Math Problem

This is a 5th grade math problem. This is not a trick question. This is a real math problem so do not say that a bus has no legs. P.S. There is no driver. There are 7 girls in a bus. Each girl has 7 backpacks. In each backpack, there are 7 big cats. For every big cat, there are 7 little cats. Question: How many legs are there in the bus? Solution Here

The Sunday Tribune - A New Look - 1992

The Sunday Tribune - 25 Years Later

Award Winning Design
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The Front Page and the entire content of the newspaper was re-designed by Steve Ryan in September 1992, just before I left. The idea was to use the new full colour facilities at our printers in Drogheda Web Offset. It was a very radical new look for the time and Steve won a very prestigeous International Newspaper design award for his work.

I was very friendly with Steve and it was through a combination of myself and Pat Brennan that we convinced him to come back. The real trick was to convince Vincent - that was Pat's job, I was the one who convinced Steve - it wasn't too hard as he was ready for a change.

The Sunday Tribune - Italia 90

The Sunday Tribune - 25 Years Later

Packie Saves! Uploaded by M+MD.

This cover has a lot of memories for me - anybody alive in Ireland in June 1990 will recognise. I remember that on the day of the quarter-final play-off against Romania we had arranged a meeting with a Abacus Venture Capital who were considering an investment in the Tribune at the time. We were considering a rights issues to fund the soon to be launched Dublin Tribune. We arranged a presentation to Abacus at 2pm on the day of the match - we didn't realise at the time that it would clash with the match - but as the funding was important we waited for them to cancel - they didn't. The presentation went well and we were finished about 5 minutes after kick-off. The presentation as in the old Goodbody's Stockbrockers offices in Dame Street and we rushed to the nearest TV set - Blooms Hotel. We watched the first half and decide to make a run for Baggot Street at half time. I will always remember walking up through Dublin at half-time - there was hardly a car or a bus on the road - the place was deserted in the middle of the afternoon, it was more like 9am Sunday than 3.45 pm Monday. We met the rest of the Tribune folks in Toners where we watched the rest of the match. It went to a penalty shoot-out and Packie Bonner famously saved the 4th penalty with Niall Quinn slotting the fifth we were through to the quarter-final -it was the stuff of fairy tales.

The Sunday Tribune - The Justin Keating Libel - 1984

The Sunday Tribune - 25 Years Later

A famous article that nearly brought us under, Uploaded by M+MD.

This was the article that nearly pulled us under. In the article Vincent berated former minister Justin Keating for the deal he did with mining companies - especially Bula during the coalition government of the 1970's. Old news perhaps. However Justin decided to sue and we decided to go to court. We were in the middle of raising new finance and had significant pledges when in December 1985 we lost the case and Keating (who cried in the witness box - the scoundrel!) was awarded a record amount of damages - £50,000 plus costs. We spent a very difficult few months trying to hold the investors, trying to settle every outstanding action and resisting creditor pressure. We survived and probably were the the stronger for it - but it nearly caused the second Sunday Tribune to go the way of the first.

The Sunday Tribune - First Colour Cover 1984

Tribune Cover
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The Sunday Tribune - 25 Years Later

Vincent was convinced that everyone would want to keep a souvenir of when President Ronald Reagan's visited Ireland and went to Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary. I suppose that he was thinking of the souvenir supplements he probably had as a teenager at the time of JFK's visit in 1963. He had a point and the issue went well for us. It was the first time that we put the colour supplement on the outside. It caused some confusion with our reading public. At the time tabloid was considered down-market and one of the mistakes the first Tribune made was that it launched as an up-market tabloid. It learned from its mistake - but it may have been too late. We got a lot of calls from readers and newsagents in the following week exhorting us not to go tabloid! All of this sowed a seed for the future look of the paper in the late eighties.

HEINEKEN CUP POOLS 2008/'09

POOL 1:
MUNSTER, Sale Sharks, Clermont Auvergne, Montauban

POOL 2:
London Wasps, LEINSTER, Castres Olympique, Edinburgh

POOL 3:
Leicester Tigers, Perpignan, Ospreys, Treviso

POOL 4:
Stade Francais, Llanelli Scarlets, ULSTER, Harlequins

POOL 5:
Toulouse, Bath, Dragons, Glasgow

POOL 6:
Biarritz, Gloucester, Cardiff Blues, Calvisano

Round One matchs are the weekend of the 10th of October.

