Paul Healy on the perils of throwing out the calendar; taking down the Christmas lights; Alan Shatter’s touching humility; the great David Bowie…and a Centenary you may not be aware of yet…
Date for your diary?
So anyways, with all the calendars that are coming into the office in recent days, I am reminded of a priceless exchange I overheard on a train a few weeks before Christmas.
No Roscommon person will be implicated by the retelling of this epic tale; the exchange on the train happened en route from Dublin and as far as I can recall the star of the story got off in Mullingar.
But not before he had this exchange with his mother…
‘Hello Mammy…did you go to Mass? You did. Right. I’ll be there in an hour…’
Shocked pause follows.
‘Sure you know I’m coming home this weekend…I’m on the train…’
Another pause.
Man on train mystified. ‘…but I marked it on the calendar on the fridge.’
Another pause. ‘Unless there’s some misunderstanding…I marked it on the calendar. That I’d be down home this weekend.’
Now a twist… ‘What? You threw out the calendar?’
I looked away, thinking the greatest comedy writers would be proud of these lines.
There was more to come… ‘You threw out the calender? But sure you should still have November!’
A priceless punchline!
Obviously the train passenger’s logic was that it was one thing for his mother to rip a ‘month’ off the calendar on her fridge when it was done with, but why throw out the whole calendar?
It was still ‘only November’ and if she had retained November and December she’d have seen the date circled and known that her son was coming down from Dublin.
‘I’ll see you in an hour’ was how he finished the call to his mother.
The man, a nice guy, stared into space for a moment, then relaxed again. He looked happy now as the train trundled towards home. And I’m sure his mother was thrilled with the unexpected bonus of her son’s imminent arrival – a dour Saturday night had just been brightened.
Salt-of-the-earth people, nice story, hilarious exchange.
But this year, they really need to leave the calendar on the fridge for the whole year.
Sunday
Sunday was cold, but it was also four days after ‘Little Christmas’ – so, with a new week pending, there really was ‘nowhere to hide.’
It was high time to take down the modest Christmas lights and reindeers that had braved the elements outside our house over the festive season.
As with the indoor decorations, it’s not nearly as enjoyable taking down the outdoor features as it is putting them up. A short while after completing the task, my little ‘Sunday ordeal’ was put into perspective when I saw about a dozen volunteers hard at work in Roscommon town, taking down the Christmas lights.
We hail these volunteers in early and mid December; we shouldn’t forget them in early January! Members of the Christmas Lights Committee in Roscommon Town – and in adjoining towns and villages – take a bow.
Later on Sunday…
The headline in The Sunday Business Post promised an outbreak of modesty of historic proportions. Tingling with anticipation, I sought out the detail behind the sensational headline.
The headline, by the way, indicated that former Justice Minister Alan Shatter has (by his own admission) a failing. The notion that an Irish politician would admit to having a failing is in itself startling.
Little wonder then that I excitedly perused the three-page feature on the modest Mr. Shatter, who is seeking re-election this year. And I quote Mr. Shatter… ‘If I have a failing, my failing perhaps is that when political expediency and the truth clash, I tend to prefer to tell the truth.
Unfortunately I’ve discovered in politics, on occasions, telling the truth gets you into trouble.’ Oh…is that it? Well folks, if I have a failing, my failing perhaps is that when arrogance and self-serving waffle clash on the lips of a senior politician I tend to give it ten seconds of my time instead of copping myself on…
Monday
So I was driving from the school and turned on the radio and there was Joe Finnegan talking about someone paying tribute to David Bowie. Yes, he’s certainly in the news these days, I thought, he has a new album out since Friday.
Presumably Joe or some listener had already heard it and wanted to praise it… Unfortunately there was more to it than this…and I soon realised that Bowie had sadly slipped away from us.
He was wonderful. A showman, a star, an innovator, most of all a major, enormously influential figure in popular culture. In the same league as the very greatest entertainers the world has ever seen, his wonderful music will live on long into the future.
Every day
Conversation not overheard anywhere in Ireland recently…
‘I was just thinking, now that it’s 2016 all of a sudden, wouldn’t that be the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising?’ ‘Oh yeah, actually you’re right…’
‘That probably merits some celebration or acknowledgement…you know, Centenary Celebrations, 100 years on and all that…I wonder are there any plans for it?’
‘Dunno…haven’t heard or seen anything about it in the media in the last while…but sure the year is young…’
