As some of you know, my teeth are not my strongest feature. I’ve been working with our wonderful dentist, Dr. Z, for nearly 20 years. I have had tons of work done – basically the entire menu of dental services. Root canals, various abscesses, braces, multiple crowns…. I was pretty sure that I had managed to have every dental procedure possible, except dentures.
That is, until Saturday….. (more…)
So get this:
Dubliners use water to remove frost from the windshields of their cars.
WATER!
A fellow employee was making casual conversation when she mentioned that she took water to her car this morning to clean off her windscreen. I stopped to confirm what I’d just heard.
“Sure, that’s right,” she said, and continued with her story.
I reeled. My world shook to its foundations. Water to remove ice? (more…)
Our Illinois friends and family asked us: “Did you hear about the Governor?” The short answer is “Yes.” I’d like your help in getting the long answer just right.
(more…)
There are many things that I love about living in Ireland. There are a few things that annoy or trouble me. But there is one thing that I clearly hate — the fact that butter comes in a single chunk of butter — 454 grams, to be precise. Why is it 454 grams, you ask? Because that is as close to one pound of butter as you can get in metric terms.
I could deal with a big block of butter if only there were measurements on the wrapping.
(more…)
Through a FOIA request submitted this summer, it has come to the Bugle’s attention that all American tourists travelling to Europe received the following instructions:
From: North American Tourist Authority
To: US and Canadian Citizens bound for Europe
Date: [redacted]Dear US and/or Canadian citizens bound for Europe,
Tourists from North America have always been drawn together by the sound of their non-British accents. For decades, the Standard Greeting among these travelers was, “Where are you from?” or “Where ya from?” or some variation thereof.
As of [redacted], 2008, the new Standard Greeting is “So, what about this election, huh?” Please use this Greeting when encountering any person with a non-British accents in Foreign Countries.
An image of the letter, as received by the Bugle in response to our FOIA request, is available in PDF form.
The Bugle already sent a letter to the President of NATA with the following message:
We respectfully request that American expatriates receive timely notice of any future changes in the Standard Greeting. NATA should be aware that expatriates with American accents may be disoriented when visiting tourist sites around Europe without having prepared a Suitable Response to a new Greeting.
That is all.
From the best word-a-day website, at wordsmith.org:
serein
PRONUNCIATION:
(suh-RAN [the second syllable is nasal])MEANING:
noun: Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset.ETYMOLOGY:
From French serein, from Old French serain (evening), from Latin serum (evening), from serus (late).USAGE:
“She must have caught a chill from the serein, that’s all!” Raphael Confiant; Mamzelle Dragonfly; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2000.
Here in Dublin, I’ve observed serein during the morning, afternoon, and evening as well. I don’t know of any uniquely Irish slang for this type of rain, although there are lots of words and colloquial phrases for heavier rain.
There must be a word for serein, given how common it is here (and how uncommon it is everywhere else I’ve lived).
As the leaves start changing here in Dublin, another sure sign of the approaching winter arrived: the first “snowflake” in the car. The car has a nice feature – on the dashboard it tells you the outside temperature. Being that it is an Irish car, it reports the temperature in degrees Celsius. I have grown accustomed to that over the last year.
What I can’t grow accustomed to is the “snowflake” warning: when the temperature gets to about 5 degrees, I get a little snowflake next to the temperature reading. (more…)
Last week was gorgeous — sunny and warm. I’d call it an Indian summer.
Yesterday, the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees with every rain shower that passed through. Today is cold. It is more than an autumnal chill; winter sent its forward scouts to Ireland this Thursday.
The doorbell rang after 10:30 last night. Anita woke me up to ask if I’d heard it. The radio was playing in our bedroom, and I insisted that it was just a sound effect from some commercial.
It rang again, more insistently this time. There was no doubt that somebody was at our front door.
“I locked the gate, I swear I did,” Anita said as we put on some clothes to meet our unexpected visitor. We talked quickly, in low voices, as we walked the length of our flat: Who would ring at this hour? Somebody we know? A neighbour? A Guard?
I made a brief case for not answering, on the grounds that it would bring nothing but trouble. I don’t remember how I lost that argument in just a few seconds. (more…)
I’ve been doing the commute in Dublin for a year now, and I’ve gotten into a rhythm. I used to have a pretty good idea of how long it took to get to work (about 30 minutes, for those interested) and a decent idea of how it was taking to get home. But then Will discovered a couple of features on the car that really fed my desire for “metrics” (a term that those working for A company will be familiar with).
The dashboard displays quite a bit of information in addition to speed and the tachometer. It also tells me the time, the temperature and until Will changed the setting, the number of kilometres left on the tank. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when now had time counter – how long the car had been running since you started it. (more…)
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