Month: January 1999
Good Puzzle
Just as the by-now traditional pre-Christmas rash of Irish UFO predictions had apparently given way to a New Year lull, our blatherbubble has been punctured by a painful article in *The Boston Herald* (of all places). This newspaper gave column inches to Blather's favourite UFO proponent, Eamon Ansbro, in a suitably skin-crawling article by one Jim Dee. After wading through the cringeworthy opening paragraph, which rattles on about the 'Emerald Isle', 'Land of a Thousand Welcomes', and 'legendary hospitality', we're told that Ireland is now welcoming tourists from outer space. *Experts?* This is, of course, according to Ansbro - cited as a 'self-taught UFO expert', prompting the question - how many UFO 'experts' are not self-taught? We could proceed from here, wondering how one becomes expert in objects deemed as unidentified, but... Anyhow - Ansbro's latest prediction for the appearance of UFOs is for Dublin at 0500 hrs on January...
Furry Cat Stories
We blatherumskites rarely get to rattle on about Irish ABCs (Alien Big Cats... not saucer-of-milk endowed extraterrestrials, but rather reports of large felines running loose in the Irish countryside), at least not to the extent that the phenomenon is said to take place in England, Scotland or Wales. Back in July 1997 *BBC Wildlife* magazine came under attack from Blather for its hyperbolic claims concerning the *Beasts of Dublin -- Craze for macho pets lets loose wild animals on the streets* (See *The SAS, Aliens and Big Cats*), which claimed that one had to be careful navigating one's way about the nation's capital due to the proliferation of crazed syringe-waving lynx-owners. +Urban Big Cat Avoidance+ Let it be known, apart from the odd procurement of maltreated caged pets by the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the eagle-eared spies of Blather Inc. are so far blissfully inexperienced in...
Flann O’Brien: Shameless Hijack
We will come clean this week, and enlighten the readership as to how the name Blather was arrived at when naming this vitriolic vessel of the various. The original Blather was the title of a short-lived Dublin monthly periodical, published in 1934 by one Brian O'Nolan, better known as Flann O'Brien or Myles na gCopaleen (1911-66). Devoted to the absurd and the satirical, Blather purported to be (amongst many other things) 'The Only Paper Exclusively Dedicated to Clay-Pigeon Shooting in Ireland'. In his brother Ciarán Ó Nualláin's The Early Life of Brian O'Nolan - Flann O'Brian - Myles na gCopaleen, we find an extract from the Editor's introduction in the first issue: <IMG SRC="http://www.blather.net/img/featured/flan.gif" WIDTH=110 HEIGHT=129 BORDER=0 ALT="Flann O'Brien - from the cover of The Early Life of Brian O'Nolan/Flann O'Brien/Myles na gCopaleen*" VSPACE=5 HSPACE=5> 'Blather is here. As we advance to make our bow, you will look in vain...