Dingle, Daingean

Posted on October 20, 2018 | 4 comments

I make an audio version of each one of my blog posts for my $2-a-month subscribers on Patreon. I’m giving everyone this audio version for free so you can hear how the Irish words sound – and to entice you into subscribing. Listen to it (and subscribe) at patreon.com/posts/22182846

You know you’re in Ireland. You’re on a shoulderless one-lane road pasted to the side of the greenest cliff you’ve ever seen and somehow you’re still driving on the left. And the signs (such as the one telling large vehicles “TURN BACK NOW”) are in Irish first (“Cas Siar Anois” – for the curious, you say that like “cuss sheer a nish”), and you know you’re in the Gaeltacht (the Irish-speaking region) because some of the signs are in Irish only. Which can be a bit of an uphill struggle for some people, especially when it’s the only way to get by. Continue reading →

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Black Rock Coffee

Posted on October 18, 2018 | Leave a comment
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Lots of black, anyway, not sure about rock

Listen to this, complete with ambient sound, on Patreon.

Most coffice spaces have windows on the street where you can watch people go by from one thing to another. All coffice spaces have the little windows of people’s screens showing the infinite depth and infinite flatness of their work and online amusement. But some coffice spaces also have other windows. Black Rock Coffee has a window on people building up their lives through climbing. Continue reading →

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Moher

Posted on October 18, 2018 | 1 comment

When people come to Ireland, they see the towns, of course. Dublin, naturally. Galway or Cork, perhaps. A few others. But many people want to see more. In particular, they want to see Moher.

What is Moher? The mother of all cliffs – all Irish cliffs, anyway. The western edge of the emerald isle, breaking off and tumbling into the sea. Up top it may be coated with a mossy mohair of grass that has moo-ers for mowers, but the drop-off gets to 214 metres (702 feet), straight into the waters of the Atlantic. And of course someone (named O’Brien) built a stone tower on top of the highest point just to get a better view. Or to impress people. Continue reading →

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Galway

Posted on October 15, 2018 | 3 comments

I’ve just gotten back from a week in Ireland with Aina, in case you were wondering where I’d gotten to. We saw a lot of the country and I took a lot of pictures. And the first county and city we unpacked our bags in was Galway. Continue reading →

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AGO Espresso Bar

Posted on October 4, 2018 | Leave a comment
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A different set of people around here

Listen to the audio version of this coffice space review on Patreon.

This coffice space is special. Continue reading →

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simulacrum

Posted on October 3, 2018 | 1 comment

The very appearance of this word gives the impression of erudition. It may have an almost-complete lack at its heart, braced between mu (either Zen emptiness or Greek microscopy) and um (hesitation, inchoate incoherence), but it opens with si, an eternal ‘yes’ or an eternal ‘if’ or both. And it presents itself as Latin, a dead language that is the badge of a live intellect… or an undead one, anyway. Continue reading →

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cunctolimen

Posted on October 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

A cunctolimen is a kind of place that many of us hate to pass through, but nearly all of us do pass through several times a day. And some of us linger there. Which is why many of us hate to pass through it.

You know. You’re going through a door and someone ahead of you has stopped right there, checking out the surroundings or finishing texting on their phone. Or some people have chosen the spot right where the theatre lets into the lobby to have a conversation circle. Or you step into the subway train and the person in front of you stops right at the door rather than moving in to all that room in front of you, buddy. Or you’re at the top of some steps and someone is having their movie moment, pausing for the nonexistent camera as they survey what’s below. Or you’re getting off an escalator and the person ahead of you is not moving forward and hey! Scuse me! Sorry! Continue reading →

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thring

Posted on October 1, 2018 | 2 comments

In the dark, they thring. They thring towards the blinding light. They thring against the fences, up the stairs, at the railings. They thring, arms upraised, reaching their electronic eyes in the palms of their hands towards it to see, to record, to remember.

Are they thriving? Are they thirsting? Are they furthering? Are they throwing or flinging themselves forward? They are thronging like some large multiform dark evolving thing. They are thringing. Continue reading →

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philobiblist

Posted on September 29, 2018 | 4 comments

Last weekend, Word on the Street happened at Harbourfront in Toronto. The lexically lascivious and philosophically bibulous went on a spree. Many a booth had many a book and many a buyer went on many a page bender, adding liberally to their bibliographic lists without the need of fiscal phlebotomy. Continue reading →

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Barrie Bean Counter

Posted on September 28, 2018 | Leave a comment
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Hello?

Listen to the podcast version of this on Patreon

On an early fall early afternoon, I found myself in Barrie and at loose ends. I had come to town to give a presentation in the evening, and did not want to drive up during rush hour. The truth is that there is no non-horrid time or route to drive to Barrie, but the timing of my engagement ruled out a train or bus. I installed my car in a lot and surveyed the main drag of downtown, Dunlop Street. I soon spotted my kind of place slotted between other weather-worn storefronts: Barrie Bean Counter. Continue reading →

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