What I Read This Week: An explosive story in Poland and a surprise budget grenade

Budget week is always a bit of an odd one for me. While the rest of my colleagues on the business desk are poised to report every single detail of the Minister for Finance’s speech as it happens, analysing and dissecting all the announcements and their potential impact, I largely escape the madness. In a quirk of scheduling, my day is almost over by the time the action starts. Someone has to man the business desk at 6am; on Tuesdays, that is me.
The traditional pre-budget leaks mean there are few major surprises though. This year, it felt less like a leak and more of an open tap, with the bulk of the budget measures – at least the ones that people were bothered about – having been reported on Monday. But there was plenty of other stuff going on too.
I hope you enjoy my selection of stories from this week.
1 Although I said there were few surprises, there was one budget proposal that instantly had people’s hackles up. It wasn’t the vape tax, or the extra duty on a pack of cigarettes, which would usually have people up in arms. It was the €9 million earmarked for pouches to help schools ban smartphones for students. It is a measure, it seems, that few are behind, especially when schools are struggling to keep the lights and heating on. We’ve had the over-priced bike shed and the expensive security hut in recent weeks. Now we have Pouch-gate.
2 Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continued this week, and Sally Hayden was there to see the aftermath in Bekaa, an area once known for its vineyards. It is hard to see where this all ends. One line stuck with me, from a school co-ordinator in west Bekaa, who said people are tired of talking to journalists. “People are just watching our death. It is making it more normal to be okay with seeing these kind of massacres.”
3 To fill or not to fill? That is the question Jen Hogan was asking this week. Although we may adopt the outlook of “each to their own” you can’t deny there is pressure on women to battle against wrinkles and grey hair long after they have started to appear. But equally, the pressure on women to “age gracefully” can feel as strong as the pressure not to age at all. So where does this leave us? And where does it leave our daughters?
4 There seems to be somewhat of a dark art to choosing properly ripened fruit. The nicest looking oranges can sometimes hide a dry, disappointing centre. Apples that look red and juicy on the outside can turn out to be floury. Pears appear to have a window of around 90 seconds where they are just ripened enough, rather than as hard as a rock, or so soft they fall apart. But this article gave me food for thought: a guide from the experts on what to look for, and more importantly, what to avoid.
5 Conor McGregor’s appearance on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday might have been a surprise to some. But it was just another example of how the MMA fighter’s influence can open doors for him. Could that include a future presidential run? Johnny Watterson cautions against dismissing him out of hand, even if McGregor seems to be slightly misinformed about the extent of the presidential powers in Ireland.
Derek Scally’s coverage of one of the weirder incidents in European news is worth reading. It involves former Warsaw police chief Gen Jaroslaw Szymczyk, a grenade launcher he says he thought was (of all things) a speaker, and an explosion that blew a hole in the floor of his office. Almost two years later, Szymczyk has been charged, although prosecutors say he does not accept or understand the charges brought against him.
Is there anyone who is in favour of homework? A couple of decades after my own experience with the mind-numbing amounts of after school work, I am now going through the same rigmarole with my own children. No one enjoys it, and it feels like a general punishment for everyone involved. But new data shows what many parents have been saying for some time: loading kids up with too much homework isn’t beneficial, and 15 minutes per subject (for secondary school) is the optimum amount. In the News tackled the topic this week, and it is well worth a lesson, if only to have your own feelings validated.
I’ve been a fan of Sophie Kinsella’s books for some time now, but I somehow missed the news earlier this year that she had been undergoing treatment for an aggressive brain tumour. In a New York Times interview that runs from uplifting to a gut-punch or two, Elisabeth Egan looks at how the author took her personal struggle and turned it into a novella.