APHC: Europe 2001

The Irish
Saturday, March 10, 2001
Listen

(GK: Garrison Keillor, JOE: Joe Taylor, DEIRDRE: Deirdre Monaghan)

GK: I don't like to generalize about a people but it does seem to me that the Irish tend to be a cool people who minimize the difficulty or the complexity or the unpleasantness of things…… We noticed that when we left to come over here, the doorman at the hotel said:

JOE: It's a soft night out tonight.

GK: A soft night means rain. It's raining.

JOE: There's a light mist out tonight.

GK: It's raining and you'll need an umbrella.

JOE: There's a bit of rain out there tonight.

GK: This means it's pouring, there are gale-force winds, the airport is closed. So I asked the doorman if he could get me a taxi.

JOE: It'll be here in a couple of minutes.

GK: About an hour, eh? Well, maybe I should try to walk there.

JOE: It's about a ten-minute walk from here.

GK: Half an hour---- well, that's not bad.

JOE: Just go out the front door, turn right, and follow along there straightaway, you can't miss it.

GK: This means, you make your way through two intersections, go to the right around the roundabout, down a small alleyway, unmarked, where you come to another intersection, bear right, cross over the bridge, and then take a left about 2 streets down. There's a tiny sign saying Thomas Street. The club Vicar Street is on Thomas Street. There is no Vicar Street anywhere near.

JOE: It's about a mile from here.

GK: About a mile means 3.5 miles. ---So you ask the doorman if he could hire you a car and a driver----

JOE: That'll be no problem. I'll get right to it. You have a seat, have a bit of tea, I'll be right back.

GK: A couple hours later when the doorman still hasn't come back, you ask the lady at the front desk about him.

DEIRDRE: Well, I don't know where he's gone, but I'll find out.

GK: I'm in a hurry.

DEIRDRE: Let me see what I can do about getting you a car.

GK: The show starts in an hour. In America, an hour means 60 minutes.

DEIRDRE: I'll get right back to you on that.

GK: I never heard from her again. Luckily for me, I had the day wrong. It was Friday, not Saturday. I had twenty-four hours to get here. Got here about fifteen minutes ago. It was no problem.