Outside the box, under the chin

[jsrnephdoc]

We're now just over 2 months shy of Burns Night suppers. I'm having trouble finding one in the VERY large entertainment-driven American city of Las Vegas, but still trying. Maybe I'll have to "roll my own" in my new home here. I'm pretty sure I could find a piper, and Rocky Roeger has identified for me on this month's Kilts and Culture episode a credible source for "sanitzied" Haggis (made from lamb rather than from what's left over after everything marketable has been sold).

But, if or as I prep, I have a sartorial question. How horrendous a faux pas would it be to wear a celebratory bit of Burns Check tartan (in a bow tie) with one of my own family tartan kilts? The Burns Check tartan is simple enough that I think it could be worn atop almost ANY Argyll jacket and waistcoat, and though DRAMATICALLy different from any of my family's dress or hunting tartans, if it's use is confined just to a bow would that be something NO ONE here could approve of? (I wouldn't do so on any other occasion, or at least only a gathering where something related to Burns's poetry is featured).

[Canadian Vet]

I doubt that Rabbie Burns would have minded.
He was out the window tout suite when the husband came home.
He might have even paused for a few minutes to roll some dice.
It's painful to watch the snobs sanitize Burns.

[jsrnephdoc]

It's painful to watch the snobs sanitize Burns.

Except that his own published work contains exactly some of that same sanitization.

My Dad was an Episcopalian Priest (Anglican for those in the UK). My sibs and I grew up with my parents calling each other "Jo" and "Jo Jo," interchangeably. I don't think I EVERY heard one of them address the other using their Christian names. We never knew or questioned why (after all, those SOUNDS were familiar to us probably before we had any understanding of what "words" were.

We discovered why only more than a decade after my Dad's death in his late 70s, when my mom succumbed, still vigorous, to an ACCIDENTAL injury at age 92.

My sibs and I gathered at their bucolic wooded lakeside retirement cottage in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and, during a lull in our preps for her funeral I pulled an anthology of Burns verse from my Dad's bookcase, wherein I discovered John Anderson, my Jo, a truly lovely (and respectable) anthem to romance enduring through the decades.

It was only two decades STILL later (actually, when I began reading that poem at annual Burns Night gatherings in honor of my parents) that I discovered Burns did NOT birth that poem from nothingness. It was actually firmly embedded, in FAR more ribald (and I may say, amusing) fashion, in highland culture. I'd quote it here, but it probably would not survive the moderators' inquisition.

Oh, one more detail. My mom, a VERY prim and respectable English Literature and French language teacher, was buried in her Robertson Red kilt and waistcoat.

BUT the mortician outfitted her with THE PLEATS IN FRONT, so there's probably room for an additional verse in the Beatles ballad Roll Over, Beethoven.

[Canadian Vet]

Except that his own published work contains exactly some of that same sanitization.

My Dad was an Episcopalian Priest (Anglican for those in the UK). My sibs and I grew up with my parents calling each other "Jo" and "Jo Jo," interchangeably. I don't think I EVERY heard one of them address the other using their Christian names. We never knew or questioned why (after all, those SOUNDS were familiar to us probably before we had any understanding of what "words" were.

We discovered why only more than a decade after my Dad's death in his late 70s, when my mom succumbed, still vigorous, to an ACCIDENTAL injury at age 92.

My sibs and I gathered at their bucolic wooded lakeside retirement cottage in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and, during a lull in our preps for her funeral I pulled an anthology of Burns verse from my Dad's bookcase, wherein I discovered John Anderson, my Jo, a truly lovely (and respectable) anthem to romance enduring through the decades.

It was only two decades STILL later (actually, when I began reading that poem at annual Burns Night gatherings in honor of my parents) that I discovered Burns did NOT birth that poem from nothingness. It was actually firmly embedded, in FAR more ribald (and I may say, amusing) fashion, in highland culture. I'd quote it here, but it probably would not survive the moderators' inquisition.

Oh, one more detail. My mom, a VERY prim and respectable English Literature and French language teacher, was buried in her Robertson Red kilt and waistcoat.

BUT the mortician outfitted her with THE PLEATS IN FRONT, so there's probably room for an additional verse in the Beatles ballad Roll Over, Beethoven.

