EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we take a look at all the best comments left on the site by our readers over the past seven days.
This week there was a lot of talk about …
So here are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. Perhaps no issue has ever exercised commenters as much as the whole Garth Brooks thing (fiasco, debacle, crisis, nonsense etc.). When all five concerts were cancelled, 3,061 thumbs agreed with thefunnyman:
I would be fuming if I bought a ticket off a tout.
2. We Irish are by-and-large a pale-skinned bunch as the Daily Edge pointed out this week. Montys Moonshine is conflicted of an evening, as are 2,088 thumbs.
Fake tan should be banned. There’s young lads walking around on a Saturday night looking at young wuns and they don’t know whether to shift them or peel them.
3. Garth Brooks had us all hot and bothered all week. Niall H didn’t know what exactly he was most het up about and received 1,942 thumbs.
I’d be fuming if there was fumes coming off me to fume about.
4. Not regular commenters on this site, these Amazonian Indians made their first contact with outside world. Glen and 1,875 others fancy living in the rainforest:
Imagine not knowing our corrupt planet. Not knowing war, suffering, poverty, drugs, prisons, aids, Saville, the royals, bono, nukes, money, nct & bieber What an ideal world they live in.
5. Clever from Brian Farrell. Very clever. 1,512 green thumbs:
Any time I’m confronted by a spelling or grammar Nazi, I just smile sweetly, and whisper softly “their there they’re”.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. All FIVE Garth Brooks concerts have been cancelled (690 comments)
2. Garth Brooks: ‘For us, it is five shows or none at all’ (432 comments)
3. Bakery refuses to make Sesame Street ‘Support Gay Marriage’ cake (406 comments)
4. Council offers matinees for Garth Brooks gigs, but Aiken says it “will not be feasible” (369 comments)
5. Now Enda is trying to get the Garth Brooks concerts back (361 comments)
The big issue this week
There’s no getting away from what the biggest issue of the week (or all time) was. A fortnight that will live in infamy says Paddy Hannigan.
Kinda like the Cuban Missile crisis. The ship is on the way. Threats have been issued by both sides. Who will flinch first.. There is so much at stake… /sarcasm
Most interesting fact of the week
This week, we read about the 17-year-old girl who suffered minor eye injuries when an airbag deployed before she even had time to blink. Rupert McPupkin told us:
The airbags were actually faulty in this case because they opened too soon.
This is why you get recalls on cars for problems with airbags – the modification or repair is to reprogram the srs circuitry to delay the airbag deployment in the case of a collision to actually give you time to blink.
Other issues are that airbags can be too loud when they inflate, causing a loss of hearing.
They’re supposed to save your life but they’re not supposed to blind you or deafen you in the process.
Thought-provoking thread
Often, what is said below the article can be just as informative and helpful for readers engaged on a certain topic. That was the case this week on a column about post natal depression.
Sharon Moore told us:
I suffered from post natal depression on my first child. At the time I didn’t know what was wrong with me, I just blamed it on the fact that I must be a bad mother and a complete failure as a parent because I couldn’t cope, it’s completely debilitating. Was diagnosed 9 months after son was born. The impact it had on me was enormous, so much so that it was 20 years on before id risk pregnancy again, and I feared all through the second pregnancy that same thing would happen, thankfully it didn’t. Anyone out there who thinks they have it, please seek help. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t suffer in silence.
Cloven Clover also shared:
I had a baby three weeks ago (my fourth) and I was given loads of info on PND not just leaflets but a nurse in the hospital went around speaking to everyone, then the PHN spoke to me and gave me leaflets and the contact number of a PND specialist who deals with my area and told me she sees people whenever they are free and not just normal working hours. I was actually really impressed with how it was very openly discussed. I had PND mildly after my first and second pregnancies but more severe after my third. This time around so far I feel great but I’m glad there’ll be support should I need it.
N O’C had an interesting perspective:
Does anyone ever speak to the partners in the relationship? Surely they need to be aware if the signs and symptoms also, and how to access help? We have 3 children, thankfully my wife did not suffer from PND, but I don’t recall ever getting any info on this. Not that I expect to be spoon-fed info on this or anything, but it’s a simple thing to put this on a partners radar.
And Elaine M tells us what happens elsewhere
I’ve had 2 kids born here in Australia. Each time around I visited a public midwife at 19 weeks pregnant. It’s an hour consultation and you go through a screening test for family situations and PND. This then goes into your file. The midwives are trained to coax answers from you throughout the hour regarding how you are feeling etc. never once felt rushed through a consultation. Saw the midwife 3 times after that and each time we would chat about the same things. Once the child was born, a midwife visits your house everyday until the baby is 5 days old, and then a visit to the child health nurse is organised at 2weeks (chn comes to home visit) then 8weeks, 3months, 8 months and 18 months. Each time the same screening process for PND occurs and is filed. Thankfully I never had any problems and the CHN explained that the reason that these timeframes are chosen is not so much for the baby (although they get weighed etc) but more as a monitoring of the mother and how she is interacting with the baby as these are optimal fussy times and can be the periods when PND gets on top of mothers. The system in Ireland really needs to provide these simple screening processes like the author says.
Some of our favourite comments
You’ll like this one. A commenter’s friend gets one up on the bank. Here’s Jed I. Knight.
A nice story, I’m delighted for someone I don’t know, It’s a strange feeling. I imagine this man and his family can now enjoy the best night’s sleep they’ve ever had, free of financial worries. They sound like they deserve it.A bloke I know won the lotto about 20 years ago, it was just over 1 million at the time, another ordinary decent bloke. He told me that the week before a bank manager had called him in to discuss repaying a loan he had, he was in difficulty at the time, and the loan was about 10K. When he won the lotto he went in with the intention of saying he’d pay it off, I think there’s a waiting period before you’re allowed to get the money in case you go mad.
He said the bank manager brought him in to his office, couldn’t be nicer to him, the loan, forget about it. He wanted the lotto winnings deposited in his bank. So my mate played dumb and said his wife would never believe this, could he write it down? The manager duly obliged and enquired when the cheque would be deposited in his bank. Oh that, next week. He’s still waiting for it.
When my mate hadn’t a penny the bank chased him for 10K, but when they thought he was going to deposit 1 million in their bank they just tore up that loan. Greedy bas***ds.
And we also don’t mind our readings having a bit of a giggle at our expense. Obviously, there has been a LOT of Garth Brooks news over the past fortnight (kind of like when Pat Kenny moved to Newstalk) and it hasn’t been lost on Bryan De B’stard:
Ctrl G + B will bring you to the latest Garth Brooks story on Journal.ie.
Spot any good comments? Send them through to us by email at sinead@thejournal.ie.
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