One weekday last week, I was driving past a secondary school in Waterford city at about 11am that was obviously break time in the school. There were literally dozens of young students huddled together in groups puffing and dragging on cigarettes like there was no tomorrow. Some of them didn’t look old enough to be out on the street on their own!
In my less enlightened day it was considered cool to indulge in the forbidden ‘Tuppenny Player’ but I genuinely thought today’s teenagers had more sense than we had. Ditch the fags lads, they are filthy coffin nails.
Meanwhile, it has just been announced that the Church of England has enacted a major change in canon law that permits women to be elevated to the office of bishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said his Church had been strengthened by the adoption of women vicars and it would doubtless be strengthened by the new measure also. No doubt, many Roman Catholics will be asking Pope Francis to take note.
Finally, the late Jimi Hendrix once said: “Once you’re dead, you’re made for life.” And how right he turned out to be!
The guitarist, who died in 1970, still makes millions of euro each year and is in Forbes Top 10 list of high earning dead celebrities.
Last year, Michael Jackson topped the list with earnings in excess of €140m. Next up was Elvis Presley who made €55m during the same 12-month period. Cartoonist
Charles Schulz who created the Charlie Brown and Snoopy cartoon characters earned a respectable €40m.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor took fourth place with earnings of €25m while reggae artiste, Bob Marley, earned €20m.
It is predicted that Marley, also famous for smoking cannabis, will climb higher in the ‘Dead Celebrity’ stakes next year as his name is being used to sell the drug in the growing number of US states where the herb is legal.
