A Daniel Is Not Just for Christmas
Did you hear about the thieves who stole a calendar?? They both got six months!
Ah the old ones are the best – well Daniel O’Donnell is far from old but he could be about to take top spot in this year’s festive calendar competition!
As a singer, no doubt the Donegal man would prefer to have a Christmas No 1 in the music charts but it turns out that it’s in the calendar sales stakes that he could claim top spot.
Yes it emerged this week that wee Daniel is currently in 4th spot in 2021 calendar sales ahead of such global sporting giants as Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea (although being ahead of Utd in any table isn’t all that difficult these days, sorry not sorry Utd fans!)
Wouldn’t it be the ultimate feel good end to 2020 if the real life Eoin McLove would top the charts.
Don’t Break The The Rules With Cruise
Well we had the celebrity meltdown of all celebrity meltdowns this week from the man who has spawned more conspiracy theories than the moon landing, Tom Cruise.
I’m sure you’ve all seen or more accurately heard the action heroes strop this week on the London set of Mission Impossible 7 when he spotted two crew members not adhering to covid guidelines.
Although the language and tone used wasn’t great, his point was spot on and maybe some of us here could do with taking heed.
Cruise pointed to the fact that those on the crew are extremely lucky to have their jobs and if they mess up, it will mean that the entire movie industry will be put in jeopardy and cost thousands of livelihoods.
The new Mission Impossible flick is seen as a blueprint as to how to make movies during Covid and the star, as a producer as well as an actor, is all too aware of the importance of ensuring guidelines are upheld.
I was going to try and shoehorn in as many Tom Cruise movie puns in to this story but I’ll spare you, all I’ll say is that this was by Far and Away one of the worst celebrity meltdowns I’ve seen, which might lead to some Collateral Damage but sometimes A Few Good Men have to stand up for what is right to prevent a Cocktail of Mistakes. Sorry, avoiding the puns was just a Mission Impossible!!
Can Mayo Exercise The Ghost
Speaking of impossible missions, I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s All Ireland final as the Dublin juggernaut goes in search of an historic 6 in a row against familiar foes Mayo.
I had said a few weeks ago here that maybe 2020 would be the year that long droughts for success could be extinguished and perhaps Waterford in the hurling and Mayo in football could claim victory.
The first half of this unlikely double was torpedoed in last weeks hurling final by the outstanding Limerick who put pave to any notions of a Deise victory with one of the most ruthless final performances in quite a while and you would be searching long and hard to find any pundit who would go against the Dubs this weekend.
Put aside the talk of Dublin’s numerical and monetary advantage over other counties and just looking at the cold hard facts, this Dublin football generation is the greatest of all time and shows no sign of slowing but there is hope for Connacht champions .
This is perhaps the most balanced Mayo side Dublin will have faced over the last number of years, they have quality all over the pitch and new names like Tommy Conroy have shown that they can deliver on the big occasion.
A rejuvenated Aidan O’Shea has been outstanding at full forward and along with stalwarts like David Clarke in goal and Lee Keegan at half back, the Westerners have a potent mix of youth and experience, but Dublin is as we know, a far different beast than anything they have faced so far this season.
The Champions have yet to really get out of third gear and their third gear is better than most teams sixth!
Mayo will have to sacrifice flair for pragmatism and keep things extremely tight with the hope of picking the Dubs off in the last quarter, an unenviable task but one that should be an absorbing spectacle for the neutral.
Park Going Green
I’ve often wondered if there should be a yearly competition for nicest pitch to play in for Laois clubs.
When it comes to pitches and facilities to invoke Clint Eastwood there is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
Personally for me I always liked O’Dempsey’s set up, located in a beautiful part of the county, when you’re getting beaten at least the scenery is nice! Ditto for Stradbally, which has to be up there with one of the nicest club settings in the country.
On the other side, and it’s just an opinion and no disrespect intended to one of the county’s great clubs but me and Port never mixed, that could be down to the fact that it was always hard to get a result there, or maybe it was the Odlums Owls eyes peering down as you played ! Whatever it was I just never took to it.
(That saying the recent developments there have greatly improved the clubs amenities)
Certainly in the “I like the way you look” column, Park Ratheniska is high up there with top notch changing and dressing room facilities matched with a beautiful surface and situated in a picturesque corner of the county, what more could you want!
No surprise then that Park has been selected as one of just 45 clubs countrywide to participate in a new green clubs initiative which aims to promote green, sustainable projects and practices across clubs and communities, a really good initiative so well done all involved.
Some real green shoots for the future indeed!
Mind The Important Things
Garryhinch Woods between Mountmellick and Portarlinton has been my run of choice for most of 2020, I can nearly name the individual trees such is the amount of laps I’ve done there over the last few months, slow ones I might add!
This week I had to run my eyes several times when I spotted a new addition to the flora and fauna there – a polar bear.
Nope I wasn’t hallucinating from a lack of fitness (this time) and on closer inspection, the bear was of the teddy variety and part of a little message board that had been placed there by the very good folk at PIETA house at the side of the river Barrow, along with some all important contact details for those finding things a struggle at the moment and in need of someone to talk to.
We’ve all heard the messages on the TV and radio and read them online and in the paper but again it’s worth reminding ourselves that for some and no doubt more so this year than any other, Christmas can be a very difficult time.
A simple phone call, a check in, a socially distant call to the front garden can mean so much to people and as much as we all enjoy the material gifts we get at Christmas, myself very much included, sometimes the best gift we can give is that of our time for others.
As the old Mastercard would say it’s priceless
To you and yours have a great Christmas!
You can catch Brian Moss on Midlands 103’s The Late Shift on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 10pm to 12 midnight and Saturdays on The Saturday Beat from 5pm to 9pm. Follow him on Twitter here.
SEE ALSO – Laois principal calls for schools to be allowed to close when they have confirmed Covid-19 cases
