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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Shortbread, whisky and semibreves - the Scottish thread
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I'd like to wish all my fellow Scots a Happy New Year and hope you all had a good Hogmanay, and aren't feeling too fragile today.
I should add that the semibreves in the thread title refer to the beginnings of metrical psalms, which start on a long note and led my Better Half to refer to Scotland as "the land of shortbread and semibreves".
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
A Guid New Year to ane an a'! Lang may yer lum reek wi' ither fowks coal!
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Lang may yer lum reek wi' ither fowks coal!
Husband's grandmother, a very proper lady indeed used to say this, but only the first part. She was sent out here in her teens from Edinburgh for her health's sake. As she lived to 98, it seemed to have done the trick for her.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I have an Edinburgh friend who says the same thing and I have often wondered if it really constitutes an incitement to a criminal act.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
Ally Bain. Phil Cunningham. Jackie Bird. All the traditional ingredients were there.
It is has become a family tradition on Hogmanay to sing along to Kenneth McKellar. Generous soul that I am, I thought I would share it with you all - and especially with mine host WW. ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
Happy New Year!
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Did you sing along to this one? N.B. NSFW!
I love Kenneth McKellar. I admire his versatility from opera to Scottish kitsch.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I regret to say that was the one that sprang to my mind. Never did that on The White Heather Club .
I have to say the Embra fireworks were extraordinarily pretty -this year's speciality was a barrage of rockets which produced variously coloured spangles, so that the whole sky was like a meadow of flowers.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
I am not even clicking on that link, because I know exactly what it will be, and I disapprove!
I say this with shame because I managed inadvertently to introduce that song to some very innocent and GLE American friends. "We are an earthy people," I muttered in mortified excuse.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
That song is a classic of its genre.
How could you inadvertently introduce it? Inquiring minds and all the rest.
[ 01. January 2015, 20:25: Message edited by: North East Quine ]
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
Um. Well. You see, m'lud, it was like this ...
... I knew it was rude. But I only knew the first verse. So I didn't know it went on. To be so very very rude. Um. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
One reason I like the Kenneth McKellar version is that it doesn't have the "Inverness" first verse, which seemed to be the version all the Scouts knew. If you were a Girl Guide from Inverness, it got old very quickly.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Arethosemyfeet
Shipmate
# 17047
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Did you sing along to this one? N.B. NSFW!
I love Kenneth McKellar. I admire his versatility from opera to Scottish kitsch.
Disturbingly that appears to be a relatively mild (and short) version.
Posts: 2933 | From: Hebrides | Registered: Apr 2012
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
I love the way that it's only the first day of 2015, and already we've hit the gutter!
I'm sure that NEQ appreciates the important historical anniversary today, but for those who don't it's the 160th anniversary of civil registration in Scotland. Why have I thought of this? Well, I've been chasing some of Mother Knotweed's antecedents down on Scotland's People - good excuse, today a 1939 marriage in my crowd became available - and twigged the years both ended in 5. Back to circa 1830s, but struggling with couples with nearly the right names getting married, and being sidetracked by the difference between Banchory and Banchory Devenick... oh, and trying to find a possibly mythical father! I s'pose in a land where the men wear skirts and no drawers it's inevitable (unless there's an Easterly blowing, when it's impossible).
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
... As she lived to 98, it seemed to have done the trick for her.
Two of my great-aunts (my grandmother's eldest sisters) emigrated from Orkney to Australia in (I presume) the first quarter of the twentieth century, and both lived to their late 90s (one 96, one 99 IIRC).
Must be something in the air ... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
I love the way that it's only the first day of 2015, and already we've hit the gutter!
We may be lying in the gutter, but we're gazing at the stars! ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I hadn't thought about it, but you're right! 160 years! Did you know that it wasn't till civil registration that there was statistical proof of higher literacy rates in Scotland than England? (Based on the percentage of brides and grooms who could sign the marriage registers) Admittedly, it also confirmed that Banffshire had the highest rate of illegitimacy in Britain - questions were asked if there was a correlation between teaching girls to write and their having babies outwith marriage.
You're not the only one to get confused between Banchory and Banchory Devenick, but they're quite a distance apart. As Aberdeen expands, B-D is getting close to being part of greater Aberdeen.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Did you sing along to this one? N.B. NSFW!
I love Kenneth McKellar. I admire his versatility from opera to Scottish kitsch.
Well, I think it is quite acceptable as I didn't understand a word of it! I felt a bit like Rocky in Chicken Run!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
( regarding thread title ) my Grandpa had the best shortbread recipe ever, and a set of wooden molds to go with it.
