Back Again....

Here I am , back again ,don't ask me where I've been ....
Thinking about stories and such , it is possible to condense any story down to its essence (precise?) , for example ''Gone With the Wind''....' "War" said Scarlett "Well fiddle-de-dee". BOOM ! Ashley goes off to war . Atlanta burns . Rhett comes , Rhett goes again . "Fiddle-de-dee " says Scarlett . "I'll think about it tomorrow . After all ...tomorrow is another day ".
On the other hand it is also possible to string out a story to infinity...."It was a dark and stormy night. The captain and the crew sat on the deck . The captain said to the first-mate : "Tell us a story ". The mate began :" It was a dark and stormy night . The captain and the crew sat on the deck . The captain said to the first-mate :" Tell us a story ". The mate began : "It was a dark and stormy night . The captain and the crew sat on the deck . The captain said to the first-mate :" Tell us a story ". The mate began..............etc etc ad infinitum.....
Now see what you have been missing......
Ronnie Drew died recently RIP , I've just listened to a recording of his version of " Dublin in the Rare Auld (owled ) Times " and the line about "the Royal long since pulled down " reminded me of the photographs in the newspapers at the time showing Mickser Reid helping the demolition men on the site . "Who'se Mickser Reid ? " I hear you ask . (You did'nt ? ) Well I'll tell you anyway . Mickser played in pantomime . He was a dwarf ( no not a midget..despite the argument in "In Bruge ") . In my memory pantos would not have been the same without him . Nowadays of course it would not be politically correct to laugh at a person because he was small , but his stature was as much a part of the humour of pantos as , say Jimmy O'Dea's rubber face or Cecil Sheridan's stammer . It was called ' entertainment ' and Mickser , Jimmy , and Cecil were loved for the laughter they brought to us all .
More anon...hope I don't get lost again

IDA and other public sector

Barry O'Leary , chief executive of the IDA ( yes another quango ) , recently commented , quite rightly in my opinion , that now in the circumstances of the Irish economy , we should 'bench mark ' our wages and salaries to international levels . In other words we should stop over- paying ourselves in order to remain competitive in international markets .
Every reasonable person will agree with this .
Its just a pity that the same reasonable attitude did not apply when we allowed our senior civil servants to 'benchmark' themselves against some of the highest paid people in the private sector at a time when , all agreed , Ireland was on the crest of an economic boom .
The boom has now ebbed . The salaries and bonuses in the private sector (and , granted ,some of these salaries and bonuses were OBSCENE in any context ) will recede , some companies may even ' go to the wall ' but will the public sector ( top level ) accept a freeze or a pay cut ? Watch this space .
Of course , already , the lower paid in the public sector will be pushed forward to be 'gun fodder ' in the front line ...usually young nurses or gardai starting salaries are quoted , but the overpayed people at , or near , the top are never highlighted......
Who . for example , is responsible for 'forecasting ' our exchequer returns ....in the good times they were consistently UNDERSTATED and now they are OVERSTATED ....in BILLIONS...
in the 7 months to July end we are already taken in 3 billion less than our mandarins forecast.......