Friday, February 4, 2011

Socially Necessary in Ireland

Here in Ireland they'll bet on anything. Literally anything. Every year you can bet whether or not it will snow on Christmas day (a single snowflake falls at Dublin airport and you've won the bet), there was betting on what Victoria and David Beckham would name their third child before it was born (and I'm sure it will be the same for their fourth), you could have bet on who shot Mr. Burns at the end of one of the seasons of the Simpsons a few years ago. The second time George W. Bush was elected a client asked for odds on whether the American President would be assisanted while in office (but they don't take bets dealing with death. There are some limits :) ) You can bet on what will win at the Oscars, who is the next American Idol or what colour hat the Queen will wear at the race. You can also bet on literally every single sporting event under the sun. I have thrown €5 on the Calgary Flames to win the Stanley Cup twice but think that is what is jinxing them, so I have stopped :) Betting is rife on who will win the Super Bowl. I keep getting asked who will win because I speak with the accent, but I couldn't give a toss about the NFL. NHL, yes. NFL, nottachance.

Anyway, the point is that you can bet on nearly everything over here. Betting shops, or bookies, are as frequent as corner stores at home. A manages a bookies (he tells me that's the correct grammar, not 'bookie' as I had initially typed) so he will tell me something people are betting on and I just say 'Are you serious?!?' Knowing this, and knowing that there was an election in a few weeks, I was still surprised at this screen I saw while in A's shop recently:

 In case you can't see it, the top right is Irish Politics - Betting Available. Beside the soccer and golf odds. Crazy, eh?

Just something different I thought I'd share with you :)

Hope you have a fantastic day!

Peace,

Jenn x

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