IRELAND: Openly Gay Senator Drops Bid For National Presidency

Openly gay Sen. David Norris has dropped his bid for the presidency of Ireland after revelations that he once pleaded for clemency for a former boyfriend imprisoned for statutory rape.

Mr Norris held a press conference outside his home in Dublin this afternoon to inform supporters he was withdrawing from the race. "I deeply regret the most recent of all the controversies concerning my former partner of 25 years ago, Ezra Yitzhak Nawi," he said. “The fallout from his disgraceful behaviour has now spread to me and is in danger of contaminating others close to me both in political and personal life. It is essential that I act decisively now to halt this negative process. I do not regret supporting and seeking clemency for a friend, but I do regret giving the impression that I did not have sufficient compassion for the victim of Ezra’s crime," Mr Norris said.

Norris had been considered the front-runner for the position, which in Ireland is largely ceremonial.

BBC: First Valentine: Lasting legacy of 500-year-old love. Also, "Hellelil and Hildebrand: The meeting on the turret stair", my maximum card idea, my entry for Happy Blue Monday! (meme). Happy Valentine's (Voluntyne's) Day

Read from BBC (but please read also this blogpost, while you are at it): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12419712
"In 1477 Margery wrote a letter to her John pleading with him not to give her up, despite her parents' refusal to increase her dowry.

Addressing her "ryght welebeloued Voluntyne" (right well-beloved Valentine), she promised to

 be a good wife, adding: "Yf that ye loffe me as Itryste verely that ye do 

ye will not leffe me" (If you love me, I trust.. you will not leave

 me)."

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I would like to create a maximum  card/ maxicard/ dorincard with this Irish postcard, showing the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864 (also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand), a famous painting by Sir Frederic William Burton RHA (8 April 1816 – 16 March 1900). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Burton

To me, this great painting is a whole book/drama condensed in one image.

I could write quite a few observations about body language and the meaning of this image, as a whole, and in specific detail.

But soakin' [so can] you. Please comment, will you?

Everybody would have his own interpretation of this, more or less original, more or less credible.

Well, after you think about it, read this:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/meeting_of_turret_stairs.htm

I should research if there is already a stamp (Ireland/ any other country?) with it, then create a maximum card, if possible.

:)

Here's an interesting postmark of a knight in shining armor (don't worry about the stamp -  I did not have a matching one available):

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

The European Pine Marten (Martes martes) - WWF maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards from Ireland

"The European Pine Marten (Martes martes), known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as Pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. 

It is about the size of a domestic cat. Its body is up to 53 cm in length (21 inches), and its bushy tail can be 25 cm (10 inches). 

Males are slightly larger than females; on average a marten weighs around 1.5 kg (3.5 lb). 

Their fur is usually light to dark brown and grows longer and silkier during the winter months. 

They have a cream to yellow colored "bib" marking on their throats."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Marten