What I'm about to post is a theory I've developed starting inspired originally by watching The Voice of Ireland. Note that I am not trying to be snarky here, it's just an observation, and something that only increases Ireland's charm.
My theory is that in almost everything having to do with popular culture (except high heels -- Irish women cannot wear high enough heels no matter the occasion) and in perhaps business culture, Ireland is at about 80% of the US.
And, I mean this in a very positive way. Seriously.
Let me start with The Voice of Ireland.
One of the first things that I noticed about the contestants is that they, on average, weren't very good, and they certainly weren't "tv good looking" in the US sort of way. Of course, this is why The Voice does the awesome blind auditions (which, again, I think is awesome. I am not endorsing the comment in this post, I am just making the observation!). As an aside, the third episode we watched had loads of great singers, so this was not always the case.
The deal here is that they are pulling from a smaller sample size -- there are about 4.6 million people living in Ireland as compared to over 300 million in the US. As a rule, when you draw observations from a small sample size, you will get outcomes with greater variance (in this case more very excellent singers--far above the average, and more very terrible singers--far below the average). In the US it seems that even to get to the level where we would see you on television (unless it is a joke by the network) you would have nearly already been vetted by Hollywood.
Again, I am not saying this is a good thing.
The morning shows (equivalent to the Today show or CBS This Morning), particularly one of them has an old guy wearing jeans cross-legged on a couch clearly reading notes for his quite casual conversations. Again, I am not criticizing, but it is just a far cry from polished Matt Lauer with his suits and prompter (and or very discrete references to notes). It just seems more professional.
On more than one occasion I've seen a commercial where the people onscreen are looking at the wrong camera.
Today Sheila and I worked at Starbucks for a bit to avoid the rain and headed over to the Bank of Ireland to open up an account (transaction costs are killing us) and were told we'd have to make an appointment with a banker later in the week.
Can you imagine having to wait for a banker to open an account in the US? Of course, we didn't mind at all -- Ireland for us is all about slowing down, waiting. We waited for the rain to stop, for the wind to die down, for the sun to come out. But the Americans in us were stunned. A bank would put of potential business for a few days??? Imagine the lost profits!
I will blog more of my "80 Percent Observations" as they come.
In the theme of being okay with all things Ireland, here's a positive side to all the rain (in addition to it being FIFTY degrees here today):
And an update on the minutia: hurling got cancelled tonight due to wind, TT got out safely at 4 a.m. (I saw a fox on the street walking her to the bus stop!) and is probably arriving in Minneapolis as I type this (3 p.m. CST), Maggie is studying for second trimester finals here and after a good night's sleep is in a much better mood. We are heading to another "table quiz" (fundraiser for Johnny's school) but this time it'll be adults only and at a pub (!).
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