Stanger things

I haven't seen, in all these years of taking photos on the Dart. 

BE POLITE LIKE PUTIN and the big bright green Russian baseball cap were quite eye catching I must say. I had to sit opposite him to find out more. 
I complemented the wearer on the humour of the T-shirt, especially combined with the Love and Peace pendant. 
He wasn't impressed. It was not meant to be humorous. At all. He repeated it several times while waving his can of Bulmers cider. 
The conversation was off to a bad start. Thankfully it evolved for the better as we clocked a few miles on the packed, overheating Dart. 
Upon hearing my accent he asked my what I thought of Macron and I managed to navigate these troubled waters with very convincing non-committal statements and managed to steer the conversation towards safer grounds like the impact of the production of Ukrainian wheat not reaching African countries that could barely afford last year anyway. 
Although the owner of a heavy Russian accent (and the baseball cap and t-shirts were a bit of a giveaway too) my co-traveller described himself as Irish when I asked him where he was from. Sure, I am from Finglas myself, I have been working hard on the French accent just for the craic... 
It was a strange train ride. While the conversation didn't kick off too smoothly (first extra, when I tried to sneak a shot of the cap/t-shirt unnoticed and failed miserably), we managed to converse, did not agree on many points but without acrimony, agreed to disagree on a few others and even agreed on a couple. Since my fellow Dart rider offered some advice to me (never underestimate the importance of ultrasonic weapons) I thought that it would be polite to return the favour and advised him to perhaps opt for something less sugary than a 12 pack of Bulmers if he doesn't want his blood sugar to shoot through the roof.
I forgot to ask if the slogan on the t-shirt means that Putin sets the standards in terms of politeness or if in fact the statement is meant as two short orders that ought to be separated by a comma. 
Be polite, like Putin.
(Or else...)

Then I got off the train at Salthill and Monkstown where the scene of devastation resulting from the current heatwave put the lethality of ultrasonic weapons in a slightly less gloomy perspective.