Are you Scottish?

[Blu (Ontario)]

I don't watch Faux News so I don't know who he is.

Bubba, you break me up!

[seamus]

thing is....almost no one asks me if i'm scottish. for some reason...most people ask me if i'm *irish*. "you irish or somethin'?". to this question i never have a good response. i'm always like. "err, yes, and scottish. its a scottish kilt. and, umm.." i mean, i just dont get why people would immediately associate kilts with the irish...except for maybe the emerald society pipe and drum core in chicago...i dont know. it just kind of baffles me.

oh! and i dont know if this has already been said, but i think the very best response is "no, but i'm taking lessons."

[irmavep]

thing is....almost no one asks me if i'm scottish. for some reason...most people ask me if i'm *irish*. "you irish or somethin'?". to this question i never have a good response. i'm always like. "err, yes, and scottish. its a scottish kilt. and, umm.." i mean, i just dont get why people would immediately associate kilts with the irish...except for maybe the emerald society pipe and drum core in chicago...i dont know. it just kind of baffles me.

Same for me! I get 1 are you Scottish for ever 20 are you Irish. Must be a Chicago thing.
John

[macwilkin]

Re: folks asking if you are Irish when you are in a kilt

I get this a lot too down here in Missouri (and Southwest Missouri tae boot, where there isn't a large Irish population to begin with) -- I usually respond that at one time, the Scots were Irish -- The Scotti tribe came to Scotland from Ulster and "assimilated" the Picts to form what we know as Scotland, and Scottish Highlanders were sometimes called "Irish" by Europeans during the 1600's -- following Rigged's example.

I think the theory of the Irish Pipe Band is valid here -- Police and Fire dramas on the tele usually show the "Irishness" of big city police forces, complete with kilts and pipers. At least they're making the association! :mrgreen:

I've posted this one before, but I'll do it again: my best response to the "Are you Scottish?":

"You mean this isn't the Sons of Italy meeting?"

Cheers,

T.

[richardljohnson]

...If you can't blind them with brilliance or baffle them with b.s., then bore them to tears with details.

Rigged, your the man!!!!!! This was a quote I learned in High School and I have lived by it for the last 30 years!

As far as your other response you are a true master of mental combat!

Richard-

[Jerry]

I don't know why, but sometimes people ask me if I'm Scottish (big black American guy with no discernable foreign accent). So, sometimes I answer, "Yes, I am."

Then they say, "You can't be Scottish!" To which I drone as dryly as possible, "My original family name is Ramsey, an Anglicisation of Ramsay of the Dalhousie Ramsays. Our clan leader is the Earl of Dalhousie at Brechin Castle in Angus, Scotland. Our family emblem is the unicorn and our family motto is 'Ora et Laborum' meaning 'Pray and Work'."

Halfway though my speach, their eyes have glazed over they're very sorry they brought it up.

In fact, my latest victim of the "Are you Scottish? You can't be Scottish!" monologue was at a housewarming party for one of my wife's co-workers.

The victim was a black woman who was English. After my speach, I added, "Seems I'm as Scottish as you are English."

She didn't come near me for the rest of the evening.

If you can't blind them with brilliance or baffle them with b.s., then bore them to tears with details.

You probably know more black history than I do, but weren't there moors in the British isles, perhaps even in Scotland? If so than you could be as Scottish as anyone else here, and even if there were'nt any, You are, at least, Scottish at heart.

[macwilkin]

You probably know more black history than I do, but weren't there moors in the British isles, perhaps even in Scotland?

Don't know about Moors (I doubt it, though), but remember that quite a few West Indians and Africans immigrated to the UK because of the British Empire.

Cheers,

T.

[Rigged]

The Moors didn't venture into the "British Isles". They kept near the African and European coastal areas and raided as far north as the Netherlands, raping, pillaging and taking slaves.

[macwilkin]

There are a lot of examples of "Moor's Heads" in heraldry, especially from the British Isles. I believe the Muirs, for instance, have a Moor's Head as their Chief's crest badge. You also see quite a few "Moor's Head" taverns & inns. I believe this has to do with the crusades.

Cheers,

T.

[Rigged]

The Moors ruled Europe for 800 years until King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella kicked the last of them out of Spain in 1492. There was a lot of interbreeding and some very famous Europeans are suspected of having some African blood.

Ludwig Van Beethoven, for instance, was nicknamed "Der Spangol" for his dark complexion. He called himself "The Black Spaniard". His mother was from a region of Spain that was once under Moorish rule.