Street Performance World Championship

Katinka - Swan Lake, Uploaded by M+MD.

This week-end the Busker World Championship is on in Merrion Square, Dublin. There are some great acts. We especially liked Mario - Queen of the Circus. and Katinka the Russian (?) former superstar of an obscure Soviet circus troupe! She is now alone in Dublin with only her wit, dentures and a pair of traffic cones to rely on. The photos tell the story. She arrives out first as a little old bag lady with dentures. She picks on Cormac from the audience and she christens him Vladimir. She then gets our attention with some serous acrobatics - the glass trick is pretty impresive. She then does Swan Lake - on traffic cones.

Bad Teeth Day
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Katinka
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Mario Crowd Surfs
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To Queen's "Bicycle"
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Mario and Assistants, Uploaded by M+MD.

Then we had Mario from the USA with a strong Portuguese accent which he says "is very hard - to do". He is a juggler who is also a Queen and Freddie Mercury fanatic. He juggles in time to Queen music. (Watch out for another one bits the dust in the YouTube clip below). Mario picked 2 assistants from the audience. The first was Martha from Portugal ("where my accent came from"). He plans to carry her on his shoulders while he rides a Unicycle. He reassures us that "in all the times of done this trick - I've only made a mess of it once. By the way, this is only my second time to attempt this" She was understandable nervous as he tried to get on the Unicycle. I think we were nervous too.

Mario, Uploaded by M+MD.

To put us at ease he did a virtuoso performance on the unicycle to Queen's "I want to ride my Bicycle". Not only does he use the pedals and one pedal, but he also propels the unicycle with his foot pushing the tyre rather than the pedals. He then juggles to Love of my life - where upon Martha's boyfriend challenges him to a duel. They fight it out with bananas. Then th eboyfriend has to sing Bohemion Rhapsody. Finally he crowd surks to "We are the Champions"

The YouTube clip gives some idea of a great performance.

Some more photos from Dublin.

Byron (Canada)
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Space Cowboy
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Pig
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Silver Elvis
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Mr Spin (Oz)
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Tumble Circus
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Waiting in Line
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Audience Participation
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A Munster Poem - Courtesy Seany Hayes

There's a factory near Limerick, that opponents view with dread;
It's where they make the forwards who will wear the Munster red.
They start with hunks of granite, that's reinforced with steel;
Add skill, determination and courage that's unreal.
There is a master craftsman, whom all regard with awe,
Who models front row forwards on Clifford, Wood and Claw.
Another makes the second rows, who leap and take the ball;
Like Gaillaimh, Keene and Lenihan and Donncha and Paul.
And then there are the flankers and the powerful number eights,
With Wally, Quinny, Leamy just the latest of the greats.
And when the finished product has been given heart and soul,
It undergoes inspection at quality control;
And if it isn't perfect, if it won't delight the Thomond stand
They send it up to Leinster......... and stamp it second hand.
And when their country needs them, they will answer Ireland's call.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, they will make the mighty fall.
And now, when in the future, they wear the Irish green,
They'll have an active Kidney to keep them squeaky clean.
The factory had a holiday to celebrate the Cardiff win
So I wandered up the driveway, hoping that I could look in.
And, as I gazed in through the window of that factory most holy,
I saw the statue standing in the hall was that of Anthony Foley.

Cemetary Sunday Dalgan Park Navan

Sheila & Mary; Chris & Deirdre
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Sunday last was Cemetery Sunday in the Columban Fathers headquarters in Dalgan Park just outside Navan. It is now just over a year since we buried Fr Martin. There was a good collection of Dobeys there - of course his 2 sisters - Auntie Sheila and Auntie Mary were there. Mary was with her eldest Louis. There was strong representation from Fr Martin's now long departed brothers (Sean and Brian) and sister Kay.

Greg & Co
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Sean's wife Peggy along with Joseph and his girlfriend; Kay's husband Denis along with Deirdre, Chris, Katie and Roisin and Kay's old friend Maureen. From our own crew we had Brian and Mairead along with Ronan, Roisin, Eoghan and Colin; Greg and Ger along with Christopher, Peter, Hanna and Rebecca. We had a lovely mass in the open air down at the cemetery. There are 192 priests buried there and there brothers sisters nephews nieces and friends were gathered together to pray and remember.