My dad only ever did Ogden Nash : "Hippity hoppity. Here comes a Wapiti"

... even though our sirname is that of one of Burn's many paramours.

[jsrnephdoc]

I have a source for the Bow Tie at a considerable discount (The Bow Tie Club, in NY State), but that sale ends today. Just to be sure any potential "weighers-in" are uncertain regarding my query, here's the Burns Check tartan

And, two possible pairings, one "family," the second "fashion"

Robertson Hunting (weathered)
(Lochcarron 16 oz Heavyweight)




Lunar
(DC, Dalgliesh, R.I.P.)

And, for completeness, an image of the tie itself in/on the (virtual) flesh:

And, just to muddy the waters/palette a bit, I have a few corollary questions:

1. As I've noted, the cloth for the Robertson Hunting (weathered) was sourced from Lochcarron Mills (heavyweight, so probably previously worn, unsheared and undyed, by neighborhood sheep). It's not separately listed on the SRT website, presumably because its design using a slightly different color palette, is ALREADY registered, but to my decidedly inexperienced eye I'm not sure from WHICH Robertson Hunting registered tartan it would claim its derivation.
2. The second is actually a bigger puzzle. My "Lunar" kilt was made for me by Barb Tewksbury. On the SRT website, the registrant is said to be the Pendleton Woolen Mills, but the IMAGE on the website appears to be a REVISION of the original tartan, which at creation contained at least one brown stripe. Somewhere around 2014 Professor Tewksbury made a few kilts for folk whose creds AUTOMATICALLY qualified them to "wear the colors," as NASA astronauts or administrators—or actually the ABSENCE of colors, because she objected to the presence of the brown stripe(s), given that her day job as an eminent professor of planetary geology enabled her to point out that "there's no brown on the moon." The "brown redacted" image borrowed from the SRT website and now worn on my corpus from time to time reflects that change. I suspect that my second puzzlement is a manifestation of the same phenomenon; i.e., maintenance of the defining threadcounts of the original that was registered with the Scottish Tartan Authority, but a subtle change in the color palette. Back when Professor Tewksbury was struggling to obtain cloth for a few more "Lunar" tartan kilts a year or two ago, the revision was listed on the Dalgliesh website as "Lunar 2."

And, reflecting Professor Tewksbury's razor-focused attention to detail, those more recent Lunar kilts required that cloth from D.C. Dalgliesh, even though USA Kilts commissioned a 50th Anniversary weaving of the Lunar 2 Tartan as well (I think from Lochcarron, although I'm not certain of that), because Rocky Roeger had the cloth woven using "marled" yarns, which subtly blends the interface between stripes. Barb noted that given the absence of atmosphere on the moon, there would be NO such diffusion of the interface between different physical materials.

[kiltedsawyer]

I have a source for the Bow Tie at a considerable discount (The Bow Tie Club, in NY State), but that sale ends today. Just to be sure any potential "weighers-in" are uncertain regarding my query, here's the Burns Check tartan

Yaddi, Yaddi, Yadda

And, reflecting Professor Tewksbury's razor-focused attention to detail, those more recent Lunar kilts required that cloth from D.C. Dalgliesh, even though USA Kilts commissioned a 50th Anniversary weaving of the Lunar 2 Tartan as well (I think from Lochcarron, although I'm not certain of that), because Rocky Roeger had the cloth woven using "marled" yarns, which subtly blends the interface between stripes. Barb noted that given the absence of atmosphere on the moon, there would be NO such diffusion of the interface between different physical materials.

You might be over thinking this.

[jsrnephdoc]

You might be over thinking this.

You're probably right, but I'm looking for VOTES.! All the other stuff in the post is indeed extraneous, but the part about evolution of the Lunar Tartan (and how it's presented on the SRT website) I thought might be of general interest.

And, I suspect (assuming I FIND an event in Las Vegas), most of the people who show up wouldn't even know WHY I might be worried about the Burns Check tartan bow.

But could you help me get to at least 5 or 6 votes: something you think might be vaguely appropriate, or something you would NEVER do?

Thanks so much!

[OC Richard]

We're now just over 2 months shy of Burns Night suppers. I'm having trouble finding one...

