[ Posted Thursday, March 19th, 2015 – 12:00 UTC ]
For the record -- and no surprise to anyone who has made it to the end of one of my 10,000-word columns -- yes, I have kissed the Blarney Stone. It's at the top of Blarney Castle, which is lots of fun to wander around, and to kiss it you have to lean backwards over a death-defying drop of something like ten stories. An old Irishman will hold your legs for you, so you don't fall to certain death, and you better believe I tipped him well for the service! Then, while leaning backwards, you kiss the magic stone (and try not to think about the rumors you've heard of mischievous Irish lads sneaking up there and urinating on it at night).
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[ Posted Wednesday, March 18th, 2015 – 12:00 UTC ]
Barack Hussein Obama is not exactly the first name that springs to mind when the average person thinks of American politicians with Irish roots, to say the least. But Obama does indeed have Irish ancestry, and he certainly played this up in his recent visit to the Emerald Isle. Today, we are going to print the full text of Obama's address to an ecstatic Dublin crowd.
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[ Posted Tuesday, March 17th, 2015 – 12:00 UTC ]
Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, lived in the fifth century A.D., and he came to Ireland as a proselytizer for Christianity. That is about the sum total of the known, verifiable facts about Patrick. The rest is myth. Since such mythologizing began only a few hundred years after his death (which happened on March 17, by the way), these myths of Patrick are much more widely known than the thin shreds of his real history (which are limited to two surviving letters written by Patrick in Latin). Besides, it's much more fun to sit around telling these tales over a pint of Guinness than to dig up actual facts. Even if the tales are pure blarney.
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[ Posted Monday, March 16th, 2015 – 12:00 UTC ]
At this point, you may be tempted to ask the barman for what you believe will be a well-known local drink, and you may thus make the mistake of asking for a "black and tan." The reception of what you consider a harmless drink order for a pint glass half-filled with Harp and half-filled with Guinness Stout will not, however, be a merry twinkle of approval from the barman's eye for ordering a local delicacy. Instead, you will (hopefully) be forgiven for such a gross error of etiquette, and (once they hear some more of your American accent, again, hopefully) they will instruct you in the long and grim history of the Black and Tans -- with a helpful suggestion that if you ever want the same drink again in an Irish pub, that you ask for it as a "half and half" instead.
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[ Posted Sunday, March 15th, 2015 – 14:22 UTC ]
I will be away until the end of March. I am taking a vacation to visit Ireland, to see how the Irish celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. I will be watching the parade in Dublin with interest, and perhaps may have some time to report back. But I make no promises -- I [...]
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[ Posted Saturday, February 28th, 2015 – 18:47 UTC ]
[OK, another item on my ever-longer "upgrades needed for the CW.com site" list is to create a page where these sorts of things are easily available, complete with controls so you can listen without having to download big audio files. But until we get to that point....]
Yesterday, I was interviewed on a morning talk [...]
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[ Posted Friday, February 13th, 2015 – 21:02 UTC ]
Had the best of intentions, but slept something like 18 hours today (even the cat's impressed at my feline behavior). Hopefully I'll be well enough to type by Monday. Have a good weekend, everyone, and stay healthy!
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
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[ Posted Thursday, February 12th, 2015 – 18:48 UTC ]
Due to illness, there will be no column today, sorry. Can't think straight, no energy. I'll try to get a Friday column out tomorrow, but no promises.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
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[ Posted Sunday, February 8th, 2015 – 00:14 UTC ]
I will be running a few live tests this weekend, updating the site's code. There may be temporary interruptions of service, which may result in you getting incomprehensible "error messages" instead of seeing the site. I apologize for these in advance, should this happen to you. I'm working hard to update some [...]
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[ Posted Wednesday, December 24th, 2014 – 17:41 UTC ]
Coincidentally enough, the day that North Korea was hacked and the day I wrote about cyberattacks, this site was hacked.
I've restored it, for now, but there may be some heavy-duty site maintenance in the coming days. In any case, thanks to everyone for their continued patience, and we're certainly sorry this happened. If [...]
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