Colbert amuses and confuses the Irish & Canadians all at once

Did you happen to catch Colbert’s broadcast from Vancouver the other night? He spent some time at Irish House, where he did a reading of James Joyces’ “Ulysses” that was so deadpan it seemed to actually get people upset. In fact, a fight actually broke out in the audience that appeared to be real. Colbert’s visit to Vancouver has been edgy in an interesting way.

The Canadians seem to love him to the point of being willing to put up with just about anything he says about them. So he’s really going for it. His repeated questions to Ujjal Dosanjh, an Indian-born Canadian politician, about which caste he was born into seemed to go just to the point where the guy was getting seriously pissed off.

Canadians seem to get Colbert’s inside joke – that most of the political commentators on Fox are basically entertainers. I’m not sure alot of Americans really get it, and I know the commentators on Fox don’t get it.

How many Irish olympians are there in Vancouver?

I saw a mention of an Irish athlete competing in the skeleton event at the Vancouver Olympics and thought: “There aren’t a whole lot of ski mountains in Ireland that I know of — I wonder how many Irish Olympians there are at the Vancouver games right now?” Well, in case you were wondering about this too, Irish athletes are competing in four Olympic events:
– There is a women’s 2-person bobsled team let by pilot Aoife Hoey. The brakeman is Claire Bergin and Leona Byrne is alternate brakeman.
– 32 year old Patrick Shannon of County Wexford is competing in the skeleton (a sled event on that track where the unfortunate accident occurred during training).
– The Irish ski team is comprised of slalom skiers Kirsty McGarry and Shane O’Connor, both of County Dublin.
– Last but not least, Ireland is represented in cross-country skiing by PJ Barron, a 20 year old originally from Scotland (Scotland, by the way, has 19 athletes competing in Vancouver). Mr. Baron has completed his event. He came in 91st in the Men’s 15km individual race.

According to this amusing post, the Irish athletes, or their fans (I’m not sure which) are making so much noise late at night in a Vancouver Irish pub that people in the neighborhood are complaining.