Falling in love, I said. Falling into it, we all did then, one way or another. How could he have made such light of it? Sneered even. As if it was trivial for us, a frill, a whim.

Coun[sellor]. What do you mean by a new language? O’Dogh[erty]. Why a new kind of a London English, that’s no more like our Irish English, than a coxcomb’ fine gilded chariot like a Glassmanogue noddy.

Later on, in the heat of summer, fruitly flavour, open and soft texture and gassy cheese were the cause of many No. 2 grades.

And, in a city that loves its mascots — especially the unhinged ones — the Pies do not disappoint with their creeptastic mascot, The Philadelphia Philling, a flaky “bipedal pie with large bulbous eyes,” the nature of whose filling remains unknown.