taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Travel: I’m just back from a great road trip around Nevada and Arizona – lots of fun was had, and I even came out $100 up on the blackjack!

In other travels, my mate Eoin recently visited Muff, Co. Donegal, and made sure to get a picture of the event.

Muff is well-reknowned as one of those towns with a silly name; the story goes that they even have a SCUBA diving club, called — guess what – “Muff Diving Club”. Sadly, the reports are apparently greatly exagerrated. Eoin writes:

I have been hearing the story of the ‘muff diving club’ for the last 10 years, and now i can categorically state that its an urban legend. No such thing. There was a ‘top muff’ petrol station though where we picked up a few keyrings. The girl behind the counter was trying to give us all 200 keyrings left in the bag as she was so sick of muppets like us coming in for a laugh.

Tags: blackjack, club, event, fun, mate, muff, picture, road, story, travel, trip

my mate Luke passes on this gem:

I was driving along behind a plumber’s van today. The van was emblazoned with signs saying that the plumber was a sewers and drains expert. Along the rear bumper of the van was the company’s slogan:

‘Your shit is our bread and butter’

I am not making this up.

Tags: bumper, company, expert, gem, mate, plumber, shit, slogan, today, van

So it looks like Sarah Carey, a good friend of me mate Lean, has a blog, and it’s a great one too! Excellent. Added to the Irish blogroll on the right.

In other news, Simon Boyle got in touch to mention that the Saddam’s top tips for tourists interview in the Fermanagh-based Impartial Reporter was actually written by an contemporary of ours at TCD by the name of Maria Rolston. Apparently she’s good mates with my mate Wooder, too. Simon notes:

She’s the intrepid impartial reporter who wrote the story (and who’s had it reprinted minus attribution all over the world now). Oh the joys of being a first year reporter on a small local paper…

While we’re talking about small local papers, might as well note - tangentially - that Ireland’s local press has a long history of bizarre stories. One favourite, in particular, has gone down in journo legend (and Ulysses): the 19th-century editorial from The Skibbereen Eagle, which solemnly told Lord Palmerston that it had ‘got (its) eye both upon him and on the Emperor of Russia.’ Classic.

Tags: blog, blogroll, excellent, friend, interview, mate, news, reporter, saddam, touch

Looking for an old mate, Alan Toner, and it’s turning out to be tricky; the last mail address I had for him now bounces.

• is he in a social centre for ‘casualised workers’ in Rome?

• or in NY as ‘the man with no bio’?

• or speaking at the Oekonux conference in Berlin on ‘Commons, Criminalization, General Intellect and the Politics of Technology and Culture - Direct Payments from Users to Producers as an Alternative to Intellectual Property Rights’?

It seems all three. He gets around!

Tags: address, bio, centre, commons, conference, criminalization, mail, man, mate, oekonux