The very first google response for 'tartan versus plaid' lead me HERE to our forum:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/t...420/index.html

Small world sometimes.

I was just thinking, as insomniacs are wont to do, about flannel shirts and how some of them have proper tartan pattern (some grand old MacGregors, etc.), whilst others have evolved from or are perfectly separate from Scottish tradition. Just wondered about the history, the overlap, and the connections.