Our tops and flops of 2024

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

It's that time of year again when content creators and publishers can be a little lazy and rehash, under the guise of a review, some of the work from the previous twelve months.

Things can only get better. Actually, they could get much worse all the same!

The Wrong Way Corrigan approach to this is to pick out the hits, or tops if you will— I use those words lightly — and flops — most are just that when one desires viral-esque material — of the content I've published across various platforms.

Good for nothing

Let's start with uploads that, to put it kindly, haven't quite taken off. (In truth, they haven't even started taxiing to the runway.) I'm using the present perfect tense for the simple fact that these pieces still, of course, exist online and thus could, in theory, fly to great heights in time to come. Ever the optimist, here.

Here on Google Blogger, 2024's poorest performing post at the time of writing is Google/Gulag Blogger's faceless, unaccountable, cowardly censors. What are they afraid of?, published in September. It's somewhat surprising that Google Blogger hasn't been keen to vigorously promote a blog with such a heading. You know, to show how fair and balanced the platform is.

I must put on record here that Google Blogger has since lifted the ban on the content it unceremoniously blocked, the subject of that story. Why it was taken down in the first instance still baffles me. Google Blogger and me, a relationship of mystery.

On El Tiempo, the slow burner (it's bound to come good after this) is Round by round we go. Oh no! If only some of my Colombian friends would read a translated version so that they'd know that I prefer to be excluded from cumbersome and expensive rounds of beers. Buy me lunch instead.

'Next to nobody seems interested in my dental musings as Boosting dental health has proven about as popular as a dentist drilling away at your unanaesthetised mouth.'

Cop on Colombia, for biodiversity's sake is the least listened to/viewed on The Corrigan Cast via Spotify and associated platforms. Come on folks, you're missing out on humanity-saving advice.
(*LINK https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/e3gm0JGVvPb )

On my YouTube channel, we've got a two-way tie in the Top of the Vlog Flops category. An act of good clearly wasn't seen as such for YouTube viewers while next to nobody seems interested in my dental musings as Boosting dental health has proven about as popular as a dentist drilling away at your unanaesthetised mouth.

For YouTube Shorts, the video titled Ariarí River near Granada in Colombia's Meta department hasn't caught the imagination for some reason. The mind boggles, considering its sexy title.

So, they are our flops, with the caveat that they could become tops in time to come. Really, they could!

The letter writer's raining champion

Now for the hits.

Back to Google Blogger, the October-published Kamala control: Letter to the editor leads the way. Yes, that's right, details of a letter to the Irish Independent has been my most viewed post on Blogger in 2024. Why doesn't the Irish Independent just hire me to be a columnist? Come on, it could be the start of something great!

Now, as already noted, the Spotify version of Cop on Colombia, for biodiversity's sake has largely been ignored. However, the text of this story on El Tiempo found a niche. It's the one with the most engagement of all my 2024 articles on that page. So I won't give up all hope of a cleaner, greener Colombia in the near future.

In top spot on Spotify is Life imitating art of Los 39, minus the bloodshed. A bitchy, telling-tales-from-school yarn does have its fans.

The highest ranking of my YouTube vlogs is Shunning la Selección Colombia. Cheers to those of you who checked it out. Rather than support overpaid, petulant footballers, support an underpaid, underworked curmudgeon — me! Just don't forget to donate generously to the Corrigan cause.

And just in case you think all my pieces on Colombia are somewhat negative — what would give you that impression? — From Guaviare with love: Sending this to rain-deprived Bogotá! is 2024's most-viewed amongst my YouTube Shorts. I could be on to a winner posting about eye-catching weather events. Let's have more magical meteorological moments occur around me, please.

So that's Wrong Way Corrigan and The Corrigan Cast (catchy band name, that) wrapped for 2024. We're now all set to ride the 2025 Trump Tide!
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

IQuiz LXIII: A taste of Bogotá's top trivia night, the comeback special!

@wwaycorrigan

The end-of-year bumper quiz, a tradition for many publications — English-language ones in any case (is it a thing in other languages?).

And some of you may be aware that I had been running a quiz (or trivia, if you prefer) night, IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz", in Bogotá since 2015. This year, though, largely due to my more nomadic nature of late, looked set to be the first one without an IQuiz since its inception. But, thanks to the fine folks at the Irish Embassy, I was coaxed out of my trivia retirement to compile and present an IQuiz — the 63rd one all told — for the embassy's Christmas get-together. That took place on Friday 13 December — one can't afford to be superstitious in these straitened times!

Take the IQuiz test

Now, not to let a good (if I do say so myself) quiz be confined to a select view, and following in that end-of-year-quiz tradition, below I'm sharing the bulk of the questions asked on the night, minus the Christmas songs that made up the last round — I can't really share the audio here! Thus, you'll also have to skip over the other questions that have an audio element to them. Nonetheless, there's enough in it to have some fun over the festive period.

I won't publish the answers just yet. If there's a question that's truly bugging you and you want the answer, get in touch via the comments!

Enjoy!
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Round 1, questions 1-5.

Round 1, questions 6-10.

Round 2, questions 1-6.

Round 2, questions 7-10.

Round 3, questions 1-4.

Round 3, questions 5-10.

Round 4, questions 1-5.

Round 4, questions 6-10.

X marks the Bluesky spot: Letter to the editor

@wwaycorrigan

I will concede, I believe Elon Musk's X is far from perfect. For one, dislike its verified-account approach. It's somewhat elitist.

Yet, the point of my letter, screenshot below and available via https://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/letters-lets-honour-the-women-who-made-ireland-a-far-better-place/a203710178.html, still holds.

X marks the diversity spot.

Ireland's leftist landscape: Letter to the editor

@wwaycorrigan

An observation on the state of play in Irish politics in the aftermath of the 2024 General Election.

Below is a screenshot of an online version of the letter in the Irish Examiner. It's also available at https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-41528087.html and, on the Irish Independent website, at https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/elections-2024/letters-those-who-do-not-cast-a-vote-when-its-their-duty-to-do-so-have-no-excuses/a1669876712.html.

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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here. 

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".