Friday, May 22, 2015

God Bless the Taxi Men of Dublin




 Dublin taxi men in O'Connell Street, April 2013


A young friend in Dublin, Sarah Murphy, just posted this on facebook:

Taxi men of Dublin kicking  people out of their cars who say they're a NO vote. A sounder chap I've never met. "Sure where would I be driving him?  He can walk if he's so sure he knows where we're going." 



Sarah has been working day and night canvassing Dublin neighborhoods for a YES vote on marriage equality for Ireland.  If I could vote in Ireland I'd be with her. If it weren't for Sarah and her friend Tom Lawlor's generous hospitality, I wouldn't have the wonderful memories I do of the neighborhoods of Dublin...


Memorial to the taxi drivers of Dublin, O'Connell Street. 

I forgive every single misspelling and typo.




It Never Gets Old

Rowing (for me, anyway) never gets old. I row for fun, and it keeps me from getting old before my time.

I don't have to do it every day to make a living. I don't need to row a dory across the harbor in all kinds of weather to do my shopping or get to school, as dory-rowers have done here for 150 years.  I row
recreationally, as a member of the Gloucester International Dory Racing Committee. I don't even race- I just cheer on those who do. It costs me only $77 a year- the cheapest way to "own" a boat in Gloucester!  http://internationaldories.com/

Gloucester Harbor on a weekday morning. Paint Factory (Ocean Alliance nonprofit research center) on the left, Ten Pound Island on the right. 


Every time I untie one of the dories and row it away from the dock, it's a new kind of fun. Here's another rower making his way around the famous Greasy Pole off Pavilion Beach yesterday, practicing for races next weekend.


(Turn down the sound to avoid the annoying noise of construction of an oversized and incongruous luxury hotel in the middle of Gloucester's historic Fort neighborhood. ) 





Saturday, May 2, 2015

Optical Illusion

This arch at Buswell Pond in the Magnolia section of Gloucester, Massachusetts (on Route 127)  forms one of my favorite optical illusions.