All is changed utterly, for better or for worse

The purest and most startling of new truths across this amazing world upon which we are precariously perched, for the time being, is that all has changed utterly.

It seems like just the day before yesterday, for example, I never publicly admitted that in my wild enough youth and prime, I frequently attended and enjoyed what was then boldly called the Gay Bachelor Festival, below in Ballybunion.