The Galway Crew
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The Columbans as ever had tea cake and sandwiches for everybody afterwards. It was a great chance to meet up and catch up. Denis gave me all the reasons why he is voting No to Lisbon. I had a counter argument for each one except his final deal-breaker: "I tell you what, boy, I just want to give all those politicians a good kick up the ass". There is no arguing with that - unfortunately Denis may have captured the mood of a nation. We will see to-morrow - polling day on the Lisbon treaty is today.

We almost got the full compliment for a group photo - we missed a few who had just left before we got organised.

Group Photo!, Uploaded by M+MD.

Back Row: Denis, Maureen, Sheila, Mary, Barney, Deirdre, Katie,Chris, Ronan, Mairead, Ger
Front Row: Greg, Rebecca, Eoghan, Hanna, Colin, Roisin, Peter, Roisin, Christopher.

Sunday 25 May 2008 A Very Sad Graph

Heaven will have to wait. Just like 2 years ago the day after Munster won the Heineken Cup spells disaster for Leeds. " years ago they lost 3-0 to Watford and thus missed a return to the Premiership. Watford went straight back down again the following year. This year its the League One play-offs (Division 3 in old money!) Doncaster won 2-1, they simply wanted to win more than Leeds on the day. Leeds played as if the weight of destiny was on their shoulders - they are a club destined to be back in the Premiership - the only question is which century right now. We can say that because they were deducted 15 points before they played a match that thy are a better team - they should have been promoted automatically. Its true that they don't belong there - they just need to win the league outright. Play-offs are mini cup finals in which anything can (and did) happen.

The graph shows Doncaster's progress from the Vauxhall Conference to Championship and Leeds corresponding fall from Champions League semi-final to league One. It all happened in the space of 5 years.

Patience is our middle name! Up Leeds.

Cardiff Saturday May 24 2008

Cardiff Castle Grounds
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It was going to be a long day, but we hoped it would be worth it. Senan and I had just got up before 5 am; the taxi was due at 5.15 and there should be time for breakfast at the airport. We were flying to Birmingham at 7.30. The occasion? - the Heineken Cup final in Cardiff where the 2 giants of the tournament Munster and Toulouse were playing. Toulouse are trying for their unprecedented 4th trophy while Munster have lost 2 finals before finally beating Birritz in 2006.

Waiting for the Match
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I bought the tickets for the final last November. It was a pretty good bet with both Munster and Leinster doing well at the time. In fact Munster had the much more difficult task to get out of their group with Wasps, Clermont and Llanelli. Leinster were facing the Leicester Tigers; Toulouse and Edinburgh - not an easy group either. In the end Leinster lost out by failing to beat the weakest team (Edinburgh) away from home.

I had also purchased tickets in advance the previous year and when Munster were out and it was a Wasps v Tigers final, I was able to log onto the Tigers fans website and had the pair sold (at face value) to genuine fans in 30 minutes! So buying the tickets in November is not a bad trick and pretty low risk. Unless there were 2 French teams in the final it should be easy to unload.

Munster Hoards storm Cardiff
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The plane was full of Munster supporters. Some were taking a train to Cardiff and more were driving. We arrived in Birmingham on time and managed to make it to the car hire desk pretty quickly and while we were not the first we did avoid most of the queue that formed quickly behind us. We managed to get our car and get on the road pretty smartly.

Some friendly Banter
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The route was all plotted out on google map and it was motorway all the way. We made one amendment after seeing on the big motorway message boards that there were long tailbacks at the M5 M4 junction- we then remembered that it was a Bank Holiday week-end in UK. The signs were in plenty time to make a detour via Ross On Wye which was motorway some of the way and then dual carraigeway - it was a slightly more direct route and we discovered afterwards that it was a very good choice - there were long delays at the M4! In any event as the kick-off was not until 5 pm we had lots of time! We were parked (park and ride) and in the city centre by about 12.30.

The place was already a sea of red. Of course Toulouse are Red and Black! But the Munster fans were by far the greater numbers though the French did make their presense felt!

