Angeldubba

Anna Kenny called it. She was always on the ball. A young sub-editor training on new technology in the basement of the old Irish Times building in Dublin, she said to those with her in the room, “Someone’s flown in to the Twin Towers in New York.” What? There were about 10 of us, led by me, getting familiar with the new direct-publishing technology that the flagship Irish broadsheet was adopting, learning new tricks. It was a Tuesday afternoon in September, a mild day. When Anna commented, it took a while to compute. What was that about? I said, “Do you mean, like that guy Mathias Rust in Moscow?” Rust was the German teenager who, as a late Cold War stunt, had flown a single-engine Cessna into  Red Square in 1987. It was strange, and we were busy, so I turned back to what we were doing, puzzling over the future. But then Anna, legitimately reading news sites to use stories in our exercises, said: “There’s another one.” And we saw the first images. It’s a strange feeling, your ...

Pattern-making and coincidence-spotting are two harmless, enjoyable and meaningless parts of life, work or play. Or are they meaningless? While not possessed of meaning themselves, they can give meaning to our practices.  Lucky numbers, for example: our family number is 22, and every time I raise my eyes to look at a sporting match on television, the first player I ever notice is the one in jersey 22. Is this some mysterious force at work, or just my brain is primed for the lucky digits? My daughter chose as her wedding date October 10 last year – 10-10-20. Two numbers become one, with a nod  to the Spice Girls . (Setting aside a pandemic and a wedding that nearly fitted in a phone box, it was indeed a lucky and meaningful day.) Our brains are wired to spot patterns. Perhaps this is why we attribute some higher or greater meaning when small events in everyday life seem to have rhythm or completeness.   There is something about regularity, about patterns, symmetry or recur...

Facebook last week broke a new record in massiveness, when it became a trillion dollar company. It wasn’t the first, but the youngest, at only 17 years old to be so luscious. Notably, the other four companies that have hit this level are also new tech giants – Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (the artist formerly recognised as Google) and Microsoft. To make it more concrete, here is a trillion in numerals: 1,000,000,000,000.  A number and twelve zeroes, almost inconceivable to process mentally, especially when compared with your pay packet (I presume). It was a brief moment, as Facebook’s share price jumped after a  favourable court judgment .   I’m a coin when it comes to Facebook (ie two sides). Professionally, I’ve spent a decade or more warning students about the potential evils of this supposed vehicle for communication that in fact sucks the juices out of all who use it, at least in commercial terms. But on a personal level it is so darned handy and pleasurable to keep ...

I wouldn’t for a minute sink to prurient discussion of the troubles that have befallen Britain’s Minister for Health (make that ex-minister). But Matt Hancock’s resignation after images of him passionately embracing his “special adviser” do bring up the question of what counts as sackable behaviour, in any work context.   The hapless Hancock did not have a stellar reputation during his two years in the job. Mind you, being health minister at any time is a difficult post (former Irish health minister Brian Cowen once described his department as “Angola”, and he didn’t mean everyone spoke Portuguese). Being health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, facing unprecedented challenges, would have tested the greatest mettle. Nobody suggested that Hancock had that quality, and if you are a follower of Dominic Cummings you would be familiar with his recent denunciation  and  claims that Hancock should have been sacked  for up to twenty specific failings because of his...

  Think it through     In many work situations, as in the non-work arena we call “life”, it’s important to look at a problem from the four points of the compass. The best way to make a change is not to charge, full steam ahead, with one simple idea. Annoyingly, there are many facets to most events, just as there are to people.   This simple-minded enthusiasm was demonstrated by the Irish government’s declaration that outdoor dining would be allowed, post-harsh-lockdown, from June 7 2021. Cue hundreds if not  thousands of businesses buying lightweight chairs  and tables, marquee canvas roofs, all-weather pods, and migrating their offering on to the street. It’s been a very positive development, bringing that sort of liveliness and spirit we think of as “Continental” all over the country. (And former Justice Minister and barrister, Michael McDowell , tried without success to introduce  in the early noughties.)   Luckily the weather has been good too...

  Someone comes to your door or rings you up saying they're from the “Irish Research Agency”. (Substitute the appropriate country for where you live.) But they're not, they're from a political party which wants your vote. It's a lie.  If the Russians were doing it, ref the infamous Internet Research Agency, there'd be skin and fur flying. Vlad, this means war. But in Ireland  the revelation that all political parties  , except Labour and the tiny ones, employed this sleazy tactic to gauge attitudes before an election seems to have burst into a void. How  shocking is it that the political parties sent people out posing as pollsters? Are we horrified by this? Am I getting (more) hysterical in my old age? These frauds had fake identity material for their mythical research company issued by the people who want votes, want to run the country. Maybe I just haven't noticed or been exposed to the level of outrage which should be felt. But it does make me wonder if ...

  No, it’s not gobbledegook. Not any more than these columns usually are, that is.   For I have concerns (noun) about (preposition) the word, “concerning” (when used as an adjective). Because it’s taken over from our old friend “worrying”. It received a tremendous fillip in the pandemic when serious-faced officials everywhere in the English-speaking world were finding that the latest numbers/variant/crowds were concerning.   Concerning became a cliché, a go-to word to end a sentence that the speaker appeared to believe made them sound serious and responsible. It is concerning. We are all concentrating on this problem. It is of concern. OK, but isn’t it rather more than that? In short, worrying?   Worrying got thrown on the refuse pile of words-we-don’t-think-are-cool-enough. It happened some years ago when “gave” fell under the bus while “gifted” rode high in the polls. “I gifted my husband some socks for his birthday.” (I did actually write to the newspapers about t...