Letters

Letters to The Hobbledehoy, October 2022

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Aedan writes:

Hi there! Thanks so much for doing the research on “Long Time Sun” and posting your findings. I was told it was an old Celtic prayer, but the way I’ve heard it sung by the yoga people didn’t make much sense. I specialize in Celtic music on Celtic harp, and am glad to finally know it’s origin. Interestingly enough, like Mike Heron, I use it as a closer to performances. After listening to his rendition, like it much better than what I’ve heard. Thanks again!

Hi Aidan!
Thanks for visiting The Hobbledehoy. The post on “Long Time Sun” remains one of The Hobbledehoy’s most popular. Very big fans of Mr. Heron and the Incredible String Band.

Don writes:

Are you aware that Fellini made a movie titled, I Vitelloni. It was translated different ways across the world. In the UK it was translated variously as, The Spivs and The Hobbledehoys! Thought you might like to know. I recently acquired a copy of a theater handout synopsis with that title listed. If interested, I will send you a pic. I will soon upload it to my Fellini website. Cheers

Hi Don!
Thank you for your letter. I did not know that bit about Fellini and The Hobbledehoys – excellent! Good luck with the website on Fellini. I’m a big fan of Nino Rota who contributed music to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, as well as Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, for which he won an academy award in 1974.

Stella writes:

Hi there. I’m a retired American who just stumbled onto your webpage, and though it hasn’t been updated much lately, it doesn’t look like your dead. That’s a good thing.

I’ve been thinking of trying to do a pub tour of at least some part of the UK, since I’ve expanded my taste in beer and have always wanted to travel more. Searching tours mostly only brings up very costly and busily planned packages, but if I come alone it’s a bit daunting, and not just because you all drive on the wrong side of the road. You seem like a person with a wide enough range of interests to suggest some kind of idea. Would it even be feasible for a blue-haired lady (of the modern kind) to set out alone on this adventurous and liver-challenging quest?

Hi Stella!

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated! The Hobbledehoy is once again being updated regularly.

I was in Edinburgh a few years back and there are daily tours available featuring Scotch whiskey tastings. Not sure about pub tours, however I’d recommend a night of pint pounding at The Royal Oak (try a pint of “Heavy” a dark Scottish beer.) The Royal Oak is also a great venue to hear folk music. Among those to have performed in this 200 year-old Edinburgh pub have been legendary Scots Billy Connolly, Dick Gaughan, and Hobbledehoy recent favorite Karine Polwart. I would say most Edinburgh pubs would be safe travels for a blue haired lady, though Glasgow – not so much.

Check out this article written by travel authority Rick Steves, Britain’s Pub Hub. We’ve been in Rick’s company many times and enthusiastically recommend his tours. Here’s Rick’s advice for seniors traveling in Europe

Letters to The Hobbledehoy, May 2021

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 1 Comment

Hall of Fame Letter from Terri:

Hi Mike ! I’ve just discovered your website and Yeh, I love it! Do you know what I DON’T love??? I really REALLY don’t love having that orange douche bag in my Direct peripheral vision while watching a video. There’s no such thing as a good Trump pic….. but that one! Omg! Seriously?? Please please please please….. AT LEAST move it down the page … Because THAT MOUTH. It’s like my cats assh@le. Worse!

 Thanks for your time & Happy Monday

Hi Terri!
Thanks for visiting the website. You are so right – it’s time to move that cat’s asshole from the homepage. The link for “Trump’s Covid Timeline” will no longer be accompanied by an image of Trump.

Lisa writes:

Hello, Just checking that you got my previous email regarding a broken link on your site, and just to confirm that this isn’t some weird spam message but an actual person trying to bring a broken link with a potential replacement to your attention 🙂 Here are link details: Your Page: https://thehobbledehoy.com/donald-trumps-coronavirus-timeline/ Dead link title: ’15 days’ Dead link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf Working link: https://templatearchive.com/coronavirus-guidance/
Stay safe, Lisa

Hi Lisa!
Thank you for your perseverance on this issue. Corrected – finally! You are an editor’s dream.
As for Covid and Trump’s responsibility for American deaths – “The first time we ha(d) an excuse,” said Dr. Deborah Birx. “There were about a hundred thousand deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of (the deaths), in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”

Rory writes:

Hi, I have come across the use of my name on your website in an article completely unrelated to me or the content you have quoted. Article can be found here: How did historic alehouses, taverns and inns evolve into the pubs we see today? Can I please ask you to remove this at the earliest convenience. Thank you.

Hi Rory!

