Silence can be awkward — but the quality of it will speak volumes

“It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well...”

THAT’S the opening line to the Chuck Berry song that John Travolta and Uma Thurman get up and dance to in Pulp Fiction. “Don’t you hate comfortable silences?,” she says.

Personally I don’t mind silences, although Tarantino was trying to subvert the line by making Uma Thurman say comfortable silences rather than what might tumble off the tongue naturally, which would be uncomfortable silences.

I believe a healthy silence always says something. It has no turns going on, no crossroads, no road signs, no bollards. It’s just a wide open Thelma and Louise road — or better still, a Beckett road.

It’s the quality of that silence that speaks. When you love someone, no interpretation is required for that silence that often happens organically.

In fact that silence can be arousing if the eyes have a cameo part in it.

In friendship, too, that silence can be like a slice of almond and lemon meringue. No one gets a bite, but everyone gets a taste. It’s the taste that matters.

When you really dislike someone the silence can be poisonous. When two people have the poisonous silence, malevolence, spite and evil are never far away. You don’t want that in your living room. The awkward we’ve already been there done that. We get paid by result you gave the wrong answer, close the door on your way out. The City Tribune is doing a great job in flagging Cllr Padraig Conneely’s distress about a brothel that is still in operation near City Hall. Despite the fact that he complained to gardai about this brothel over three months ago, it’s still doing a roaring trade — especially during Arts Festival and the Races. The FG councillor met the Joint Policing Committee (aka the thought police) and said trafficking is his main concern.

He is blue in the face telling them that this brothel is only a stone’s throw from the House of God.

If the Christmas Market goes ahead this year not a blade of grass will be touched, is the promise of the organisers. The only way they can guarantee this is if they hold the Christmas Market on top of the public toilets at Eyre Square.

Last year after the Christmas Market had packed up and left the Square, reseeding and resodding and crochet had to be carried out — after it looked like a herd of elephants did the Funky Chicken and the Margarita on it.

A dancer with a difference now. It’s Tiny Dancer Lily-Mae Morrision — who is three years cancerfree. She will be taking part in Barboro Festival for Children, which runs in Galway until today.