h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Was he a Taoiseach?

Molasses was incorrect, as you probably realised.

I come from the city that had a famous molasses flood.

Entry A613045

People, it's sentences like this that make the Edited Guide *far* superior to any other product, like those boring online encyclopaedias:

'Though there were some bomb-throwing anarchists around at the time, there was no proof that any of them had thrown a bomb at the molasses tank.'

Now, that's the way to tell it.

And no, I haven't figured out any more taoisigh. Though the constant repetition of this Irish term is giving me flashbacks to my Irish instructor at the University of Bonn, the tiny wife of a diplomat who always wore a Spanish mantilla comb in her hair. She was a trip. She made us read the Irish version of 'Dick and Jane', though as I recall, Jane was now called Roisin...

Yes, Gnomon, that's the one.

Dick and Jane seem to be similar to the British Peter and Jane although they predate them by about 30 years.

Dick and Jane lived in the Dark Ages. Sort of like 'Mad Men', but without the booze and cigarettes.

Booze and cigarettes would send the wrong message to 1st and 2nd graders.

Yes. It says so in my writer's bible under 'Sensitivity Guidelines'. Along with 'no tattoos on people in illustrations'.

Not even Popeye? Doesn't he an anchor tattooed on his forearm?

Oh, Popeye's out, anyway. Copyright issues.

Popeye was never a Disney property, he may have entered the public domain in some form by now... maybe.

I'm pretty sure he's not. There was definitely original material after 1923.

Popeye did fall into the public domain in Europe a few years ago but won't in the US until 2024...

But it's still rather complicated.

http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/01/05/popeye-falls-into-public-domain-in-europe/id=1345/

I get my Olive Oyl from Europe anyway.

Thanks for that! That's useful information.

There's still something that doesn't quite add up here.

We've got 7 correct answers.

If we add to this the Taoisigh I can think of:

WT Cosgrave
L Cosgrave
Haughey
Lemass
Reynolds
De Valera

we get another 6. That still leaves 3 answers for which we have no matching Taoiseach. So there is something missing here.

Unless anyone can think of a Taoiseach I've forgotten about, which is always possible.

I know they weren't Taoisigh, but could our puzzle maker be counting Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith, and Michael Collins?

That's a distinct possibility