So sorry about that odd mistake. Of course we will remove your name. I honestly do not know how it happened! With the curated content on The Hobbledehoy (which accounts for 99%) we don’t factcheck quotes or who the quotes are attributed to by the source. That piece (now removed from the Hobbledehoy) originally appeared in The Morning Advertiser. Cheers!

Richard writes:

Love your blog! It often creates a portal for me to go deeper, like Centralia today. I am so curious about where you live – in the UK or USA? I live where one of your links resides – Edmonds WA (Rick Steves). Great guy.
Cheers, Richard

Hi Richard!

I live in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island, an hour south of Boston. I have had the pleasure of visiting Edmonds, Washington on several occasions. You are fortunate to live in such a warm, friendly, beautiful town with such a gorgeous view of the mountains and Puget Sound. Perhaps I will see you some evening at the Church Key Pub – which might be my favorite pub in the USA. Cheers!

Emma writes:

Hi there, I saw your page An abuse of power’: alarm grows over top Trump lieutenant’s military masquerade, and I wanted to thank you for supporting the Black community.
The events of last summer (BLM protests and COVID-19) saw many people rally to support Black-owned businesses. Sadly, since summer ended, people forgot to keep sharing and supporting these businesses.
I just found a new article with links to more than 150 Black-owned businesses. I was so happy to see that people still care about helping these companies thrive!

The link is here

I think sharing this link on your page would be a great way to help your readers keep supporting Black-owned sites and stores. I think it will be a great addition to your site and that your audience will love this new resource!


Thank you in advance for your support, Emma

Hi Emma,

The Hobbledehoy believes Black Lives Matter and we hope our readers do as well. I’m pleased to share the link of 150 Black Owned Businesses.

Chris writes:

Hello Michael,

The Hobbledehoy is a marvelous haven for folk music and is responsible for introducing me to so many artists I had not previously known, or whom I had forgotten with the passing of time. It was on The Hobbledehoy that I first heard Little Nora Brown and for that I am forever grateful. A short time ago I fired off a track from BARDE’s 1977 album ‘Barde’ called ‘Fanny Power’. You kindly posted it on the HH site, for which many thanks .
It occurred to me to send the first two albums au complet for you to kick around as you see fit [ . . . ]

Hi Chris:

Always appreciate your comments and feedback on The Hobbledehoy. With the past year of Covid, the death of a parent, and moving from my home of 20 years, I got a bit behind on our scheduled posts. Soon I’ll be adding clips from your ‘Barde’ 1977 and ‘Images’ 1978, as well as your track notes.
Thank you very much for introducing your music to me and followers of The Hobbledehoy. And happy to read you enjoy the banjo of Little Nora Brown.

Sister Marie writes (in caps):

DEAR SIR,
YOU MY “D E A R” SIR. YOU ARE SIMPLY THE BEST!! BETTER THAN ALL THE REST, BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I’VE EVER MET!!!! I LOVE YOU!!! YOUR ARTICLE WILL GO VIRAL! WE NEED TO PRAY THE DEMON OUT OF OFFICE”

Hello there, Sister Marie!

My guess is that you are not the same Sister Marie I had in my 3rd grade Catholic School, as she was more discerning with her use of capital letters, and certainly did not regard me as “better than anyone.”
Nonetheless, it appears you did “pray the demon out of office,” and for this The Hobbledehoy are eternally grateful

Letters to The Hobbledehoy

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 1 Comment

Terri writes:

Hi Mike ! I’ve just discovered your website and Yeh, I love it! Do you know what I DON’T love??? I really REALLY don’t love having that orange douche bag in my Direct peripheral vision while watching a video. There’s no such thing as a good Trump pic….. but that one! Omg! Seriously?? Please please please please….. AT LEAST move it down the page … Because THAT MOUTH. It’s like my cats assh@le. Worse!

 Thanks for your time & Happy Monday

Hi Terri!
Thanks for visiting the website. You are so right – it’s time to move that cat’s asshole from the homepage. The link for “Trump’s Covid Timeline” will no longer be accompanied by an image of Trump.

Robert writes:

I live in the small town of Hana, Maui and I stumbled upon your website this evening. I have fallen madly for it. Do you have a subscription list? How do I find it regularly? I have bookmarked it and will search for it regularly. Great work!!!

Hi there Robert!
So glad you are enjoying the content. As the masthead reads, “I use the best, I use the rest” (And ‘thank you’ Johnny Rotten). Yes – you can subscribe to THE HOBBLEDEHOY and receive daily notices of new posts in your email.
I’d love to visit Hana, Maui someday. Must be beautiful.

