Breaking news: Most Irish don't follow Boston sports teams

Kevin Cullen gets the scoop, reporting from the Emerald Isle that Irish people instead follow something called soccer and that they recently had a referendum on how evil the French and Germans are, all summed up in the headline:

Don't know, don't care

Today's Globe challenge: Read the following sentence without taking a breath:

So I get on the bus and we go through the tunnel that they measured wrong and is too small for big trucks, and the Irish do that sometimes, but it wasn't like the Big Dig in which people made billions and some poor lady from Jamaica Plain got killed because somebody made a mistake and I take the bus to Glasthule, which is a beautiful village just south of Dublin, and is right next to Sandycove where James Joyce described the Irish Sea water as snot green.

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Really?

By Ms.Bart (not verified) | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:01pm

How the heck did this guy get a working trip to Ireland approved if he's going to ask them about U S Sports? Can I have his job?

Publishing Question

By got2trotlibrarian | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:03pm

How many eyes see articles before they're published online? I'm not familiar with the process, but I always imagined that before articles went to press (or online) that they were double-checked for run-ons, fragments, typos, etc. This article reads like it was sent from his Blackberry directly to Boston.com.

You don't think ....

By Sean | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:23pm

That Cullen was trying his hand at a little Joycean stream-of-consciousness, do you?

not sure cullen is that sharp.

By amusings | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:31pm

that's just how i feel. he probably got a little book of quippy joyce quotes and thought the snot green was the most awesome thing he'd heard ever.

Oh, he was definitely trying to get all Joycean on us

By adamg | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:42pm

But Joyce had a cadence to his sentences and thought about the meaning of every single word, whereas that sentence just reads like some guy throwing a bunch of disconnected thoughts together and forgetting where the period key was on his keyboard (the Big Dig thing just doesn't work for me).

Joycey

By anon (not verified) | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:48pm

I bet he had this in his mind all along. 'Boy, the Boston Globe could give me a bunch of money to travel...if I can justify it ...Celtics...championship...Ireland...Joyce...money.'

He might have been on vacation

By adamg | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:49pm

And filed that at no extra charge.

If that's the case, Adam

By bobmetcalf | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 1:15pm

Then the Globe should charge Cullen for publishing it.

"He might have been on

By anon (not verified) | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 1:16pm

"He might have been on vacation and filed at no extra charge."

Bingo.

the full line from Joyce is. . .

By eoin (not verified) | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:36pm

"The snot green sea. The scrotum tightening sea."

But I guess you can't put that in the Globe.

Even fuller

By adamg | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:51pm

"God", he said quietly, "isn't the sea what Algy calls it: a great, sweet mother? The snot-green sea. The scrotum-tightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton. Ah Daedalus, the Greek. I must teach you. You should read them in the original. Thalatta! thalatta! She is our great, sweet mother. Come and look."

Now imagine that read by David Gergen and Burt Convey (hmm, the idea is funnier than the actual implementation, but whatever).

Seriously, if you don't like

By anon (not verified) | Fri, 06/20/2008 - 10:55pm

Seriously, if you don't like what Cullen writes, then don't read it. Most readers of the Globe appreciate his perspective and insights. We're not tired of reading him, nor are we searching for the next big thing from the blogosphere.

Obviously, you're entitled to your opinion(s) (and that is a very tentative plural). I'm tired of hearing your carping. There's not an original thought on this blog.

Get over yourselves.

Who are you, Cullen's

By Rick (not verified) | Sat, 06/21/2008 - 12:08am

Who are you, Cullen's mom?

To paraphrase what you just said: Seriously, if you don't like what's on Universal Hub, don't read it. Most readers of UH appreciate the round-up of local news stories and other miscellany going on in the area. We're not tired of reading it, nor are we searching for original thoughts on a news round-up blog.

Obviously, you're entitled to your opinion(s) (if you come up with any that aren't whiny I might consider taking the parentheses off that S). I'm tired of hearing people like you carp. There's not an original thought in your comment.

Get over yourself.

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