( Gasp!) It just hit me! His people were Ballantines!
[ 02. January 2015, 02:52: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
I was chatting with a Scot after a concert I'd sung in Dalbeattie, and he quoted his grandmother to the effect that it didn't do to go digging into one's Scots ancestry, because you were likely to run into a bandit of some kind.
I replied that I didn't need to dig very deep, since my grandmother was and Armstrong. He just grinned.
This was the same gentleman who told me that he sang in his own church choir with a 'regiment of women'.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by basso:
... it didn't do to go digging into one's Scots ancestry, because you were likely to run into a bandit of some kind ...
I've got sheep-stealers on one side and a pirate on the other, and I suspect that if I dug far enough into my Orkney ancestry there'd be a Viking* or two ... ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
* As I'm rather vertically challenged, D. refers to this imagined ancestor as "Sigurd the Short". ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
(Forgive me, Grandad's family were the Bannantynes)
This was the bakery his dad and uncle ran together, and I am sure this is where he learned to make shortbread.)
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
(Forgive me, Grandad's family were the Bannantynes)
This was the bakery his dad and uncle ran together, and I am sure this is where he learned to make shortbread.)
So you could be related to this guy.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by basso:
... it didn't do to go digging into one's Scots ancestry, because you were likely to run into a bandit of some kind ...
I've got sheep-stealers on one side and a pirate on the other, and I suspect that if I dug far enough into my Orkney ancestry there'd be a Viking* or two ...
I've (probably) got one of Robert the Bruce's pals who murdered the Red Comyn (the rightful king?) before the altar in Greyfriars Church. And a fair chance also of shipwrecked Spanish sailors from the Armada - though it would take DNA testing to sort that one out.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by QLib:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
(Forgive me, Grandad's family were the Bannantynes)
This was the bakery his dad and uncle ran together, and I am sure this is where he learned to make shortbread.)
So you could be related to this guy.
My heart swells with pride.
Pardon me, but he looks like he has an ice cream stick shoved somewhere uncomfortable.
(now I feel bad-- I just scrolled down to read about his philanthropic works. Sorry, Duncan. But dude, Smile!)
[ 02. January 2015, 08:59: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I might be descended from (gulp) Edward I, Hammer of the Scots.
Plus one of my great uncles was an axe murderer.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Pardon me, but he looks like he has an ice cream stick shoved somewhere uncomfortable.
i think the word you're looking for is "dour". Not that I'm stereotyping or anything ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif) I actually think he cultivates that image.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Oh, so that's dour...
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Plus one of my great uncles was an axe murderer.
Paisan!
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Plus one of my great uncles was an axe murderer.
What did he murder the axe with? ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Plus one of my great uncles was an axe murderer.
What did he murder the axe with?
The Hammer! remember NEQ is descended from that tool too
[ 02. January 2015, 21:05: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
... a fair chance also of shipwrecked Spanish sailors from the Armada ...
It's quite possible I've got some of them too - I'm dark-haired and dark-eyed. Orcadians tend to be fair-ish with blue eyes, but there are a few families in Orkney who are dark-featured and said to be descended from Armada wreckees.
Having said that, I'm only a quarter Orcadian (my paternal grandmother) - my other grandparents came from Caithness, Greenock and Ayrshire, so I probably have a right old mixture ...
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Plus one of my great uncles was an axe murderer.
What did he murder the axe with?
Well, it was more of a hatchet than an axe. Ypres. Machine gun jammed and he defended himself against oncoming Germans with his trench hatchet. He was "mentioned in dispatches" which says he killed three with his hatchet. Regimental history says five. The newspapers back home claimed he killed nine (!)
He got the DCM and a fortnight's furlough.
When I was a kid, the local museum had his medals and newspaper clippings on display, but I gather these are no longer considered suitable - they're very jingoistic and full of references to "burly Huns."
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
... a fair chance also of shipwrecked Spanish sailors from the Armada ...
It's quite possible I've got some of them too - I'm dark-haired and dark-eyed. Orcadians tend to be fair-ish with blue eyes, but there are a few families in Orkney who are dark-featured and said to be descended from Armada wreckees.
Having said that, I'm only a quarter Orcadian (my paternal grandmother) - my other grandparents came from Caithness, Greenock and Ayrshire, so I probably have a right old mixture ...
