I was fresh back from Herself’s office solstice party and hunting fresh Zappadan material when I stumbled across this. A tip of the greasy fedora to Driftglass:

The last of the Clancy Brothers troupe, Liam, went west today. He was 74.

I saw the Clancy Brothers perform with Tommy Makem in Denver once, many years ago. Guinness was available in the lobby, and before long the crowd was about half in the bag and singing along with them.

They were most raucous during “I Never Will Play the Wild Rover No More,” hollering and stomping their feet ’til the roof shook. Here’s a video of the Clancys performing it on “Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger.” And here’s another of Liam and Tommy closing a 1977 concert in Dublin with “The Parting Glass.” Peace to you, Liam.

From our Good News Department (a rarity, I know): My friend Jef Mallett, creator of the comic strip “Frazz” and author of “Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete,” has begun blogging.

Jef and I share space on the “Race Radio” page in VeloNews, with me playing the bad cartoonist and him the good cartoonist. So pop on over to his place and say howdy. Tell him O’Grady sent you.

Forgive me if you’ve already stumbled upon this — I’m usually late to these parties — but you should drop whatever it is you’re doing and take a squint at a Twitterer who posts under the name shitmydadsays. The “author” is Justin, who says he’s 29 and lives with his 73-year-old dad.

“He is awesome,” writes Justin. “I just write down shit that he says.” And so he is. I laughed out loud, and more than once. Since I think everything sucks, you can take this as high praise.