Squinter has been a regular feature of the Andersonstown News since the early 1970s. The diary column has been written by a number of people over the years and the present incumbent has been taking a sideways look at the week just gone – or indeed the one to come – for over 20 years now. The column has a wide remit, wandering from humorous items of local interest to local and national politics. See Squinter on Twitter for daily doses of the funny, the strange and the totally bonkers.
“WE are what we eat.” Squinter thinks it was the 19th century German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach who said that. Others will tell you that the sentence is a loose translation of words spoken a bit earlier in the 19th century by the lawyer and culinary commentator Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who remarked: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges et je te dirai ce que tu es.” (“Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are.”) *Ignore the haters who allege that I looked these things up on Google.
SQUINTER’S not disappointed exactly after having seen for the first time the damage done to the portrait of former DUP Lord Mayor Wallace Browne. Who could be disappointed at a work of art being marred in any way? And he’s not surprised exactly, because, let’s be honest here, a picture being damaged at a party isn’t exactly the strangest thing that’s ever happened in the storied history of our premier public building.
SQUINTER’S with Jim Allister on this Troubles thing. Kind of.
‘SOUTH East Antrim UDA veterans’ boycotted Sunday’s Remembrance Sunday commemoration in Rathcoole, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
WAIT. Wasn’t Gavin Robinson supposed to be a nice guy?
THE BBC reports that with the publication of the new biography of Victoria Giuffre this week “more days of pain” lie ahead for the Royal Family.
SQUINTER doesn’t know what ‘Shoot the messenger’ is in Ulster-Scots, but there’s been a hell of a lot of it going on lately among adherents to the reformed faith in the Green and White Army, aka GAWA.
THE lack of officers in the PSNI has been worrying Chief Constable Jon Boutcher so much he’s decided to lend some of them out.
SQUINTER sorted out the loft on Saturday. He didn’t mean to – he only meant to sort out the garage, which he does two or three times a year. But a kind of space synchronicity developed – with positive results all round. Perhaps an explanation is in order...
IT’S the lying that Squinter can’t stand. Or in a more accurate reflection of what he’s been saying to anyone who’ll listen over the past few days, it’s the f***ing lying Squinter can’t stand.
TUV deputy leader Ron McDowell popped up in the News Letter on Monday to express his horror and disgust at the selling of Kneecap balaclavas at a Kneecap concert.
THERE’S a massive business opportunity for Loyal Ulster as Operation Raise the Colours continues apace. Bare-bellied, Stella-swigging legions of stout English yeomen are painting St George’s flags on roundabouts and erecting flags on lampposts from Birmingham to Bradford and from Liverpool to Leeds, but while their intentions are honourable and their hearts are as big as their livers, they are complete amateurs.
IT’S unanimous. The Portrush loyalist parade on the Saturday of the British Open was a huge success. The bands cut a colourful spectacle, the music was first-class and locals, tourists and curious golf aficianados alike all enjoyed the evening tremendously.
EDUCATOR and columnist Chris Donnelly has set a hare running with his suggestion that a Bonfire Commission might be a good way of sorting out the annual madness that descends on Our Wee Country from May to July. (Puts index finger to ear, inclines head, nods.) Sorry, the annual madness which descends on Our Wee Country from New Year to July.