ACCORDING to my encyclopaedia, people have been producing almanacs since the beginnings of astronomy. As far back as ancient Rome, people were routinely warned in advance about days that were dangerous — beware the Ides of March! — as well as told about days that would be good to do business.

I WORK with a remarkable woman. I won’t tell you her name because it might help to reveal the identity of the boy she told us about at a function the other night.

HAVE you noticed, on your travels around Ireland these days, that virtually every town in the country has at least three things in common with every other town? No matter where you go — on the Cork to Dublin road, through the towns in the midlands or the west or the northeast, down south of Limerick and into Kerry, or through Carlow, Kilkenny and into the southeast — they’re all the same.

DEAR Minister Cowen, we’re just approaching the start of December, and I know you have to deal with as many demands as Santa Claus.

HERE’S a decent sum of money to play with: €54,321,000,000. It looks enormous, in fact, when you write it down that way. Fifty-four billion sounds like a lot, but we seem to have got so used to talking in billions that the sound of the word has lost a lot of its impact.

I WAS watching the RTÉ rugby panel after Ireland’s exciting win over South Africa on Saturday, and George Hook was complaining.

EMILY LOGAN is the Ombudsman for Children. Appointed by an interview board made up of children, she has already begun to make a considerable impact on public policy.

WE have ASBOs now, you know. Well, at least, we’ve passed the law that enables ASBOs to come into being. Now, there’s no particular reason why you should know this, because it was all done quietly and discreetly.

NOW, Terry Prone is never wrong. Hardly ever. Well, only occasionally.

SO, is the St Andrews Agreement a new deal or an old one, a rehash of everything that has gone before or something entirely innovative and different? Does it matter?