This morning I got an email from my sister, and was once again reminded that we are very, very different. She spent her morning, voluntarily, at a museum coin club. I spent it suffering the aftereffects of enthusiastic wine consumption at a party last night in Toronto. My sister and I are a year and […]
Tag Archives | Scottish history
Hellhole of the Pacific… part 3
The scenery soon lurches from Bedraggled Small Town to Smoky Industrial. A sign looms on the right, “Welcome to Aberdeen! Come as you are.” I have. I’ve made it. I’m here. When I first lived in the U.S., I traveled round the country with my brother Mark. People would look up from glowing televisions to […]
Malcolm the Maiden
I’ve been studying the famous Kings and Queens of Scotland — in playing card form — recently. To complete this deck of 52 with five jokers they stretched the definition of “famous” a wee bit thin. Sure, my knowledge of Scottish history is a bit vague, but Jack of Diamonds, King Malcolm 1V? Malcolm the […]
Souvenirs of Scottish-America
I’ve ended up with a pleasingly strange array of souvenirs from the last three years working on this book. They all bring back memories of when I got them, of course, although they’re not always great memories. There were a slew of phew-I-never-have-to-do-this-again moments along the way (see chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, […]
How to be Scottish…
Want to learn how to be Scottish on this side of the Atlantic? Here’s how… 1. Learn Scottish Country dancing from suspicious Scottish-Hawaiians in Honolulu. 2. Struggle through early morning Scotch whisky tasting in Memphis. 3. Study ancient Scottish history in Las Vegas. 4. Learn rules of caber tossing at Oregonian Highland Games. 5. Discover […]
