THE west coast of America has always held a fascination for me and is a place I hold dear to my heart.
It goes all the way back to my childhood when films and telly from Hollywood flooded my developing consciousness.
And it’s the part of the world we chose to honeymoon in, taking in a spectacular route down the Pacific coast highway from Seattle to San Francisco in 2012 on the trip of a lifetime.
From the minute we arrived there, the west coast had a very familiar feeling – a sort of low key, curious, relaxed and friendly aura that is not a million miles away, dare I say it, from our own West Cork. It’s hard to put your finger on it until you’ve been there, but it felt like home in some way.
In more recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting LA and San Diego for work, taking in some of the rest of the cities that hug the more southerly coastline down towards Mexico.
And so, it was heart-wrenching to see the footage of the fires that overwhelmed emergency services, devastated homes and had thousands of people evacuated this week.
I was glued to news feeds from ABC in LA, mostly because two work colleagues were personally affected, albeit thankfully their houses are so far safe and, more importantly, they themselves are out of danger.
From what I could tell there was a lot of community solidarity being shown and a whole lot of civic cooperation on the ground, as Angelenos rallied together in a time of deep crisis and firefighters did their utmost to stave off the inferno.
But there’s something darkly familiar about how, already, some people have descended into the usual tit-for-tat squabbling, including the president-elect. The city is still smoldering, its skyline painted in apocalyptic hues, but things are already starting to coagulate along partisan lines. Liberals are pointing at the unprecedented blaze and shouting ‘climate change’. Trump wonders why the hell they can’t just put the damn thing out, while a phalanx of Maga supporters take glee at the pain being suffered by leftist celebrities and point fingers at the Democratic leaders of the State.
There’s no doubt that finger pointing will continue as investigations are launched into the fire and the preparation for it. But if something like this can’t bring people together and there is already a red and blue entrenchment beginning, then I really will start to worry about the future of the part of the world I love so much.
It’s not cool being this hot
SPEAKING of unexpected heat, 2024 just claimed a record nobody wanted it to win: Earth’s Hottest Year Since We Started Keeping Records. According to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, we’ve not just broken the previous record from 2023 – we’ve exceeded ourselves. This means we’ve crossed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels for the first time. Climate scientists are quick to remind us this single-year spike doesn’t officially breach the Paris Agreement’s longer-term concerns. It’s like getting a fever when you’re sick – one hot day doesn’t mean you’re chronically ill, but when you’ve had 10 hot years in a row (which we have), it might be time to bin the Calpol and go see a doctor.
Bridge with a cherry on top
MEANWHILE, in considerably cooler climes, Dublin has found itself with an unexpected tourist attraction. In a city traditionally famous for coddle, George Murphy and eye-watering rents, we now have cherry tomatoes taking centre-stage at Binns Bridge in Drumcondra. What started as a few frozen fruits stuck to the stonework during the recent cold snap has morphed into Dublin’s most unexpected tourist attraction since the statue of the fishwoman.
The saga began when someone on TikTok spotted cherry tomatoes clinging to life on the Royal Canal bridge wall.
Since then, it’s gone absolutely bananas (though nobody has left any bananas ... yet). We’re talking whole tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, ketchup sachets, and – because Dublin never does anything by halves – AI-generated portraits of cherry tomatoes in formal wear. Apparently Howrad studios have made a mug of it and TikTok star Protein Bor Papi wrote a song about it. I don’t even know who these people are, or what that last sentence means, but that’s the internet for you folks! The bridge, which now has its own Google Maps entry, is a pilgrimage site for those who have little better to do, it seems. You’ll find this cultural landmark near Croke Park, between Le Petit Breton and the Royal Canal Way, and I’m definitely not going down there to take a selfie after I finish this article. No siree.
Ploughing on – but in India
AND speaking of pilgrimages, this week marks the start of Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, India, where they are expecting 400 million Hindu pilgrims to gather at the sacred confluence of three rivers over the next six weeks. The logistics are equally staggering: 145,000 toilets, 150,000 tents and, shall we say, ample parking. And we thought the Ploughing Championships were impressive.
