Re: Korean F1 GP ??

"Philip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> "Bob Dog" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > Between Carrefour and Costco, my life is so much
> > easier here.  Meat at Costco is the same price as
> > back in Canada, and it's USDA imported so it's not
> > as likely to have mad cow disease as local meat
> > (rumors say some Korean meat comes from Japan).
> 
> My friend had one of his cows diagnosed with BSE (Mad Cow Disease) last
> week.
> It was a 12 year old dairy cow and the Vet said it was very unusual for an
> animal so old to contract it.
> Now under Irish law, his entire herd will be culled.

Better safe than sorry.  Wasn't there an instance of an 
idiot raising cows in England decided after his herd was 
ordered destroyed then used his slaughtered stock as 
animal feed, causing more livestock to be destroyed?


> As his wife has MS, he's thinking about selling up :-(

With no humour or sarcasm intended, might it not be MS?
Or has it been long enough that they know?


> > For some reason, I didn't go down to Itaewon all
> > this month.  One of the best used bookstores is
> > 100m from the islamic mosque...it was strange
> > walking past the mosque two years ago, seeing
> > Korean soldiers with M16s standing at the gates
> > and giving the evil eye to anyone not Korean,
> > Arabic, or Pakistani descent (ie., me).
> >
> 
> I think I know the feeling. I have had similar problems in England with my
> Irish accent for most of my life.

I'm sure some 40ish Quebecois could empathize with you.
What Shrub is doing to muslims in the US, the government 
in the early 1970s did to some French who criticized the 
government or spoke separatist rhetoric.


> It used to be a nightmare transferring via Heathrow and other English
> airports.
> Now it's ok, but anybody Arabic looking gets a terrible time in any European
> airport.
> I was travelling with a Palastinian colleague last month and it took him
> about 20 minutes to get through passport control in Copenhagen.

I can understand the banning of anything that can be used 
as a weapon, or even the x-raying of shoes, but now I can't 
even take extra batteries for my walkman on the plane.
Everybody else is paying the price of US foreign policy.


> > > I still have some Carrefour plastic bags at home (other Irish people
>  will
> > > know why...)
> >
> > To wave at any passing Brit?
> 
> Ah we're not *that* bad. There were even some Irish people supporting
> England in the rugby !!

No offense intended (especially since if they'd won Ireland 
would have gone home early!), but my second choice after 
England was Argentina.  They earned their success through 
hard work and almost made the second round at the world cup.  
They deserve plenty of respect if they're not getting it.


> No, the reason is that the government put an environmental tax on plastic
> bags over a year ago. So now you have to pay 15cents per bag.
> On top of the cost, there is also the knowledge that everyone knows that you
> are *anti-environment* and *pure evil* if you use a plastic bag nowadays.
> So plastic bags are really rare in Ireland nowadays, so anytime I get some
> when I am abroad I tend to hoard them.

For years before I left Canada you had to pay for bags.  
I didn't like it then, but I can agree with it.  What 
annoys me about it when you bring in cloth bags or some 
other means of lugging your groceries home, many stores 
won't you bring them in.  It's either leave your stuff 
at the door (and the store won't take responsibility if 
your stuff is stolen), pay for bags (which is what I'm 
trying to avoid) or be called a shoplifter before I get 
into the store.  (The Canadian government won't give you 
a passport if you have *any* criminal charge against you 
ever, so why would I start stealing now...?)

Fer crying out loud, they can look in the damned bag 
when I get to the checkout line!  What's so hard to grasp 
about that idea?  Apparently everything, based on the 
stores I've been to....  Does that stupidity go on where 
you are?


> I watch Australian Rules every now and then on TG4.
> That's the Gaelic channel, so the commentary is "as Gaeilge".
> It's probably for the same reason, as this channel has very few viewers.

No thanks to 19th century England.


> They also show "Survivor" and "The Muppets", again probably because they are
> cheap.
> 
> My kids were astonished when we visited the U.S. on holidays this year to
> discover that the Muppets could speak ENGLISH !!

You should see how unable Americans are to deal with hockey 
or other sports in French on Canadian TV.  I can't speak 
it, but I would watch it if there were no English language 
broadcast of a game or race.


> Here there are three "footballs" to be confused about !

I've seen Gaelic football on TV, too.

As a Canadian, it always bugs me that hockey is called "ice 
hockey" and field hockey is called "hockey".  Hockey was 
invented in Canada and it's played on ice.  Anything else 
shouldn't be called by that name. ^_^  (By that reasoning, 
Canada and US "football" shouldn't be called football....)


> > Italy has mandatory service too, and some Canadians
> > of Italian descent have been grabbed when they visit
> > the old homeland.
> 
> Hmmmmm... Maybe I should tip off the Irish authorities to this.
> We could also use it to handle our American tourist problem.
> (And would probably increase the Irish army 100-fold)

Worse yet, a relative of my last boss I had in Canada was 
tossed out and sent back to his parent's country because 
the guy didn't have a Canadian citizenship (despite being 
born in Canada) and he had two drunk driving convictions 
against him.

Lucky for the guy his parents were from England.  Imagine 
if he was from Russia, Bosnia, or somewhere he couldn't 
speak the language....


Bob Dog