Driving on The Right in Ireland?
Ireland is so accomodating to tourists that they’re actually considering switching from driving on the left to driving on the right.
Ireland should consider giving up driving on the left to reduce accidents by foreigners accustomed to right side motoring, a senior politician said Friday.
Donie Cassidy, the leader of Ireland’s upper chamber Senate, cited Sweden — which moved to the right in 1967 — as an example of a country that switched decades after most of Europe did.
Ireland’s economic growth over the past decade has attracted tens of thousands of workers especially from central and eastern European countries. It is also a popular tourist destination for visitors from the United States.
I spoke with a friend from Ireland not long ago. He made quite a few cracks about American tourists coming over there with their Hawaiian shirts and sandals. Apparently only older people wear sandals in Ireland. He told me about the arrogance of many tourists who think that because they have a great-great-great-grandmother from there then they’re somehow more entitled to Irish heritage than Irish nationals. I’m looking forward to speaking with him about this latest debate, because he is a car fanatic, complete with different car covers for different events that he attends. He’s a member of some kind of sports car club in Ireland. I wonder if they’re part of the AA, saying this is an idiotic idea. I’m sure my friend thinks so.
Of course, it’s not just Americans who drive on the right side. Most European countries do too. And Ireland does, right now, have one of the best economies in Europe. It’s no wonder so many people are flocking there to get jobs. This then becomes a question of these people integrating into Irish society or Irish society bending to meet the needs of immigrants/tourists.
I know that if this was suggested in the U.S. what kind of reception it would get.
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Sphere: Related ContentDays Fires Entire Writing Staff
What’s going on with “Days of Our Lives”? Not too long ago they hired a new head writer, got everyone pumped, went nowhere (gee, wonder why) and now? They’ve fired their entire writing staff.
The chaos behind the scenes at Days of Our Lives hit a new and unforeseen level this past weekend. In what could be a first for any daytime television program, the entire Days of our Lives writing staff was fired on Friday, February 1st.
Ousted from the show are Emmy-winning head writer Hogan Sheffer and his staffers Tom Casiello, Frederick Johnson, Meg Kelly, Gordon Rayfield, Judy Tate, Judith Donato, Renee Godelia, and Richard Backus.
Casiello blames behind-the-scenes machinations for the mass ouster.
“I could probably launch into an essay about the inner workings of a television show… the secret cabals and the back alley strike deals that were made,” Casiello wrote on his personal web page. “I could potentially try to analyze the whole situation, try and find out how a writing team that started out the year doing strong [in the ratings], then ended up in LAST PLACE (due to dictates from the higher-ups) then somehow managed to come back and end the year in 4th place in Households and 1st place in the 18 - 24 demographic were all summarily kicked out at once.”
I used to watch DOOL almost-religiously. But then something happened and they became, um, not so good. How many times can Stefano die? Why the hell did John Black die, only to come back as a clone of himself? And how is it that Colleen was thought dead for like 100 years, suddenly comes back and Stefano knows it? Hmmm.
Gee, I wonder why the show is tanking.
But who’s at fault? Is it the writers or the producers? Ken Corday calls all the shots, and amazingly the stories haven’t much changed with the new head writer, so it must be his doing. It began with the possession of Marlena, as far as I’m concerned, and isn’t getting any better. Corday sees a disaster and just keeps on chugging. He figures it will only be a matter of time before fans will actually like the crap he’s shoving down their throats. Fans can’t even get emotional about a long-loved character dying off, because they know it’s only a matter of time before that character re-emerges. Even actors that fall short on Days seem to bloom on other shows (Austin Peck, anyone?) because they aren’t given good stuff to keep the interested in playing the part. All the characters on this show seem to have the same personality. And nothing is changing that.
I used to like that show and even troll the message boards sometimes still. But whatever happened to it, it’s just getting more dumb by the day. I predict it will soon go the way of “Passions” and couldn’t be more anxious to see it happen. If they can’t bring in an award winning writer to turn the storyline to something remotely interesting, then farewell to it. Ken Corday can thank himself for it’s demise
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