Lennard Ramone

  The history of the Atomic Wave.   When I was living in Holland, I was a member of a heavy metal fraternity at the University of Enschede, a city near the German border. Mind you, I never went to school there, I was just enrolled because a friend of mine was the founder of the thing. We had a bar on campus that served as the scene for many a night of debauchery. I would often embark on the 2 1/2 hour train journey from Rotterdam to Enschede on Friday afternoon and then wake up back in Rotterdam on Monday morning with little, if any, recollection of what had happened in between.   These were fun times.   Quite often, while we were listening to bands with names like Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Severe Torture, we would get bored of just drinking regular stuff like beer and vodka and come up with home made inventions like whisky-infused beer, store brand vermouth mixed with beer and, the Holy Grail of getting seriously hammered, the Atomic Wave.   The Atomic ...

The All Ireland Football Final is on again tomorrow.  For the first time since 2014, it will be a final without Dublin.  Going unbeaten from the start of the 2015 season up to this year’s semi final, Dublin set an all time record of 6 titles in a row.  This 6-in-row, I will go on record now, will stand forever.  If any team, during my lifetime, other than Dublin themselves, beats this record, I will buy anybody who cares to remind me of this statement a pint.  The final this year is between Mayo and Tyrone.  Mayo last won the trophy in 1951. It’s not for the lack of trying but, according to popular lore, Mayo have since then been under the spell of The Mayo Curse. For those of you who don’t have an intimate knowledge of Gaelic Football culture, let me explain. There are several versions of this popular myth, but it generally goes along the following lines: The Mayo team, on the way back to their home county on the West Coast, were celebrating with their new...

Afghanistan  Like most of you, I have been following the news about Afghanistan in the past 2 weeks or so and saw how quickly the situation turned into complete chaos, even for Aghan standards.  The situation there is obviously terrible, and I really feel sorry for the normal people there, and especially the women, who now have to live under Taliban rule once again. While the Taliban have stated that their rule will be more inclusive and moderate this time around, I’m having a hard time believing the words of a bunch of murderous relegious lunatics.  What also surprised me is the criticism on NATO/UN/USA because they decided to end the war and withdraw all troops. If you read the travel stories from hippies in the 1960s and early 70s, who did the overland hippie trail from Europe to South East Asia, or even Australia, they pretty much all say the same thing: they all spent way longer in Afghanistan than they had planned. The country was a safe haven for creative and free-...

In order to get to the main point of today’s story, I first need to explain something to you: the Irish postal system. Or, rather, the postal code system. Or, to be even more precise, the 2 postal code systems, because it’s Ireland so we have 2 systems for something that every other country has 1 of. There are 2 postal code systems for Ireland: 1 for Dublin and 1 for the whole of Ireland. The Dublin one is set up like this: the city has been cut up in zones, numbered from 1-24. This seems straightforward but there are some strange complications. The basic idea is this: odd numbers are North of the river Liffey, even numbers are South. Dublin 1 is North City Centre, Dublin 2 is South City Centre. Dublin 3, where I live, is just to the East of Dublin1, but I still live in the city centre. When I walk around the corner and to the end of the street, I’m in Dublin 1. Dublin 4 is then to the South of Dublin 2, and so on until you get to Dublin 24, which is far away, near the Dublin mount...