Gosh, that was a long eight years

[radegund]

I only stayed up until about 2:00 last Wednesday morning, and Niall went to bed a bit after 3:00. By then Obama's election was pretty much a done deal. The sense of relief was - even after everything - unexpected.

I have vivid memories of 2000, obviously, but also of 2004: I slept upstairs, waking every few hours to feed a ten-week-old Oisín; Niall came up every time he heard the baby stir to whisper me a status report. I started out quite hopeful, on the basis of the exit polls, and the picture got bleaker and bleaker as the night wore on. In the morning, I thought, "My baby will be four before that dangerous fucker is out of office."

And now he's GONE (OK, will be, come 21 January next). The Bush era is OVER.

Almost anyone would have been an improvement. To have it be someone as impressive as Obama appears to be is ... quite something.

Huh. I didn't even mean to write all of that. I came here to post two links that caught my attention today:

1. David Crystal analyses Obama's victory speech for style.

2. Bádhraic Ó Bamaigh. (Warning: your brain will melt.)