I was a wee bit homesick for Ireland. Let’s call this one, “Guinness, Dear Guinness.”
Month: July 2017
Never Felt So Indigo When Celebrating The Red, White, and Blue.
Interesting perspective! Read more at 1xpad.com.
“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”
-Daniel Patrick Moynihan
“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.”
-Michael Oakeshott
Go Fourth!
Double down on democracy, speak your mind, and honestly. Support a free press, and denounce those who’d silence
The Fourth Estate. A patriot is neither left nor right, but one who upholds the Constitution. Refuse to succumb
To the treachery of bluster and lies. We know better! Some have had their eyes clouded, others feel dismay,
Yet we are Americans. We believe in liberty, in justice, for ALL, and we will not be led astray by this sham of a leader.
Snapshot #189
There are areas in southwestern Ireland where the road signs are only printed in the Irish language. I’m calling this one “It’s all Gaelic to me.”
Poulnabrone
Without a doubt the most memorable side trip of our eight days in Ireland was a visit to the Portal Tomb or Poulnabrone Dolmen in County Clare. We drove out to the tomb on our last full day on the island while the men played golf at Lahinch. I’d almost despaired that we’d have no opportunity to see such a place, but the wait was worth it.
As we drove through the Burren toward the tomb the landscape took on an otherworldly aspect, with outcroppings of limestone competing with short grasses and bursts of wildflowers. Our driver parked the bus and a blast of cold wind greeted us, but didn’t deter us from scampering up the hill to the Poulnabrone.
The tomb is thought to have been erected between 2,500 and 4,000 years B.C.
I spoke with a gentleman who helps keep watch over the crowds of visitors. He said that vandals have found ways to carve initials into the stones, have removed small stones, and have even urinated on the tomb. I can’t imagine the callous disregard for something so ancient.
Snapshot #188
I took this one in the gardens at Doonbeg. It should be called, “Bee Irish!”
The Malton in Killarney, County Kerry
Our first few nights in Ireland were spent in the lovely Malton Hotel in Killarney. The hotel is within easy walking distance to the shops and pubs in the charming downtown area and most evenings we enjoyed a stroll to a restaurant for dinner and maybe a pint or two.
The Malton Hotel made us feel welcome in a faraway land. I highly recommend it, but suggest that you request a room with a larger shower. Some in our party, including Studly Doright and I, had tiny shower stalls while other couples enjoyed more comfortably sized ones. Our bathtub was luxuriously sized, though.
Peace, people!
Last Call
The golfers played Lahinch on Thursday while the women explored The Burren, a wildly surrealistic landscape dotted with an abundance of limestone outcroppings. I celebrated surviving the journey into the natural beauty of Ireland with an O’Hara’s pale ale at a pub in Ballyvaughn.
This was a terrific beer with a bit of a bite, and I enjoyed every drop. It was a fine beer to enjoy on my last full day in Ireland.
One final toast:
May the good Lord take a liking to you…but not too soon.
Apprentice
Brilliant piece by Jan Wilberg. Redswrap.wordpress.com.
Man babies are made not born. Just like sexist pigs. Neither lands on earth fully formed. It takes years of cultivation. Careful sowing and regular watering.
Dads are the farmers. Oh, they’re enabled by the womenfolk who watch from the kitchen window, wipe their hands on their aprons, and fret silently to themselves. But the making of man babies and sexist pigs, well, that’s a man’s job.
Boys learn how to respond to life’s insults and how to cope with women who frustrate them from their fathers. And it’s not what their fathers tell them. It’s what their fathers do.
And that’s a burden for anyone, to be watched day in and day out, to have those little ears in the backseat at every wrong turn and each flat tire. It is tough to have such persistent witnesses to life’s adult messes, to hear the clicking of their small forks on…
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Praying for Eyebrowz 