Michael O'Leary: Hagstone Story Teller

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Click HERE to HEAR AND SEE Mike!, he was interviewed on SouthamptonTV
Download a 5 Min/ 10Mb WMP file of the interview

Mikes Weblinks

The Society For Storytelling (SfS)

The SfS is an open organisation which welcomes anyone with an interest in oral storytelling, whether teller, listener, beginner or professional. There are subgroups to cater for specialist interests such as storytelling in Education or Therapy. Since June 1993 we have been active in bringing like minded people together to enjoy, discuss and practice the art of storytelling.

FACTS & FICTION

The UK's premier STORYTELLING magazine. Facts & Fiction is the only independent national storytelling magazine in the UK. (Although UK based its outlook is worldwide and it often includes articles about and from other storytelling cultures and has subscribers in many other countries.) F&F was founded by Richard Montague in 1991 and Richard Walker (Mogsy) took over as editor in 1993. Present editor, Pete Castle, succeeded him after Richard's untimely death in 1999 so it has always been edited by a working storyteller.

Stonehenge Ales

Though not totally responsible for the smooth and almost eel like way in which words slither from his lips, Stonehenge Ales have on occasion aided the fruition of pearls of wisdom ( to be noted down on waterproof paper) that lesser brews would have failed to ease out....

Another good reason for a link is that Mikes Webmaster (me) also "does" this site too... and is rightly proud (even though I say it myself)

We BOTH recommend the "Green" ( a.k.a. Sign Of Spring) when available (around Springtime surprisingly enough) , and the Danish Dynamite all the time.

 

 

I worked with Colin Sutton from factotum entertainments at my webmasters wedding reception where Colin as well as being a very good Best Man was a brilliant D.J. too, worthy support for such a fine storyteller.


Footnote.......

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

picked up with reverence to Ayup! http://ayup.co.uk/laugh/laugh.html from where it might not even have first arisen from....

 
All content unless 3rd Party is Copyrighted © Michael O'Leary "The Hagstone Story Teller" & John C Bullas 2008. The email addresses shown on this page are protected from attracting "spam" via Javascript generated mailto: links. Mikes Webmaster will work for other interesting people too (but not other storytellers!):