Yes, my paternal grandmother's family were from the Caithness coast, and my father and uncles and all their cousins are quite distinctively black-haired and dark-skinned - very different from the usual peely-wally Scots! Though their eyes tend to be grey or green, not brown. I remember at a big family party, there were all these distant relatives whom I didn't know and had never met, but I could pick them out from the crowds no problem at all.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Well, it was more of a hatchet than an axe. Ypres. Machine gun jammed and he defended himself against oncoming Germans with his trench hatchet. He was "mentioned in dispatches" which says he killed three with his hatchet. Regimental history says five. The newspapers back home claimed he killed nine (!)
He got the DCM and a fortnight's furlough.
Gaw. Damn. Maybe I was him in a previous incarnation.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
The Regimental Bunny?
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Ha! The museum does seem to be trying to turn him into a fluffy bunny. They've got a WW1 exhibition on at the moment. He's included, but no mention of the DCM, or what he did to gain it! I think they're going for a fluffier version of the war - Christmas truce, swapping chocolate, that kind of thing. Definitely no mention of killing Germans.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
[When I was a kid, the local museum had his medals and newspaper clippings on display, but I gather these are no longer considered suitable - they're very jingoistic and full of references to "burly Huns."
Which is a way of rewriting history to suit modern sensibilities. All they needed to have done was put in a little placard saying that the statements reflected attitudes current at the time. That would have been far more educative.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Indeed. It's interesting that what made him a hero in 1915 appears to make him an embarrassment in 2015.
I've just reread the obituary which appeared in his regimental news, and it says he killed them with an axe. Every other account says "hatchet."
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Wet Kipper
Circus Runaway
# 1654
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Posted
Well done for starting this thread off, Piglet.
As you may have seen from the UK(ish) thread I was around when Wodders closed all the old ones and invited new ones to start, but wasn't sure if I should, or what to call it.
Everyone seems to be going back to work tomorrow. Our schools don't go back until the 8th, however, so my Christmas holidays are having to last a bit longer to look after the eldest Kipperlet.
So, along with her cousins (and my sisters) we're off to see the Singing Kettle as part of their FINAL TOUR tomorrow
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- insert randomly chosen, potentially Deep and Meaningful™ song lyrics here -
Posts: 9841 | From: further up the Hill | Registered: Nov 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
All together now... Spout, handle, lid of metal ....
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
My sister's kids loved the Singing Kettle when they were little - I can't believe they're "retiring" - I assume that's why it's their final show.
As my dad would say, back to old clothes and porridge tomorrow. I'll pass on the porridge, and as I mentioned it to him on the phone today, apparently so would he - I didn't realise he disliked it almost as much as I did!
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
Love the spacehopper story! Only in Dundee ...?
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
What an eejit.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
It seems to be the day of bizarre headlines relating to Scotland.
First, a cracker from the Press and Journal: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/farming/447373/undefined-headline-544/
Huh. What that guy is holding up looks like a rutabaga to me. Yet it also looks like what my Scots granddad called a turnip.
Is this why so many New Englanders call rutabagas turnips (we have a lot of Scots-descended folk in these parts).
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
... What that guy is holding up looks like a rutabaga to me ...
In Scotland (especially the more northerly parts thereof) it's a neep (corruption of "turnip" I suppose).
In other parts of the UK it may be called a "swede"; I've even heard someone (in Orkney IIRC) call it a "Swedish neep". But do feel free to call it a rutabaga: I'm pretty sure it's the same thing.
It is, of course, a vital component of clapshot.
BTW the reference in the article to the addition of chives is, IMHO, complete b*ll*cks. I suppose if you wanted to ponce it up a bit you could decorate it with a few snipped chives, but I've never seen it done like that.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
I've never heard of clapshot, but I've certainly eaten it at my granddad Duncan's table. No chives, but a smatter of onions and butter.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
In Scotland (especially the more northerly parts thereof) it's a neep (corruption of "turnip" I suppose).
The word 'neep' comes from the Latin 'napus', a turnip. The 'tur' bit may mean 'round' (or 'turned'): nobody really knows.
(I have online access to the OED. I don't know this off the top of my head.)
Swedes are the result of cross-breeding turnips with cabbages sometime in the distant past. So apparently is oilseed rape. Possibly someone grew turnips in a field next to cabbages, and was then pleasantly surprised when they found the next generations' crop.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
Swedes are the result of cross-breeding turnips with cabbages sometime in the distant past.
Explains IKEA.
Please carry on.
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Ages ago, I did a search through the Victorian Aberdeen Journals for stories about giant turnips and was surprised how many there were.
Out of curiosity (the things that you do when you're supposed to be writing up your thesis) I searched "Prime Minister" and discovered that there were more stories about turnips than Prime Ministers in the Aberdeen Journal between 1850 and 1901.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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