Things that make you go .....Hmmm, that's interesting.

[Farrandeelin]

The electoral colleges in the USA.

[stew]

That Michelle obamanation kicked the Prez  out of the hoose because of an alleged affair with an intern..................................How democratic of him!

[johnneycool]

That Michelle obamanation kicked the Prez  out of the hoose because of an alleged affair with an intern..................................How democratic of him!

Any DNA around this time?

[Tony Baloney]

http://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2012/09/08/48-the-houses-in-leinster-gardens/

[Hardy]

Somebody (ONeill?) introduced lettersofnote.com to the board some time ago. It's a gem. Here's a brilliant letter from a former slave to his old master, who had written asking him to return to work (for pay) on the plantation:

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

[ziggy90]

Brilliant!!

[Shamrock Shore]

Sorry Stew???

Can you elaborate - or are you extracting the urine?

Is POTUS acting the maggot with some intern?

[trileacman]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1115/shipwrecks-off-coast-of-ireland.html

[Lar Naparka]

The following letter may be of interest to some.. It was written by my great grandfather, James Salmon, around the beginning of the 20th. century to one of his daughters who had emigrated to the US.
Teachers didn't have it easy back then!

http://mayogodhelpus.com/history/jimmysalmon.html



Curneen,
Claremorris,
Ireland.
March 2, 1902.


Dear Daughter,

I received your letter and was very glad to hear of all of ye to be in good health as the departure of this letter leaves us in at present, thanks be to God. I am getting weaker so my tenure is but short now to live. I got a letter from Sligo telling me that my old sister, Biddy, is dead and buried since last harvest. Abby Hehir is dead and buried since last harvest. She died in Boyle in the workhouse, I believe. Another friend of yours, Peg Finan is dead also. I wrote to them last November but they did not answer till a few days ago. I wanted to know how my old sister was getting on but it was from ye I got the account of her death.
They mentioned in their letter that it was in her daughter's house she died without getting any sickness. That was at Kesh. She was buried at Gurteen. I was grieved and sorry to that I was not there at her death and funeral. The Lord have mercy on her soul. Margy Drury is expecting a letter from you.
Our teacher, Mr. Egan, must go three nights a week for six weeks, from seven till ten, to Claremorris, where instructors from Dublin are to teach them how to sing and dance and march. Every school must give ten shillings for a drill-book. This drill-book will instruct the teachers how to drill the scholars. They must be drilled like young army recruits. Mr. Egan must have his fiddle in school with him. He must take his scholars out and march them down to the old mill, while he plays the marches and shows them how to change step. Very lucky for Egan that he can play the fiddle and is also a very good dancer. He never thought it would come to the time of day when he would have to bring his fiddle to school and he a dancing master, a singing teacher and drill master. Besides, he is almost out of his mind; he has so much to do. Though their salaries are to be cut, they must be more up-to date now.
Teachers must be in school at seven in the morning and if the inspector gets there ahead of them and finds them late, he can dismiss them. There must be a wide space in the window for flowers and also a grate around the fireplace. Egan knows how long it will take him to go from his own house to the school in the morning. But if he meets a man on the way, the man may ask him about the war or when the property is to be sold.
"'I can't speak to him for fear the inspector may be before me at the school." Then the man may say that I am getting so grand that I won't speak to the people."
That puts him (Egan) about very much to think that he is of that mind. They have drawings of all sorts of grand things in the schools which scholars must copy. So you now see that school masters have enough to do.


Well, our property has seen sold at last, since the 20th of the last month. (Feb 20, 1902)  There is no more about the Burkes and that is little loss. The Congested Board has brought the property for £29,000. The rent is now down to one-half. I was paying the Burkes eleven pounds- now I pay only four. The board is buying up all the big farms. They bought Lord Dillon's and are now giving it to the tenants. Sure, the best land in Ireland is in the big farms, which was the cause of banishing the Irish people far from home. Those who will live will see great changes for the better in Ireland and I pray it won't be long.
It is the Congested Board that is handling the land purchase for the government. The government does not wish to appear that they would turn against the Landlords and the Graziers. They are making the balls and the Board is firing them. They know that the irish are not for them. They know that if the war is prolonged, the irish soldiers will be the best that will join for them. As for all the English they are sending to the war, they are no good unless they get enough to eat but the Irish fight better if half starved.  So the government will now see to give better homes to the Irish in order that they will be more loyal than at present.
Your mother joins me in sending our Kind Love.

Your father,
James Salmon.

[DuffleKing]

Puts me in mind of Kilkelly, Ireland

[Declan]

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23susanalbumparty&src=hash

[Croí na hÉireann]

Wrong thread Dec, should be in the "What The Fcuk" 

[Canalman]

Heard on the radio yesterday that the former tv host Nicholas Parsons' dad was a doctor............ who seemingly delivered Margaret Thatcher into the world.
True or not ........ who knows?

[AQMP]

Heard on the radio yesterday that the former tv host Nicholas Parsons' dad was a doctor............ who seemingly delivered Margaret Thatcher into the world.
True or not ........ who knows?

Parsons' father was a GP in Grantham at the time Thatcher was born.

[ziggy90]

Heard on the radio yesterday that the former tv host Nicholas Parsons' dad was a doctor............ who seemingly delivered Margaret Thatcher into the world.
True or not ........ who knows?

If he was, and if he did, he has a hell of a lot to answer for. (Nicholas Parsons is up there with Bob Monkhouse and Leslie Crowther as the Smarmiest tv hosts of my time ).