Making madness inside Áras an Uachtaráin
Posted by Lanea on Thursday, June 8th, 2006
Cramming Irish down your throats now. Because, for some odd reason, it relaxes me.
I’ll give a lovely present to anyone who can explain the allusion in the title of this post. It’s a hard one. But it’s worth it, because a very good poet is involved.
The Irish word for president is Uachtarán, which comes from uachtar, the word for cream. Because the cream rises to the top. (I wish that were always–or possibly ever–true in politics as it is in dairy processing). That phrase above, Áras an Uachtarán–that means “the president’s house” and is almost exclusively used to refer to the residence of the Irish president. Whatever. In this president’s house, there is a hell of a lot of chaos and some fretting. And too much damn kittening. Loud kittening at 4:00 a.m.
So, very busy preparing for the festival and for my wonderful Mother-in-law Karen to visit. Ten days left. Please come. Or, you know, stop by and vacuum something in our house if you’re so inclined. Or pet the dog: Kayo insists he is being neglected. He may, possibly, be reacting either to my stress or to the amount of cussing Scott and I take to when we’re watching Deadwood dvds.
I’ve accidentally started onto a local author kick. I picked up The Maltese Falcon from the to-read shelf because I couldn’t believe I’d never read it, and Scott had kindly gone and bought a copy (14 years ago). And it reminded me that Hammett was from beautiful St. Mary’s County, Maryland. When I finished Falcon, I picked up the Book of Fred, because it has a fish on the cover, and I like fish. And the author is also a local. And then I grabbed Dogs of Babel because, er, it has a dog on the cover, and I like dogs. My reading choices are a bit less reasoned in the run up to the fest. Another local author. I’m wondering if the streak will continue. I’m running through Babel pretty quickly–we’ll see if chance will make it four in a row.
Ooh–maybe I should develop some ridiculous superstition about this and make myself truly nuts. Like, say, if I can randomly grab another local off the shelf, then it won’t rain at the festival.
No. Too risky. I have too much work to do.
Now figure out that little riddle and I’ll give you a prize.
Filed in Books,Celtic | 11 responses so far
The Purloined Letteron 09 Jun 2006 at 11:20 am 1There is always Poe–from Baltimore!
Will be at the festival on Sat if it is not raining and on Sunday even if it is….
rachelon 09 Jun 2006 at 11:32 am 2I think the riddle is just there to make your readers as mad as you! Must…figure…out…obscure…literary…reference….
rachelon 09 Jun 2006 at 11:39 am 3Ha! I got it!
Making Love Outside Aras an Uachtarain
by Paul Durcan
(Does it still count if I used a heavy dose of google?)
Jaymeon 09 Jun 2006 at 1:06 pm 4Rachel beat me to it through the use of Google I found these sites:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~abardubh/poetry/bearla/poem091.html
http://www.deochandorais.de/tunes/lyrics1.htm
laneaon 09 Jun 2006 at 1:46 pm 5I forgive Googling, because I think I’m one of like five Paul Durcan fans in the US. I just want you all to read him.
Go Rachel! Read Durcan! Go Rachel! Go! Go! There is a present in your future. We must discuss.
rho1640on 10 Jun 2006 at 12:42 am 6wow everyone else is so smart I just figured it meant you were going mad in your house as you are the President of the group for the festival and you have been trying to get everything ready for it. But then I am really tired having only gotten a bit of sleep myself last night 😀
lellaon 13 Jun 2006 at 9:18 pm 7No no! Don’t form any new superstitions in the run up days! There’s enough to be got through, dear one!
Jenon 18 Jun 2006 at 11:06 am 8I got Book of Fred, because, well, I have a Fred…and I actually liked the book.
Junoon 18 Jun 2006 at 7:57 pm 9So, how’d it go? Festival? Good?
laneaon 20 Jun 2006 at 11:29 am 10It went, and I had a good weekend. I’ll even write about it soon, once I scrub my brain out and sleep a whole lot. My Mom-in-law is in town for the next few days, and she wants to learn to spin! Yay!
Lissaon 20 Jun 2006 at 6:16 pm 11Until The Mistress can answer for herself, her loyal minion and indentured servant volunteers to tell you that all of the elements under her control went swimmingly. The ambient temperature of the air, which was not under her control (I’ll have to talk to her about that…), was beastly. It was a total joy to be around the wonderfultivity of the festival and know that my dear friend had commanded it so, and so it was done.
She done us proud, folks. I wub her.