Karl McDonald

Football/something is very common, and something/baseball is very common. But football/baseball? Maybe in the Dominican Republic, but not at the World Cup (I assume, having not thoroughly checked)!

I look forward to finding out about them in the preview supplement for the World Cup in six months or so.

Just found out on here that baseball is popular in Curacao, which suggested to me that it is possible they have some examples of the rarest thing of all: football/baseball dual stars.

11431 downvotes for Trump being given the Fifa Peace Prize

Because the football feed is covering the draw it allows up and downvotes, thrilling stuff

Fundamentally unserious that we as a country have a social norm where children get to stay up late one day a year to watch advertainment for toys. However, in a twist, it's also fine.

Possible, but a Scottish given name would still not be lenited on a form, a school or church roll etc - it actually requires a bit of gramadach to understand when and how to lenite, which makes it curious that the names came over the language barrier that way

In Dublin 15, councillors say they’re inundated with complaints about slippery leaves on footpaths “It's no exaggeration. I've had at least 20 different people coming to me with this issue,” Councillor Angela Donnelly said.

I am sympathetic to elder residents but mushy leaves on footpaths is basically the central unifying theme of Dublin 15. My entire childhood took place against a backdrop of partly stomped leafslop. Canute-esque to ask the council to eradicate it.

www.dublininquirer.com/in-dublin-15...

The song from the shortform video where Maritime Canadian men sit around a table singing a sea ballad? Great song. RYDEEN? Great song.

Music end of year thing no use to me for looking cool online any more, but at least it is a reminder of the various single songs I spent a month listening to 15 times a day.

I spent a while pronouncing Mhairi Black "Warry Black" in a professional context because of my instinctive response to the lenition of the letter M so I can see how the lack of a single standard could be annoying to a Mhairi.

This might be it. Compulsory in school too - your chances of encountering a friend or relative to prophylactically say "that is objectively incorrect, it will be a whole thing, hotel check-in clerks will be correcting it for them on forms" are much stronger.

I can't think of many examples in Ireland among given names at least - Fionn not Fhionn e.g. - and we are big fans of that case too. Shauna, I guess, at a push, but that's a transliteration rather than a misrendering. Maybe our lenition is softer in practice (or was in 1850)?

Always been curious about the various Mhairis - that (in Gaelic) must be wrong? There are ~ zero Mháires and plenty of Máires in Ireland so it always struck me when I saw Mhairi Black or whoever in the news

Two screenshots designed in the style of Spotify Wrapped but they're presented as being a (nonexistent) Bluesky Wrapped Screenshot 1: You spent 738 posts on the following topics: 1. Dunking on the New York Times op-ed section 2. Talking about drama at New York Magazine 3. Weighing in on the New York City mayoral election Screenshot 2: Based on this, your most likely place to be located would be: New York, NY Instead, swipe to see where, based on geotagging, you actually live

Man, the Bluesky Wrapped 2025 is pretty brutal

Classy cover though. First edition coded.

Free idea for Labour Party: have Rachel Reeves do Pogchamps

In a very loose sense what she is accused of here is of calling herself world champion for winning the FIFA World Club Cup rather than the actual World Cup, which is innately a bit annoying to football fans. But I don't think her bona fides as a competitive teenage chess player are in doubt.

A scene from American Canto. Olivia Nuzzi tries to visit the WWE Hall of Fame, only to discover that it is not a physical building.

Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.

Ana has made the perplexing decision to begin a jigsaw and then leave it overnight on the table where, mere hours later, the cats are in the process of individually knocking every piece down, following to the ground, batting it around a bit, then getting another one in case it's better.

16. NICOSIA

Constantia Soteriou - Brandy Sour, 2022

15. MADRID

Javier Marias - The Infatuations (Los Enamoramientos), 2011

Also I don't know if this is Dublin privilege or what but there are still bookshops, you can still go to the bookshop. You can just look at what they have under the letter P in fiction. Pamuk to Pynchon. If you give them like 15 euro they will even let you bring one home.

With a bit of mental effort you can keep alive the spirit of early filesharing, which is to say that you live concretely in your bookshop-record store milieu but you have an infinitely deep resource to follow up online if you want to. Bit weak to declare defeat to an optional Daily Mix playlist imo

...e come secondo il pollo per favore

Also to me but it is helpful to the brain to know the workings I feel. I just text my wife saying "going Kehoes"

Someone explained once that anyone below a certain age grew up sharing their location with their parents - essentially the reason they were given a phone at all - and that it's therefore not weird for them and they can even feel weird if nobody has access to their live location at a given time

If it has not originated in Indian courts, gone through centuries of refinement in Iran, disseminated through the Islamic world and arrived in Paris via al-Andalus, then it is not a legitimate Chess 2 and I will not be playing it.

Immediately read this banner on Chess com as the launch of Chess 2

You might assume cats would like to have come-all-yes sung in their praise, but in fact they seem cautious, beating a tentative retreat.