Karl McDonald
@karlusss.bsky.social
For if I triumph I must make men mad. Occasional columnist
Just staved off the feeling of loneliness by putting on RTÉ Radio 1. I wonder whether Ireland could tackle its burgeoning inverse loneliness curve, where the young are lonelier than the old, by distributing free physical radios with only one channel and no off-switch, as our ancestors had.
November 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Just staved off the feeling of loneliness by putting on RTÉ Radio 1. I wonder whether Ireland could tackle its burgeoning inverse loneliness curve, where the young are lonelier than the old, by distributing free physical radios with only one channel and no off-switch, as our ancestors had.
RTÉ News interviewing a teenager with a ronnie on what he thinks about Ireland beating Portugal, 24 hours on. Excellent television.
November 14, 2025 at 9:27 PM
RTÉ News interviewing a teenager with a ronnie on what he thinks about Ireland beating Portugal, 24 hours on. Excellent television.
I cannot see any constituency agreeing with this but: Ireland should build a new big impressive hall for ceremonies etc. St Patrick's Hall is inherited and is basically a secret society meeting room. Cathedrals not secular enough. The Convention Centre is a convention centre.
November 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
I cannot see any constituency agreeing with this but: Ireland should build a new big impressive hall for ceremonies etc. St Patrick's Hall is inherited and is basically a secret society meeting room. Cathedrals not secular enough. The Convention Centre is a convention centre.
Venezuela is more than twice the size of Iraq, for the record.
November 14, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Venezuela is more than twice the size of Iraq, for the record.
She can't be stopped
November 14, 2025 at 12:51 AM
She can't be stopped
Missed the football because of chess but I will say winning at chess, finding out the rest of the team has won at chess, checking my phone to see it's 2-0, getting a push notification in real time that Ronaldo has been sent off, and all the WhatsApp groups screaming at once: pretty good 3 min period
November 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Missed the football because of chess but I will say winning at chess, finding out the rest of the team has won at chess, checking my phone to see it's 2-0, getting a push notification in real time that Ronaldo has been sent off, and all the WhatsApp groups screaming at once: pretty good 3 min period
- His father's cousin is his aunt
- History of pro-Palestinian activism
- Rejection of justification by faith alone
Gathering evidence for the theory that Zohran Mamdani is an Irishman
- History of pro-Palestinian activism
- Rejection of justification by faith alone
Gathering evidence for the theory that Zohran Mamdani is an Irishman
November 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM
- His father's cousin is his aunt
- History of pro-Palestinian activism
- Rejection of justification by faith alone
Gathering evidence for the theory that Zohran Mamdani is an Irishman
- History of pro-Palestinian activism
- Rejection of justification by faith alone
Gathering evidence for the theory that Zohran Mamdani is an Irishman
Someone is going to check on Bluesky in 30 years and there will be Starmerite dead enders who never surrendered still camped out here.
November 13, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Someone is going to check on Bluesky in 30 years and there will be Starmerite dead enders who never surrendered still camped out here.
Is this Combat Jack's son??? What a time to be alive
November 12, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Is this Combat Jack's son??? What a time to be alive
Limited options in this Audible sale. Considered "A History of Bees" for a while before I saw "A Novel" in smaller font.
November 12, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Limited options in this Audible sale. Considered "A History of Bees" for a while before I saw "A Novel" in smaller font.
Not a big fan of this fella but having done a terminal-to-terminal transfer in Heathrow recently - it is terrible, unclear, people you ask won't tell you, it involves waiting like 20 minutes for a bus, doesn't feel like a service that has been designed at all.
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
Economist Doesn't Follow Signs At Heathrow: Proof The UK Is Failing?
A economist had a bad experience connecting at Heathrow, suggesting it's reflective of bigger issues in the UK. There's only one issue...
onemileatatime.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Not a big fan of this fella but having done a terminal-to-terminal transfer in Heathrow recently - it is terrible, unclear, people you ask won't tell you, it involves waiting like 20 minutes for a bus, doesn't feel like a service that has been designed at all.
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
Reposted by Karl McDonald
There is no winning. Read a book in public, you get accused of being performative. Don't read a book in public, Joyce Carol Oates says you are a human shell with no inner life. 😞
November 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
There is no winning. Read a book in public, you get accused of being performative. Don't read a book in public, Joyce Carol Oates says you are a human shell with no inner life. 😞
BBC scandals are one of my least favourite things because there is nothing the BBC resources like a BBC scandal, possibly fearing select committee questions about whether they are beating themselves hard enough with sticks. Ironically it feels more self-revering than their usual high baseline.
