Not a fan of Haggis but I will be partaking of plenty of beers with big Malt Chasers tonight in the Tap. By design they have Deuchars Caledonian IPA and 'Dark Isle Stout on tap.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

Most 'Highland' traditions were created bythe Victorians it seems. Well, most of the Highlands is owned by English Landlords.

Catching a Haggis is easy, as everyone knows they have longer legs on the left than the right, that's so they can stand and graze on the mountainsides. All you do is chase them the other way and they fall over.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

You can, however, get proper haggis in Canada. And I'm glad you can.

As for Scottish traditions being in large part invented by the Victorians, I don't see how that should make any difference. They've still been adopted as traditions, so what's the problem? So long as you don't claim that they've been around longer than they have, they're just as valid as any other tradition.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

As long as I can drink good beer and malt aI don't care when they were invented

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

I can't resist posting this picture of one of my fellow trebuchet enthusiasts. That claymore is nearly as tall as me. He built the huge machine that set a world record.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

Thanks, Sticks, for posting that poem. I have a video I shot a Burns night that the RAF put on for us several years ago at RAF Leauchers. A Scot recited it just before we consumed the poor beastie. It still doesn't make much sense, but it's nice to read what he said.

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

The American equivalent is the sidehill gouger.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Nonsense. Most of what you might think of as Highland traditions were Victorian inventions/romanticisms, but do you seriously think we don't have our own, true traditions?? If the kind of Highlands depicted on, for example, packets of shortbread was accurate then you'd be right.
Some, yes, a lot, certainly. But not most.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Sorry, I forgot the bits of grouse moor that are owned by international syndicates.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

That's certainly one of the things you'd forgotten, yes.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Having tasted haggis only once, I must say I hope it won't be the last unless I'm forced to eat the turnip side-dish as well.
Yummy. And I knew what it's made of before I tried it.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Why, they too are perfectly inedible.

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

Some have meat and cannot eat,
Some cannot eat that want it;
But we have meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit.

The Selkirk Grace.

I'm a devout Atheist myself but any excuse for a wee Dram or two (or three or four) of Whisky and steaming plate of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.
As to having a Shakespeare Night, someone would have to prove to me that he actually wrote the palys and sonnets as I am more likely to credit Christopher Marlowe with the works.
Happy Burns Night Folks!

I'm afraid the evidence is against you, not least because Marlowe was dead before about half the plays were performed. (Bill Bryson has just written an excellent book on the subject, and even Mark Twain--who didn't like what he knew of Shakespeare the man--eventually came to the conclusion that he must have written the works.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Most of the North yorks moors behind our house are syndicated

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'