It's Burns' Night -excellent! No, not that Burn's, I mean Bobby Burns, as my grandma referred to him (apparently she was close to him).
The traditional Scottish celebration of the life and work of poet Robert Burns (who gave us Auld Lang Syne for one - and, as a cool coincidence, my grandma lived on LANG DRIVE) involves the drinking of whiskey and the eating of haggis:
According to health officials in Scotland, the delicacy -- a sheep's stomach lining stuffed with offal, oatmeal, onions and seasoning -- contains too much fat and salt and should only be given to youngsters once a week.
Haggis was placed on a "restricted" list of foods issued to nurseries, playgroups and childminders as part of a drive by the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh to improve the health of pre-school children under five.
Once a week still sounds like child abuse to me.
And a final note, my favorite pet was a Border Terrier I named Duncan, after the Scottish king Duncan the Gracious as seen in Macbeth. (Border Terriers originated on the Scottish / English border, although Duncan came from Alaska...) He was the cutest, smartest fellow. When Scout met him, she immediately took to calling him Haggis, which really was the perfect name for him...
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K8- thanks for the great memories of Dunc! He was a
lucky fellow, indeed, to have such a loving Aunt to
come and visit him at lunch for a stroll and a snack.
He loved going to the Arbor-bor-e-tum (he always had a
hard time saying that), and I bet he would have had a
GREAT time at Hopscotch!
Do you remember when he first arrived from Alaska - at
night he made these little piggy snorts, and he looked
like a hedgehog. Thus the monkier, "Hedgypig"...and BC
also called him "Rubber Lips" because his lips did,
indeed look like bands of black rubber.
So, given
those nicknames, how bad could "Haggis" have been?
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