I kid you not, Jack Kavanagh is still remembered in Dublin to this very day, he was a kind soul, very good to the destitute in the parish, he would stop at the street corners and play pitch and toss with the men and join them later for a sing song in the pub, he was reported to the bishop several times, but he was so popular with the people and for drawing big church attendances that they let him carry on in the same parish instead of shifting him as was the normal practice of bishops on the back of such complaints.
He knew me well from serving mass with him and one Saturday afternoon when he was extremely busy I entered the box, he slid back the grilled panel looked at me and said “Jaysus Jimmy can’t you see the queue? get out and don’t be wasting me time, here’s a tanner, go to the pictures, your no sinner” That’s the truth, he died of cancer, and if that kind decent man is not in heaven then there is no heaven. God rest his soul.
great story = it’s the way ya tell em ya know - especially that Dublin accent!
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/36363159/canadian-fisherman-killed-by-whale-after-he-frees-it-from-net/
this is one reason I never help the missus when she gets tangled up in the clothes line!!
It has been a strange couple of days, so much to evaluate.
[QUOTE=gumbud;
this is one reason I never help the missus when she gets tangled up in the clothes line!![/QUOTE]
That was a very sad read Gummy, but I suppose he would have wanted to go that way. Will the Whale be charged with murder or manslaughter?;-)
I ask because I remember reading many years ago about a “bad” Elephant sentenced to be electrocuted on Coney Island.
Ah I found it, there was documentary film made of it I think, here’s a sample of the story, you can read the full story on Wiki under ‘Coney Island Elephant Electrocution’
“This film documents the publicly announced January 4, 1903 killing of Topsy the elephant at the (still under construction) Luna Park on Coney island. The elephant had recently been acquired from Forepaugh Circus, where she had a reputation as a “bad” elephant, having killed a drunken spectator the previous year who burnt the tip of her trunk with a lit cigar. After several incidents at Luna Park (sometimes attributed to the actions of her drunken handler, William “Whitey” Alt) the owners of Luna Park, Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, claimed they could no longer handle the elephant and announced they would hang Topsy in a public spectacle and charge admission. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stepped in, questioning the idea of hanging an elephant as well as making a public spectacle out of the death of an animal. Thompson and Dundy cut the event back to invited guest and press only and agreed to use a more sure method of strangling the elephant with large ropes tied to a steam powered winch. They also agreed they would use poison and electricity as well” Wiki.
Will the Whale be charged with murder or manslaughter?
neither just a careless goodbye swish of the tail!