Latest news with #WinniethePooh
The Irish Sun
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘You have to make sacrifices', says Ireland AM host as he admits his young daughter complains he's ‘not home enough'
IRELAND AM host Tommy Bowe has lifted the lid on his dad guilt as he admits his young daughter claims he's "not home enough" The Virgin Media star, who is a mainstay presenter on the hit breakfast show, has a lot on his plate when it comes to work. 3 Tommy Bowe has opened up about his parent guilt 3 Tommy is a doting dad to Emma, eight, and four-year-old Jamie 3 Tommy is a mainstay host on Ireland AM Between hosting But, with two little ones at home, the The 41-year-old and his wife Lucy are doting parents to Emma, eight, and four-year-old, Jamie. READ MORE IN TOMMY BOWE "We keep having to tell the kids, when my daughter is complaining that I'm not home, that you have to work hard to do nice things and to be able to celebrate nice things." He added: "Being away is difficult at times. People see the players representing Ireland and doing well at World Cups or Olympics, but they've been away from their families for weeks at a time. "That's not easy for their partners or their kids. But you have to make sacrifices sometimes." The former Irish rugby star emphasised that his kids understand he works hard to "give them the best life possible". MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN He also highlighted the importance of setting an example in terms of work ethic. The popular presenter added: "It sets a good example for her to see that her mum works hard and I work hard. It's important for her to see that as she grows up." Tommy Bowe praised for standing up to TD on air This comes after Ireland AM fans praised Tommy for giving a TD a "hard grilling" on air. 14-year-old outside Leinster House from 10am last Tuesday to push for urgent action on the growing waiting lists for child disability assessments. Tommy and spoke to Cara and her dad Mark who were still sat outside Leinster House on air yesterday morning before getting the Minister of State for Responsibility for Disability Hildegarde Naughton's opinion on the matter. Turning to the TD, Muireann said: "Minister, looking at Cara and her dad there, outside your place of work, to try to get people to talk about this…" HEATED HOST Tommy added: "In her Winnie the Pooh pyjamas. It's sad." Naughton replied: "Good morning, Cara. Nobody should have to protest outside the gates of Leinster House." During their chat, Tommy asked: "So at the end of 2023, it was 8,893 people looking for this. It then is at 15,000, we're expecting to be at 25,000. You're saying we want to reduce this. "It's going the wrong direction. How many people are currently employed as AON or clinical disability?" Naughton replied: "Within the sector of therapists, we have about 1,800 across the sector. This is what we need to look at as part of the assessment of need process. "If legislative reform is needed, we will absolutely consider that. We also need to look at the health system, where there is no wrong door for people." The former rugby star cut across the "How long is it going to take to look at these things and put them into place? Because this needs action now." 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' Naughton responded: "As I said, we're looking at the assessment of need process itself and how that can be changed. The draw on assessment of needs, where people are being asked for them, where they shouldn't be asked for them. We're looking at the retention and recruitment of therapists." Tommy clarified his question saying: "You keep saying looking at. What are you doing?" A short segment of the interview was posted on Ireland AM's One viewer wrote: "Good man Tommy, you put her in her place!!" Kyle said: "It's funny that it's the morning TV show that gives politicians a harder grilling than the nighttime current affairs panel discussions. Fair play lads." Lynn commented: "Fair play Tommy!" Another fan added: "Tommy, well done for how you handled this."
Indian Express
a day ago
- General
- Indian Express
Japan is tightening rules for baby names, and that is fine
What's in a name, but really shouldn't be? According to the Japanese government, quite a few things. It's tightening the rules for baby names, in a bid to stem a rising tide of flashy and obscure onomastics. A debate has been raging over such names for decades, and there's even a term for them: Kirakira, or 'sparkling' names. They could be from anime characters, foreign words, uncommon readings of Japanese characters or kanji. Pikachu, Winnie the Pooh, Simba, all sorts of English words ('tomorrow', 'sugar') — all were fair game, until now. This is a problem for the Japanese language in particular due to the nature of kanji, a logographic script derived from Chinese in which each character has its own meaning and can have multiple pronunciations. Many kanji can be read as either a Chinese loanword or a native Japanese word with the same meaning, and inventive parents can make a game out of it. For instance, there's a name written with the kanji for 'moon', which is tsuki in Japanese — but in this case, the parents decided it should be pronounced 'Luna', the Latin word for 'moon'. The question is how anybody else is supposed to know that. It's a headache for schools and hospitals, which is why a new law says only 'generally accepted' readings will be allowed and parents will have to register the pronunciations with local authorities. Japan is only adding to existing regulations, and it's just one of many countries, from Iceland to Malaysia, that have such rules. The problem can be framed in several ways: Cultural conservatism vs globalisation, collectivism vs individualism, the phonetic police shackling creativity. But it becomes simpler if one recalls the New Zealand girl who was made a ward of court so she could change her name from Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Think of the children, and what they could suffer in the classroom and on the playground.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
