Craic strikes back

It's reassuring, isn't it, that even in the midst of the quick-moving modern world some things never change.

We went down to The Anchor on Monday for the first time in a while. Still populated by a smattering of real ale enthusiasts, old men poring over newspapers, and Andy. Still serving Thatchers Cheddar Valley, the evilly potent yet fatally alluring bright orange cider. And still somewhere you can pick up a copy of An Craic.

The latest issue is much the same as those that have gone before it, too - the cover dominated by a photo of a beaming bright-eyed young woman, presumably taken at a Lovely Girls contest on Craggy Island, and inside some of the most entertainingly bizarre news stories you'll ever have the good fortune to encounter:

"END OF THE ROAD FOR DOGGIE
Doggie the dog - who achieved notoriety for surviving a 60-mile journey wedged to the front of a car which hit him - has died after being knocked down in his own back yard".

All this in amongst the usual advertisements for the city's many Irish drinking establishments - the advertisement for Behan's in Hall Green, for instance, which is accompanied by a quote from the man after whom the place is named: "I am a drinker with writing problems". I know how you feel, Brendan, I know how you feel...

Unfortunately, the trip did mean that I missed out on seeing the excellent BBC2 double-whammy of 'Balderdash & Piffle' and 'The Thick Of It', though they were being shown on the pub TV with the sound off and the subtitles on. I just wish I'd properly seen the bit of the former programme in which the expression "Mackem" was being researched and discussed. Black-and-white shirted Geordies en route for St James's Park seemed to have plenty of choice things to say on the subject...