November 10, 2025 at 9:21 PM
BBC scandals are one of my least favourite things because there is nothing the BBC resources like a BBC scandal, possibly fearing select committee questions about whether they are beating themselves hard enough with sticks. Ironically it feels more self-revering than their usual high baseline.
More adventures in basketball vocabulary: someone just said "two-peat". As in like a three-peat, which is obviously a pun on repeat, but that has been forgotten at some point, so two-peat.
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM
More adventures in basketball vocabulary: someone just said "two-peat". As in like a three-peat, which is obviously a pun on repeat, but that has been forgotten at some point, so two-peat.
Least favourite genre of music would have to be the extremely out of fashion form of 2000s instrumental synth horn hip hop on basketball podcasts. Already sounds as unlistenably obsolete as the swing drum machine/lead guitar nonsense you got on early 90s WWE
November 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Least favourite genre of music would have to be the extremely out of fashion form of 2000s instrumental synth horn hip hop on basketball podcasts. Already sounds as unlistenably obsolete as the swing drum machine/lead guitar nonsense you got on early 90s WWE
Heard an American say the word "buoying" for the first time on a podcast just now. As in "this factor is buoying the team's performance". Somehow never occurred to me that "booeying" would follow from "booey".
November 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Heard an American say the word "buoying" for the first time on a podcast just now. As in "this factor is buoying the team's performance". Somehow never occurred to me that "booeying" would follow from "booey".
Reposted by Karl McDonald
My favourite Hiberno-English-ism isn't any of the obvious ones, it's the fact that when we say "sallow" we mean the opposite of what everyone else means. It's not sickly yellow, it's healthy, positive
November 8, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My favourite Hiberno-English-ism isn't any of the obvious ones, it's the fact that when we say "sallow" we mean the opposite of what everyone else means. It's not sickly yellow, it's healthy, positive
Reposted by Karl McDonald
New on my similarly new Substack: why Keir Starmer needs fat men around him, the person actually doing a good job inside No 10, and the best books on Brownism
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Get some fat men around him
Keir Starmer's government is full of the wrong Brownites
substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:04 AM
New on my similarly new Substack: why Keir Starmer needs fat men around him, the person actually doing a good job inside No 10, and the best books on Brownism
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Can't deal with front-facing video affect. Stop doing that with your hands.
November 7, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Can't deal with front-facing video affect. Stop doing that with your hands.
Trying to figure out what move this would be. 8. ...d5 for the Marshall maybe.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is playing chess and making really good moves.
Tapping former FTC chair Lina Khan for his transition team has put fear into Wall Street. They absolutely loathe her John Wick approach to antitrust cases.
She’s brilliant and unyielding.
Great pick!
Tapping former FTC chair Lina Khan for his transition team has put fear into Wall Street. They absolutely loathe her John Wick approach to antitrust cases.
She’s brilliant and unyielding.
Great pick!
November 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Trying to figure out what move this would be. 8. ...d5 for the Marshall maybe.
Everyone's a big fan of the multiple meanings of the acronym IRA but due to the particular mix of accounts I follow online, I wind up getting confused by ECB - England and Wales Cricket Board/European Central Bank - much more often.
November 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Everyone's a big fan of the multiple meanings of the acronym IRA but due to the particular mix of accounts I follow online, I wind up getting confused by ECB - England and Wales Cricket Board/European Central Bank - much more often.
One issue with Mamdani mini-chain of municipal grocery stores is that it could take a lot of work, political capital and actual capital to get a result that is just "wow, a functioning grocery store".
November 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
One issue with Mamdani mini-chain of municipal grocery stores is that it could take a lot of work, political capital and actual capital to get a result that is just "wow, a functioning grocery store".
Worth a shot
BREAKING: OpenAI is requesting US government support to help guarantee financing for the massive investments in AI chips and data centers it needs for expansion, per Bloomberg.
November 6, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Worth a shot
Honestly this is true of very many political movements in very many places. Perma-picket of refugee accommodation? Partly social. Going to Your Party public meetings? Partly social. No Kings protest in small southern town? Partly social.
November 5, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Honestly this is true of very many political movements in very many places. Perma-picket of refugee accommodation? Partly social. Going to Your Party public meetings? Partly social. No Kings protest in small southern town? Partly social.