The Weekly Vine Edition 44: Indian growth, Gill-i Danda, and #FundKaveriEngine
Nirmalya Dutta's political and economic views vacillate from woke Leninist to Rand-Marxist to Keynesian-Friedmanite. He doesn't know what any of those terms mean. Hello and welcome to the 44th edition of the Weekly Vine. As one writes this, one is still wrapping one's head around the fact that over 2 lakh people are now subscribed to the Vine on LinkedIn, which is remarkable considering 90% of LinkedIn is just ChatGPT prompts and faux motivational posts. In this week's edition, we discuss India becoming the fourth-largest economy in the world, explain why Black Lives Matter has faded into the background, pore over Peter's Principle in Washington, ponder the Gill-I Danda phase of Indian test cricket, and discuss the meme of the week: #FundKaveriEngine. India – The Greatest Story Ever Told India recently became the fourth-biggest economy in the world, which promptly brought the usual have-thoughts out of the closet. Armed with economic jargon and overall apathy, they rushed to explain why there was absolutely no reason to celebrate. Of course, whether the have-lots are more beneficial to the economy than the have-thoughts is a separate debate altogether—but let's just say the former build things, while the latter build Twitter threads. That's a discussion for another time. India's economic journey is even more remarkable because we achieved it without turning into a one-party authoritarian state that bans Winnie the Pooh—and despite having the word 'socialist' shoehorned into our Constitution's preamble. That's not to say India is a WENA utopia. Far from it. But we've always been a million mutinies away from slipping into autocracy. Democracy is a funny thing. Just look at our neighbours—born around the same time—who haven't had a single Prime Minister last a full term and stage coups like we stage item numbers in our movies. India's growth story becomes even more astonishing when you consider that we've built world-class industries from scratch, launched rockets to the dark side of the moon, and still had enough talent left to be brain-drained into becoming CEOs of American companies. We did all this despite being perennially surrounded by combustive neighbours, by world powers constantly cocking their snooks at us, and an Anglosphere press still trapped in colonial simulacrum—forever trying to mock the natives like it's still 1890. Our system is so remarkable, we even managed to tame the communists—forcing them into the indignity of contesting elections rather than discussing revolution in coffee shops. And we did it while keeping all our identities intact, never losing the five-thousand-year thread of our civilisational self. We did it with 700 languages and dialects. With six major religions. With states that are bigger than most countries. And with a complicated yet robust democracy that stretches from the panchayat to a bicameral parliamentary system. Take mine. I'm a slightly anglicised Bengali who has lived in Chhapra, Kolkata, Gwalior, Kota, Udupi, Mumbai, and now Delhi—and I'm married to a Telugu woman. Which means I can now appreciate Aara Heele Chhapra Heele with the same fervour as Ami Chini Go Chini and Naatu Naatu, realising that all of them are essential strands in the national cultural identity. It doesn't matter if the naysayers are focused on the negative. That's their job. Ours is to keep calm and carry on. Because no matter the size of our economy, India's national identity has been forged by one thing: an unwavering refusal to let any other nation dictate our actions. Even the things the critics complain about—poverty, inequality, infrastructure—will be fixed. Not through sermons, but through sheer, stubborn grit. One day, every Indian will be lifted from poverty. One day, the clear stream of reason will no longer lose its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Why? Because India is the greatest story ever told. Fade in Black With the benefit of hindsight—and hindsight always arrives wearing glasses sharper than Anderson Cooper's—the moment Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck, he didn't just snuff out a man's life. He accidentally lit the fuse that would blow a hole through the Democratic Party's moral centre and turn a nation's rage into a meme economy. Black Lives Matter, once the rallying cry for a better, fairer America, mutated into the ultimate Republican bogeyman. What began as a movement against state brutality became, for Middle America, the poster child of liberal overreach. It came with sides of transgender pronoun policing, drag queen story hours, CRT in kindergarten, ESG mandates at corporate retreats, and an unshakable sense that the culture was being hijacked by hashtags and guilt-tripping TED Talks. And just like that, dissent became a brand. Anger got monetised. And Marshall's America—the one where 'we must dissent from apathy'—was replaced by an algorithmic fatigue that made people apathetic to even care. Thurgood Marshall once thundered that democracy could never thrive in fear. But fear wasn't the problem. The problem was saturation. People got tired. Tired of moral lectures, tired of being told their silence was violence, tired of being policed by suburban sociology majors on Instagram. BLM didn't just become an albatross around the Democrats' neck—it became a parody of itself. The streets emptied. The slogans faded. And in their place? Shrugging cynicism. Because in the end, when every protest looks like performance, and every grievance is branded, Americans didn't rise up. They tuned out. Read: Why Black Lives Matter made America apathetic to dissent Gill-i Danda In a country where cricketing transitions are usually measured in