Jim Cusack Sunday Independent - World's Worst "Journalist"

From the Balcony, A Publisher's Blog: Can reporting can get any worse than this?
It's worth reading Máirtín Ó Muilleoir's blog re Jim Cusack of the west-brit "newspaper", The Sunday Independent

Oxford Dictionary - new word!

It's usually heard on the Northside of Dublin. ( well, in Bar 52 anyway) Phonetically it's -
" hee a ah.."
Possibly it means...Hello... excuse me... can I have a drink please...?
Answers on a postcard please

And Talking About Coffee...

On Tuesday of last week I bought 2 Espresso coffees in Porto, Portugal and they cost me €1.20 (60 cent each).
Today I bought 2 Espresso coffees in the Coachman's Inn near Dublin airport and they cost me €5.50 (€2.75 each).

And the coffee in Porto tasted ten times better!

Go to the back of the geography class Mr Starbucks

My friend Katarzyna spotted this strange notice in Starbucks Cafe on College Green recently.

I must say that Starbucks have THE best coffee in town, their Cafe's have a great atmosphere and friendly staff ...
But 10 years in the UK?
Er.. we are not in the UK Mr Starbuck!

Oh well, I suppose it's hard to be good at everything!

The Blizzards' Niall Breslin talking a lot of sense...

I read an interview with The Blizzards frontman, Niall Breslin in a recent Hot Press magazine. Must say this man talks a lot of sense! Here is an extract from the interview.

" Staying on the theme of alcohol, what does Breslin make of the government's recent decision to curtail off license hours to 10pm?"
"That's one thing that pisses me off", he fumes. "I was listening to Newstalk recently and this guy was going that alcohol is so cheap ... have you been to southern Spain? You can get a bottle of wine for a euro and you don't see locals walking around puking. This country is being run by old men. Old, boring farts who need to cop the fuck on and stop closing off licences at 10pm and closing nightclubs early. The whole thing stinks. It's turning us into Communists. They're not even giving us a fucking choice about this - that's the worst part about it. Don't bloody lecture us on being bloody democratic and shit like this when you don't give us any choice in it. And if we do protest, we get our arse kicked and thrown in jail. I don't give a fuck about Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael or any of them - they're all the same essentially - and, at the end of the day, they only give a shit about being in power. What they're doing now is trying to take away any bit of fun we're having.
I do understand that there's a huge problem with alcohol in Ireland, but I don't think that's the fucking way to go about fixing it."

Niall Breslin for President?
p.s. Check out the Blizzards latest chart hit, the infectious "Trust Me I'm a Doctor"

Oh to be not racist

O2 , be not racist!
It appears that mobile phone giant O2 are not too fond of Polish people. A friend of mine who is from Polska and lives in Dublin changed from a prepaid to a monthly bill contract with the company. When you do this you must sign up to a minimum period and there are various incentives like x amount of free minutes and texts per month, etc.
But then she discovered something VERY strange - she is not permitted to make calls to Poland on her mobile for the first three months of the contract!
Why?
Are O2 suggesting that Polish people are dishonest? That they won't pay their bill? Are they saying that all Polish people must be punished if they had some problem in the past with a Polish person? Have they never had a problem with Irish customers - or English or Spanish for that matter?

I just looked up the word "racism" in the dictionary and it is explained as "discrimination against or hostility towards people of other races". Perhaps O2 can explain why they have this rule and why it applies only to Polish people?

No Sex In This City

I heard Joe Costello, TD being interviewed on the radio over the weekend about a statement that he issued condemning the sex shops operating in Phibsboro. Apparently you can open a grocery shop and change it overnight to a sex shop because of some loophole in the planning laws. Which is what they did.
Well Joe was getting mighty upset - getting his knickers in a twist even. The sex shops were in full view of the church scolded our Joe and it would upset people going to mass. Joseph went on to actually name one of the sex shops on air - lots of free publicity for the owner, but under questioning admitted that one of the shops had since closed down! Bit of a storm in a teacup really then Joe.
I know Mr Costello is doing a good job and should be commended for trying to rid our streets of these filthy, disgraceful, pornographic outlets. Furthermore, we should all go to mass every Sunday, eat only fish on Friday and yes - sex should be banned altogether as it's an immoral, disgusting habit. Right Joe?

I know there is no such thing as bad publicity but I think our Joe is scraping the bottom of the barrel. We have gang violence out of control, joyriders, burglaries, drink-fueled violence on our streets, not to mention an inept government in charge of a faltering economy and Joe Costello is worried about sex shops.
Get a life Joe!
p.s. I hope the punters going into the sex shop don't get upset and start complaining about being in full view of church-goers.