Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of US politics maverick, Sarah Palin, in this week’s Blog Digest.
We all like to take US politics seriously, but when it came to the recent Palin v Biden debate, it seemed as though the media were just as interested in the 44-year-old hockey mom’s choice of shoes (yes, I found one site with about five articles on her shoes), or why she wears glasses with no frames.
As a riposte to what is being called a ‘palinomenon’, some anonymous blogger has created Sarah Palin Facts – a satirical site with outlandish facts about the ‘maverick’ Alaskan politician.
An example: Sarah Palin has actually travelled backwards in time from after the roll call to accept the vice-presidential nomination retroactively.
Moving on from the woolly ideals and not-so-heartfelt world of politics to the considerably more comforting world of wool and felt: Nicola Brown is an artist who works with felt, and she is part of the Artlinks network that operates across the counties of Kilkenny, Carlow, Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford.
I visited this site after attending a talk Brown gave on the merits of blogging for spreading your art and sharing your knowledge with people from around the world. This diary of a rural felt-maker is filled with beautiful pictures of Brown’s felt neck-pieces, hats and wall hangings that would make for unique and thoughtful Christmas presents.
This blog is a fun distraction – if you like your current affairs and popular culture chewed up and spat out in bite-sized chunks flavoured with a dash of craic and a pinch of the gombeen, that is.
This site is a kind of aggregator of notable Irish news, be it politics, the arts, sports, music or the economy. The editor clearly selects each piece carefully and packages it nicely with funny, acerbic commentary. There are also plenty of fun links to keep you busy while you pretend to finish the report your boss is waiting on.
This isn’t a blog revie, it’s more of a goodbye. Twenty Major is easily the most famous blogger in Ireland and sadly last week he wrote a goodbye post, but he does leave behind a wealth of entertaining and well-crafted stories.
This is the end of an era really, but after four years of blogging Twenty Major reckons it’s better to end on a high note and he is probably right – after all, his writing had the quality of a mini-series rather than a never-ending soap opera in the style of Coronation Streetor Fair City. Don’t be sad – he has a book coming out next year.
By Marie Boran