years, not innings, Gill's elevation is a statement of intent. The selectors, perhaps emboldened by the memory of a young Sourav Ganguly or the legend of a 21-year-old Tiger Pataudi, have decided to skip the waiting period and hand the keys to the kingdom to a player who still gets asked for ID at pubs in London. But if history tells us anything, it's that Indian cricket loves a coming-of-age story. Pataudi took over after a car crash ended Nari Contractor's career, Ganguly stepped in when match-fixing threatened to sink the ship, and Kohli inherited a team that needed fire after the ice of Dhoni. Each time, the gamble paid off—eventually. Of course, history also teaches us that the crown can weigh heavy. For every Ganguly or Kohli, there's a Srikkanth or Dravid—great players whose captaincy stints were more footnote than folklore. The challenge for Gill will be to avoid the fate of those who were handed the baton too soon, only to find it a poisoned chalice. The difference this time? The team around Gill is young, hungry, and unburdened by the ghosts of past failures. There is no senior statesman to second-guess his every move, no shadow looming over his shoulder. This is his team, for better or worse. If you're a betting person, the odds on Gill are tantalising. He has the technique, the temperament, and—crucially—the time. But Indian cricket is a cruel tutor. The same crowds that serenade you with 'Shub-man! Shub-man!' can turn with the speed of a Mumbai monsoon if results don't follow. So, what does Gill's captaincy portend? It's a bet on youth, on audacity, on the belief that sometimes you have to leap before you look. If it works, we'll call it vision. If it fails, well—at least it won't be boring. Peter's Principle in Washington Peter's Principle argues that in a corporate setup, everyone rises to their level of incompetence. And Trump's Washington is the prime example of that, or as I like to call it: St Petersburg. Let's take a roll call of the Trump swamp. We have a Director of Homeland Security who can't protect her own handbag, a Secretary of Education who can't differentiate between steak sauce and AI, a Secretary of Defence with a drinking problem, a NSA who added the editor of a major publication to a Signal war chat, a technocrat who destroyed decades of American soft power—all of them with utmost fealty to a leader whose morals can be bought by a Happy Meal or a plane. Read: Why Washington is the new St Petersburg Meme of the Week: #FundKaveriEngine Ah, the internet has spoken—and this week, it roared in full-throttle desi defence mode. The hashtag #FundKaveriEngine lit up X (formerly Twitter), with a simple message: 'Bhaiya, stop buying overpriced foreign jet engines and invest in our own.' For those late to the hangar—India's Kaveri Engine was meant to power the Tejas fighter jet. Dreamed up in the 1980s, it was India's engineering moonshot. But like all great Indian projects, it got stuck somewhere between 'pending approval' and 'budget constraints.' Enter memes. Fuelled by frustration and national pride, the internet's best minds whipped up memes faster than a MiG does a barrel roll—mocking politicians, foreign lobbies, and even the eternal 'chai pe charcha.' From SpongeBob holding HAL blueprints to Gadar scenes re-edited with 'Give me funds or give me death,' this was patriotism with punchlines. But beneath the memes lies a real demand: India needs to invest in indigenous defence tech. Not just for swadeshi pride, but because no superpower ever outsourced its jet engines. So yes, meme-makers are laughing—but they're also asking the right question: If we can put Chandrayaan on the moon, why can't we fund Kaveri on Earth? Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Belfast Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Hillsborough Castle and Gardens sprinkled in Disney stardust this summer with Winnie the Pooh trail
The air will 'hum' with 'hunny' at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens this summer as the grounds are transformed into a storybook wonderland for the Disney Winnie the Pooh Hunny Hunt trail.
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Marchand comes clean about his Panthers intermission snack — and it wasn't Dairy Queen
Brad Marchand has come clean. No, the veteran forward was not eating a Dairy Queen Blizzard in the Florida Panthers' dressing room during the second intermission of the team's eventual 6-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. So what was on the spoon that cameras caught him with during the intermission? 'Honey,' Marchand said after Florida's morning skate Monday. The Dairy Queen in question during his postgame interview on SportsNet — specifically his chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard — was from a trip with a few teammates while they were in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the first two games of the series. 'I was kind of making a joke,' Marchand said. 'I think people took it seriously. The amount of messages I got about people going to Dairy Queen yesterday — I appreciate the support. I love a good Blizzard more than anybody, but it's not something I've had in the middle of a game ... yet.' As for the honey? There's a story behind that, too. 'I've always loved honey,' Marchand said. 'Actually, when I was growing up, I loved Winnie the Pooh. So I used to have a Winnie the Pooh bear and I would feed him honey. It was covered — covered — and rock hard. I've always enjoyed it.' So the tale of Marchand with the Panthers continues. He's been stellar on the ice for Florida, entering Game 4 against the Hurricanes with 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 15 games. He quickly integrated into the team culture as well, so much so that the team shoots rubber rats at him on the ice after wins. He knows how to draw a crowd. That's been known throughout his 16-year NHL career. And nothing is changing now.
