Geldof: We don't die of drought in Kansas

I think it's all L Frank Baum's fault, and not the false impression so many have of Kansas being as flat as a pancake, but everybody refers to Kansas.

Bob Geldof's autobiography Is That It? is a powerful slice of Ireland and Irish emigration to England in the 1970s, and of course the Live Aid business which should've just been a separate book, good though it is. Since then Bob has done a lot of travelling and a lot of talking.

I don't think Bob's been to Kansas though, just like all the people who say they don't think they're in Kansas anymore. It's important to know, people of the Kansas City metro area, that when Irish people do this I call them names. Rude names.

Geldof's in the news because he's going to play music in South Africa. Much as I liked The Boomtown Rats, I lost interest in Bob Geldof's music, fittingly, with The Great Song of Indifference. But he's talking about poverty when he doesn't say that we don't die of drought in New Mexico. If ya know what I mean? Or maybe we do and he knows it?

If you do read that article, be aware Geldof doesn't have an 'Irish/Geordie' accent, whatever that would sound like. He has the same accent as Keith from The Young Dubliners, as they're both from Dun Laoghaire - just to the south of Dublin - and they sound like it.

Handy Irish Phrase: Ní thuigeann an sách an seang  (The well-fed does not understand the slender)