Try reaching out to the Las Vegas Emerald Society Pipes & Drums.

If there's a Burns Supper in Vegas they will probably know about it, possibly play at it.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554767782689

I have a sartorial question. How horrendous a faux pas would it be to wear a celebratory bit of Burns Check tartan (in a bow tie) with one of my own family tartan kilts?

I've seen all sorts of things at our California Burns Suppers. Las Vegas would probably be on par.

In our Left Coast way, many men will be underdressed (by East Coast standards) and many men overdressed (by British standards).

In this milieu there's not much that could be considered a faux pas.

The overdressed men appear to go by the rule "wear everything you own".

Black Prince Charlies, black bow ties, white hose, high-laced ghillies, and strange sporrans are de rigueur but oh no it doesn't stop there, with sginean, dirks, plaids, Glengarries (with big feathers) and a dozen random pins distributed between the jacket lapels and the kilt.

[jsrnephdoc]

Try reaching out to the Las Vegas Emerald Society Pipes & Drums.

If there's a Burns Supper in Vegas they will probably know about it, possibly play at it.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554767782689

Good idea. I'll try there. May I ask, what's the significance of the word "emerald" in the band's name? Sadly, the link doesn't work for me. I get a facebook notice saying the link has a limited distribution list.

I've seen all sorts of things at our California Burns Suppers. Las Vegas would probably be on par.

In our Left Coast way, many men will be underdressed (by East Coast standards) and many men overdressed (by British standards).

In this milieu there's not much that could be considered a faux pas.

The overdressed men appear to go by the rule "wear everything you own".

Black Prince Charlies, black bow ties, white hose, high-laced ghillies, and strange sporrans are de rigueur but oh no it doesn't stop there, with sginean, dirks, plaids, Glengarries (with big feathers) and a dozen random pins distributed between the jacket lapels and the kilt.

Last spring when I used visiting my NYC residing son as the excuse to travel cross country for New York City's Tartan Day Parade, I worried about tucking an actual KNIFE in my kilt hose when riding the subway. That plastic distant relative of the Sgian Dubh in my avatar came in handy, but along the parade route I saw many with the real deal flashing at their knees.

If I can't find an event, I may indeed "roll my own," because the "over 55" community I've moved into here in LV has fabulous facilities for its residents, including places to host events for moderately large gatherings. And, if the HOA itself can schedule monthly "lubricated" Karaoke sessions (just IMAGINE several dozen inebriated octogenarians warbling "Hang on, Sloopy" at > 80 dB while my spouse and I are trying to have a nice quiet supper in the restaurant just across the walkway), I'm pretty certain a lone piper serenading the ersatz Haggis—made with real MEAT (lamb) so as not to trigger the health guardians at the FDA (assuming any of them who know what they're doing are still employed), would be a welcome treat for other residents (so long as the piper knows how to tune his or her drones).

IN Bozeman, we had an extrovert who'd studied YouTube videos of An Address to the Haggis long enough to at least convince the attendees that he knew what dialect and accent he was attempting to mimic. I doubt we'll be able to replicate THAT, however.

But, I know how to make rumbledethumps, and (at least in Bozeman), my contribution has been long gone while there's still plenty of home-made Haggis on offer…

[OC Richard]

What's the significance of the word "emerald" in the band's name?

Sadly, the link doesn't work for me.

That's strange that Facebook doesn't work! That's their job, to have access for people.

Here's the Las Vegas Emerald Society Pipe Band's website https://lvemeraldsociety.org/

There's also the purely civilian Las Vegas Pipe Band https://www.lasvegaspipeband.org/

Emerald Societies are, I suppose, a fossil from the days when cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago had police forces and fire departments which were largely Irish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Society

As you may know, Irish immigrants tended to congregate in the big northeastern cities as well as Chicago and San Francisco. Soon they had organised voting blocks and elected Irish mayors and Chiefs of Police and Fire Departments who in turn hired fellow Irish immigrants.

Irish-born Chief Francis O'Neill of the Chicago Police held auditions for people wanting jobs.

It wasn't enough to be Irish-born! You had to be a traditional musician, a fiddler, fluter, or best of all an uilleann piper. And a good one, too, hence the auditions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_O%27Neill