In our Seats and waiting for action.
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We made our way through the crowds to Cardiff Castle - its a good way to put down an hour or so in Cardiff. Our tour had it's fair share of Munster supporters! After the Castle we found a nice Italian café and had lunch. Beside the café there was a second hand bookshop which had a pretty extensive Marvel Comics section - so Senan was in his element. He made a few good value purchases and before we knew it it was 3.30 and time to start making our way to the stadium. It's all very compact in Cardiff and it wasn't long before we were in position and waiting for the gates to open.

The Trophy
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We were amoung the first into our section. The anticipation was strong. The opening ceremony just took too long - or so it seemed. Soon the teams were lined up and ready to start. Munster in Blue and Toulouse in Red. The noise was fantastic.

Nigel Owens, the Welsh referee, was playing his usual strict game and Munster were the first to suffer under his tough regime. After just four minutes Munster conceeded a kickable penalty - however Jean Babtiste Ellisade managed to push it wide. What a let off! But Ellisade made no mistake with a drop goal 2 minutes later - Toulouse go 3-0 ahead. Toulouse continue to pile on the pressure and mount a sustained assault the Munster try line for the first quarter. However Toulouse didn't use those early chances and the Munster defence was superb.

Finally after 30 minutes Munster began to take the attack into Toulouse territory. Doug Howlett made a great run and Hurley was stopped just short of the line. Now the cheering and the singing started. Whenever there was a lull in our section of the stand there were four or five mad supporters who stood up and exorted everyone to start cheering and singing - it worked every time!

Munster pressure, uploaded by M+MD.

Five minutes later Munster are now piling the pressure on - its slow and patient ans sustained - Denis Leamy looks like he got a try but was deemed to have just lost control at the point of downing. But just a couple of minutes Leamy got another chance and this time there was no doubt - it was the drive that got us there. O'Gara slotted over the conversation - you can see how close to the post Denis Leamy was so no great marks to O'Gara! But 2 minutes later, the Nigel Owens factor kicked in again and he awarded a penalty against Toulouse. O'Gara only needs half a chance and we went into the second half 10-3 ahead. Just where you would want to be!

Just seconds before Leamy's try, uploaded by M+MD.

The second half started with Toulouse putting on pressure, but 10 minutes in Pelous threw a petulent kick against Alan Quinlan and the ref took no nonsense and put in the sin bin for 10 minutes. a minute later O'Gara kicked another penalty and we were not 13-6 ahead and feeling pretty confident. But you can never keep a team with this much class down for very long. Heymanns made a quick throw to himself, and gathered, kicked ahead collected it and then chipped ahead again and Donguy picked it up and went over for a try. What a wonderful piece of magic. Ellisade got the conversation and so we were back to 13 all. We were beginning to feel a little worried - Toulouse could come with a storming finish yet - especially when you see how easily they can score something from nothing.

Its all Munster, Uploaded by M+MD.

But Munster persist with the game plan and ten minutes later in the 65th minute they manage to get another penalty. O'Gara does the business - back in front. From there on the game became one big patient Munster scenario. It was controlled and relectless. They ignored kicking chances and kept the ball in hand. It was not pretty, but it was very tense and the only way to go against a team who had just demonstrated that they can manufacture a try out of thin air.

What a day - Munster ground out a 16-13 victory by adapting to all of the conditions in a much more composed way than Toulouse. Firstly there was the closed roof - Wales generally prefer to play with the roof closed - the crowd are louder; the calls for both teams are harder to hear so the away team are at an even greater disadvantage. With the size of the Munster support together with the fact that Munster won their first Heineken Cup in the same venue 2 years ago - there was no doubt that Munster were the home team at this venue.

Post match - Big screen
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Jubilation
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What was really impressive was the way that Munster shut down the game for the last 15 minutes. It wasn't pretty to watch - unless you were a Munster fan. I read later that Ellisade was particularly upset after the game. He called the tactics "anti-rugby; not rugby". While you can understand the frustration it is not fair to call it anti-rugby - its what Australia did to England in 1993; its what England always did; its what France did to New Zealand in the last world cup. You play to your strengths and neutralise the strengths of the opposition. That exact what Munster did and exactly what Toulouse failed to do. Saying "its not fair" after you lost is not much help!

Cup Winners, uploaded by M+MD.

