Just plane embarrassing

One of the best things I read online last year - indeed, one of the best things you could probably hope to read any year - was Seamas O'Reilly's Twitter response to the b3ta invitation "We want to hear about your work-related fuck-ups", in which he recounted serving drinks to President of Ireland Mary McAleese while off his box on ketamine. The tale itself was superb, but much of the enjoyment was in the way he told it.

So it's good to know that his way with words didn't go unnoticed and that he's now writing a regular column for the Guardian on parents and parenting. Here's a fine recent example, in which he explains what happened when he was suspected of concealing a bomb in his bag by airport security: "Maybe it's a Northern Irish thing, but when a figure of authority accuses me of anything I immediately lose all faith in my own innocence. 'Surely, I didn't pack machine gun parts in my luggage', I think to myself, unlooping the baby from my seatbelt and passing him to my wife. She looks more stressed than me, but I can't tell if that's because she's been smuggling heroin in our suitcase."