Flirty Something has an account of a safari to Avoca, the shop that likes to put the ker-ching into 'you paid what for that piece of tat?'

If you're from stateside, Avoca is an overpriced, smug (two common characteristics in the Celtic Tiger) cultural lovechild of Anthropologie and Laura Ashley all housed under one Edward Gibbonsesque roof. It's an SUV in Kensington. It's advanced capitalism in flower-patterned wellies.

As you can tell, I love the place (and what it says about Irish society) with a great passion.

Anyway, I have one question about Flirty's post. How. The. Fuck. Do you 'hand cook' crisps? Are the Chinese political prisoners now forced to hold the crisps into the deep fat fryer during breaks from welly stitching?

There was an excellent article by Martin Kettle in yesterday's Guardian where he made some fundamental points about the New Hampshire primary. Namely that there's something strange in everyone focusing on Hillary's supposed tears rather than on what the polls had been saying, with the exception of the few days between the Iowa caucus and NH. That is: Clinton is ahead among Democrats so is more likely to win the bulk of states, where only Democratic votors can cast a ballot.

Pity he hadn't forwarded his piece to others in the same edition of the paper...

Still, there's a big question that isn't being asked about what Americans (and, I suppose, the rest of us) expect in a female president. It strikes me that a lot of the coverage of Hillary emoting focuses on the moment being a truly feminist moment: when being human requires us to not only be strong but also to show that we can suffer.

But I wonder. Isn't this just another instance of a woman being held to different standards to a man? Has anyone asked the same thing of Obama? What would we think of a teary moment from him? It may just be that a return to the halcyon Clintonic days requires a president with a quivering lip, but it may also be that even the more progressive Democratic supporters haven't quite shook off the suspicion that an ambitious woman must be a bitch.

Hopefully not. It pains me to say it, but (electorally speaking) Hillary had better not take too much advice from Bill on these aspects of her presidency (agin which I wouldn't bet). She and Bill should look further afield for inspiration, starting perhaps with a DVD or two.

If she quivers she'll be called weak and if she doesn't she'll be called cold. But - as presidents go - better cold than weak... 

Here's a wonderful short film on Sean Nós singing from Celtic Juice TV, featuring one of a number of our friends whose geographic distance has not dimmed their fascination for Irish language and music. The piece is just over eight minutes long and well worth the viewing.

There's an interesting snippet in today's FT suggesting that Sony, manufacturer of the Blu-Ray disk, is winning the battle against the MS/Toshiba HD format. Personally I don't care too much (though some are antipathetic either way), being the sort of ignoramous who could probably not tell the difference but who knows enough to make do with an ancient DVD player until one format or other is obsolete. Let the impatient early-adopters take the risks...

Strangely, though, there seems to be a slight consensus that the best disk-we-don't-need will win this time (unlike the VHS/Betamax saga). Oh joy.