Kidney leaves on a high
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So Declan Kidney has made up for his early heart-breaking loss of 2 Heineken Cup finals, to Northhamption in 2000 when, on a windy day in Twickenham, Ronan misses a penalty by centimetres and in 2002 when a wily Neil Back got the leicester Tigers over the line. Robbed twice he now has won twice. He now heads off back to the Irish natioanl team set-up where instead of playing second fiddle to an uncooperative Eddie O'Sullivan he will have the top job. We expect he will use his skills and his motivational head games to get the most out of the National team. If he can produce two Heineken Cups for Munster maybe he can get a world Cup for Ireland?

We don't ask for much now, do we?

Some thoughts on Routes

If you havn't read Rambling: Open Post - Private Invitation then read it now.

The idea is to travel over probably by boat and car on the fast ferry to Holyhead and drive up to the western side of the lakes. We will probably need 2 good sized cars. If we get a morning ferry at 8.45 we could be at Wasdale Youth Hostel at about 2.30pm. Its about a four and a half hour drive. We could leave the cars at Wasdale Youth Hostel and walk to Black Sail.

The challenge will be getting all of us into the small remote hostel that is Black Sail. The walk is about 7 miles along the bottom of the screes along Wastwater – very dramatic and not too strenuous for a first day. The second day is a bit of a step up with a choice between the route (which we did last time) of Piller - Steeple and Haycock returning to Wasdale or we could do Great Gable. The final day would be more ambitious and if we were fit enough then we would take on Scafell and/or Scafell Pike. The key would be to travel light on the big days.

It may be simpler to base ourselves in one place and travel light every day - a little different from travelling with the world on your back but more sensible maybe. The limiting factor anyway is going to be the size of the group and getting accomidation. There are other configurations and locations. Black Sail may be impossible as it only takes 16 people. In that case we would try Ennerdale which makes for a longer walk on the first day.

In any event a little advance training is important - there is no point is finding your climbing legs just as we are going home. There are a couple of good warm-up walks in Wicklow I have in mind. Some are short enough to do in a an evening after work.

Dates are the next challenge - the sooner we settle on dates the sooner we can tie down locations. If we could settle on a number of feasible dates I could start investigations. I am going to suggest Thursday to Sunday though it could end up being Friday to Monday.

The following work for me: 24 July to 27 July 21 August to 24 August 28 August to 31 August I'm open to other suggestions - June would be better - but there will be a challenge getting accomodation.

Open Post - Private Invitation

Sister and Brothers

Next month it will be 30 years since most of us embarked on a small adventure together. As I recall it was my present to Sheila Barney and Paul the previous Christmas. The present was not something tangible (I was just a poor trainee accountant at the time) - but it was an idea and a half formed plan to spend about 2 weeks walking from youth hostel to youth hostel via mountain paths and tops in the Lake District, Cumbria.

The Lake District was a place I was very familiar with through Auntie Sheila. I had done a similar holiday with a college friend the previous summer. The plan involved booking each youth hostel on a route which was carefully chosen to avoid close days - each hostel had a day each week when it was closed. (I suppose that it was the warden's day off.) You may not have realised that this was quite a challenging logistical task. The challenge was increased by the limits of available technology. In those primitive unthinkable pre-internet days the hostels didn't publish telephone numbers, so the bookings were all by snail-mail. The challenge increased when 7 of the hostels were fully booked and as the others had confirmed a re-routing was not an option. (all so hard to comprehend in these days of near instant communications).

So we had to develop plan B which involved introducing camping into the mix. This increased the size of the packs on our back but also increased the sense of adventure. There are no photographs of the adventure but it is all recorded in a day by day diary together with a hand drawn map of the route and a list of peaks conquered. I still have this - maybe I should publish it!

So here's my Invitation: What about a return visit - say a long week-end - 3 nights plus some travel either end. My suggestion would be to include those too young to participate at the time and to include some of the next generation. I guess the younger ones would need to be 11 or 12 and of course "up for it". I would rule out camping but would suggest hostels I have 2 in mind. I also have an itinerary in mind and some route options - but I going to publish that on this site to-morrow.

Do I have any takers? We might be a biggish group of 10 to 12 so there may be some challenges about timing and dates but that's for later and is certainly much easier to sort out with today's technology! Let me know with a comment on the blog or an e-mail or phone call. Talk to you. Big Brother

Leeds do it - one step from Heaven If Heaven is the Championship!