K. Cam writes:

Bravo on the small and lovely community you have … I’ve been enjoying using the music recommendations and review posts to soundtrack the evenings as I create a new portfolio and redo my CV, it’s been helpful in keeping my blood pressure down. I hope working on this site provides you with some of the happiness it has given me to read it, it certainly seems to be maintained with care. If it’s not too poky I’d also like to ask, how do you curate posts for the site? 

Hey K. Cam!
Thanks and ‘cheers’ on keeping that blood pressure down. My BP also requires diligent watching. THE HOBBLEDEHOY curates content from multiple sources – fine newspapers such as The Guardian and The Scotsman; media companies such as BBC and NPR; and video platforms such as YouTube, of course. Because we feature British Folk music, we often curate music from the wonderful Folk Music UK website. We are careful to list our sources on each post.

Litte Sparta writes:

Hi Mike, We thought you might be interested in this: MEKONS singer Sally Timms joins alternative folk three-piece LITTLE SPARTA (featuring Mekons’ violinist Susie Honeyman) for new EP LOST BOAT PARTY out 29 July 2020 on Grey Gallery Records Listen to Lost Boat Party on SoundCloud

We LOVE Sally Timms and will check-out the new EP as soon as our breakfast dishes are washed and dried. We have featured Sally, Susie Honeyman, Jon Langford and Mekons music and news often. Cheers, and best of luck with Little Sparta!

Bulla writes:

Hello Sirs
” … I am not a drinker but I enjoy your posts on ale. I appreciate the effort and history behind each variety even if I don’t touch the stuff personally, the articles here have helped me to appreciate pubs more as someone who can’t handle the atmosphere or drink due to migraines.
Outside of music and alcohol I’ve also been intrigued by the other media peppered here. I have been going down the birding rabbit hole, which is a subject I did not expect to find here but who am I to complain about such an interesting smorgasbord?
I spent an evening exploring the concert videos which are a treasure, thank you for sharing them. I have also ran into a podcast (radio show? audio drama? does anyone really care what they’re called?) thanks to you called Annika Stranded. Isn’t it funny that the BBC is making shows about Norwegian detectives now? But I like it, I look forward to the sixth season appearing on this website at some point as the BBC deems my locality unworthy, for little fifteen minute bites the episodes has done their bit helping me cope with grief these last two months.”

Thank you, Bulla.
THE HOBBLEDEHOY hopes to post Season 6 of Annika Stranded soon. Nicola Walker is marvelous, isn’t she? Take care of those migraines and glad you are exploring birding as a new hobby.

Letters to The Hobbledehoy: From Murrow to GasLit!

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 1 Comment

Frank the Yank may agree with much of The Hobbledehoy’s regularly featured GasLit Nation podcasts, but Frank takes exception to the manner in with journalists Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa deliver their message.

I watched some of Gaslit Nation on Attorney General William Barr. I think the hosts [Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa] should speak in a calm tone and when reporting on Barr and Trump. Just state the facts.

They should go deeply into, for example, [Steve] Mnuchin’s background, but report this “layer by layer” without using charged words such as kleptocrats.

Fox News is an obvious example of a slanted network, but CNN appeals to the liberals using the same sort of tactics, as does MSNBC.

Whether for the purpose of pursuing larger audience share and more ad revenue, this needs to stop, and [Gaslit Nation’s Kendzior and Chalupa] should bear that in mind. Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, et al., would turn in their graves listening to a “News” channel today.

Hell, in the ’60s I was a Nelson Rockefeller fan, and Nelson and even Goldwater, would think twice about joining the today’s Republican party. They might be considered too liberal to be a member!

Someone save us.

Frank the Yank

Edward R. Murrow

Letters to The Hobbledehoy

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 1 Comment

I just wanted to thank Fintan O’Toole for the fine article he wrote about our president. Last I heard his article is going viral. The article was spot on, but please tell Fintan that it is MUCH worse than he wrote or could imagine.

Trump is unraveling minute-by-minute and many of us believe he is mentally ill. Yesterday he said there will soon be 5 million COVID-19 tests a day. Less than an hour later he said he never said that?

I am thinking of visiting Ireland. I am a black fellow who took the DNA test thing and found out I am 15% Irish. Erin Go Bragh!

I plan to visit and track down some of my distant relatives and say, “Surprise!” 🙂

Steve Williams

Thanks for writing THE HOBBLEDEOY, Steve. We agree with you – Fintan O’Toole’s piece on Trump was first rate. Absolutely you should visit Ireland and then tell THE HOBBLEDEHOY all about your trip! The West coast is amazing; wonderful music in Ennis and Doolin. Check out the Dingle Peninsula if you can. Rick Steve’s website is the best place to start your trip. Cheers and stay well !