Technology is amazing. I have been travelling back from Istanbul for the past 5 hours and was in the air while Leeds were playing the return semi-final leg in Carlisle. Paul Mc sent me a report about flash floods in Glasgow (caused by Celtic fans p***ing themselves laughing - very non PC! - Rangers lost 2-0 in the UEFA cup final.). I made some response and he sent me an "up Leeds" reply. So reminded (I had forgot the time) I went online to see that they won 2-0. So now they play Doncaster or Southend for the last promotion place. And now I am testing the marvels of technology by trying to post this from by cell phone!

Leeds suffer a set-back at home.

Over 36,000 fans watched Leeds go down 2 - 1 in the first leg of the League One play-off semi-final against Carlisle last night. The return leg is on Thursday. It doesn't look good for Leeds who may have to spend another year in exile in League One. They really need to put on a Championship performance if they are to reach the play-off finals. The loss of 15 points at the start of the season for going into administration may just have been too much of a burden to carry. Without that penalty they would have finished second and been promoted automatically. Well let's see what Thursday will bring.

From the Roof

From the Roof, Uploaded by M+MD.

New York Memories

I am sitting in an apartment on the 68th floor of Metropolitan House on 57th street beside Carnagie Hall. The view us all the way up Central Park and North East to the Tri-Boro bridge. There may be one building in this vista higher than this apartment. It is simply stunning. I am listening to Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd on the IPod playing out through a Bose sound system and thinking back to the first time I listened to that album.

It was also in New York almost 32 years ago. I had just been into the City on my own and I had found Sam Goodies record store on about 50th street.

Inside and Out 68th Floor
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Sun Rise first morning
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I bought it and Carole Kings Tapestry. I came back to my cousin Joan and her friend Maria's apartment in Woodside in Queens and as they were out I was able to listen to the LP's on their HiFi.

I fell in love with New York in 1976 when I travelled over on a J1 student working visa. I managed through some very far fetched acquaintances to get a couple of "vacation relief" jobs normally reserved for members of the Local 34 Union who were representing doormen elevator operators and other staff working in the offices and apartment buildings of Manhatten. My first job was filling in for the 'supervisor' of a small 8 story building on 14th street. It was a pretty quiet place, for the first week all I had to do was open up the building at 6.30 each morning, sweep down the pavement in front of the building, check that the pressure in the water tank was adequate and some complicated instructions on what to do if it wasn't right! Other than that I operated the freight elevator which probably got called 5 times on a busy day as only 5 of the 8 floors were occupied.

Here's the really funny bit - the building was owned by the Teamsters Union and 3 of the floors were offices for 2 of their Locals (branches). I had a completed my application form to join Local 34 but had been advised to avoid joining if I could as there was a $50 joining subscription. - "Shine On You Crazy Diamonds"

Re Union, Uploaded by M+MD.

The building is still there - we're both a little different 30 years on - a bit more sophisticated I suppose!

Fashion Norms

Fashion
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I'm just sitting in Banana Republic in Rockerfellow Center, while Mags is looking around (I've already purchased!). She's left me some cardigans that she is thinking about buying. I'm just thinking that it's great to have an area in a shop with a couple of armchairs, so that weary family members can sit and rest while the rest of the party continue to shop - though it's funny how these seating areas are mainly in the Ladies section - even in a politically correct town like New York!

I am admiring one of the cardigans when I notice that there is a card with the word "yarn" on it and about 20 winds of the blue wool thread used in the garment. It's clearly supplied to allow one to repair any damage with the exact matching thread. How bizarre in today's world - nobody would ever think about repairing this cardigan if it was ever damaged, I doubt if the skill exists much any more.

Darning Yarn,uploaded by M+MD.

It's the same as all those spare buttons provided with suits nowadays. It must be my up-bringing, but I have all these buttons in their envelopes in my sock drawer. I am sure they will never be used. I remember when I was young, that my mother had an old Birds Custard tin full of buttons. It was just what you did back then - rescue buttons or buy interesting new ones and always have a spare button for when we kids lost one. Of course Joan made most of our clothes - at least until we were teenagers - so that would explain this behaviour.

But how do you explain the suit buttons today, the winds of yarn on a card? I guess somebody in marketing thought it was a differentiator once - but isn't it just plain silly in the modern consumer world.