TheBlackrose: I came for the Castlevania reference and was not disappointed.

/What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets! But enough talk! Have at you!

apparently SotN was a milwaukee-only phenomenon

rocinante721

Kinda like "Palestine"

/ducks

Palestine existed as a country for almost 2000 years. Modern Israel has existed for 60. The actual kingdom of Israel was destroyed in 720 BCE by the Assyrians.

Learn some history.

Och!

medius: I saw this episode of Duck Tales.

I can't figure out how to spell monsoppies.

Crewmannumber6: I thought Brigadoon was in Ireland

Blasphemer!

/I've piped for 'Brigadoon' a few times in my life, including and off-Broadway production. Love that show!

None of that is new, in the slightest (beyond it being a repeat).

It seems the only people with that shortbread tin view of Scotland are non-Scots or Scots making a profit out of tartan tat.

The whole clan thing is a load of nonsense too, yet hundreds of thousands of the Scots diaspora love it.

Have to admit to wearing a kilt a couple of times, but only as part of a uniform or at other peoples weddings. Wouldn't wear a kilt to my own wedding - my Grandfather would turn in his grave if I did, being from Glasgow he would be most disappointed if we succumbed to the tartan stereotype.

jbernie: Isn't that like the ghost(?) of Danny Moss Donny Don Most in the Family Guy episode?

/FTFY
//FTFM

Will we find Gene Kelly there?

I know I can't be the only one here who gets an erection when I hear about Scotland's false history.

How do you write an article about that and not mention William Wallace even once?!?

Granted, he was around 400 years before this article is talking about. But isn't that one of the most important parts of their history?

I once met a girl from Scotland and I swear she told me her name was "Penguin". So I asked her to spell it for me. "B-R-E-N-D-A"


/True story

Approves.

/Irish my plaid ass!
//'course, it came from a German story (!)

Just sayin'...

Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fark the prom queen.

This is a Hugh Trevor-Roper book repeat. I did not comment on that trouser-wettter's treatise before, but I will today. There's a readable history of Great Britain and Ireland based the biological evidence of blood group, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes; available archeological evidence and written evidence (history). Bryan Sykes is the main author (but it represents the studies of many others). It's title, "Saxons, Vikings and Celts."

Quick summary, the genetic root of most of the common folk of Britain and Ireland is essentially Celtic, not Saxon. It is the Saxons like (Trevor-Roper) who arrived late to the islands as conquerors, very much like the Europeans arrived late to the New World as conquerors, who need to make up historical myths. Trevor-Roper's work should be given as much credibility as some other historian claiming that the stories of New World civilizations prior to the arrival of the Europeans are imaginary.

Oh, and I understand that the whole clan thing tends to be an American and Canadian post-diaspora thing, but I still like my clan's motto:

Buaidh no Bas : Conquer or Die

When your homeys' castle looks like a couple of cinderblocks, you'd better have a little bluster.



/Makes me feel like a badass
//"Feel" like a badass
///Barra McNeil FTW!

"Highlander" was documentary, and the events happened in real-time.

Gravitholus: "Highlander" was documentary, and the events happened in real-time.

let's see what your ass knows about flyin'

Gravitholus: "Highlander" was documentary, and the events happened in real-time.

I thought everyone knew that.

\You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.

And why do they call it a 'kilt'?

Because it was the last thing you saw before they 'kilt' you for calling it a skirt...

Raging Thespian

I laughed.

/Right clicking and got it.

Willie: Brothers and sisters are natural enemies. Like Englishmen and Scots. Or Welshmen and Scots. Or Japanese and Scots. Or Scots and other Scots. Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!
Skinner: Yes, you Scots are a beligerent people.
Willie: YOU just made yourself an enemy for LIFE!

Gravitholus: "Highlander" was documentary, and the events happened in real-time.

So is Highlander II an accurate portrayal of.... something?

SiriuslyBlack: OF COURSE They'd say that. Everyone knows the Times Online is controlled by the Pentavirate, a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.

/So who's in this Pentavirate?

The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, *and* Colonel Sanders before he went tits up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee *beady* eyes, and that smug look on his face. "Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!"

Head! Paper! Now!

Imaginary? It's shiate, ye doss coont.

No mention of Sawney Bean, I notice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawney_Bean

Myth or not, and I'm thinking "not", the tale has colored what the English think about the Scots ever since.

/don't eat the haggis

Written by an American, not an Englishman who's pissed at needing their neighbours from the north to invent the empire he longs for while stroking off.

Television, telephone, radio, are they myths too?

/Not angry and bitter. Honest

Delay:
There's a readable history of Great Britain and Ireland based the biological evidence of blood group, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes; available archeological evidence and written evidence (history). ..."Saxons, Vikings and Celts."
...
Quick summary, the genetic root of most of the common folk of Britain and Ireland is essentially Celtic, not Saxon. Trevor-Roper's work should be given as much credibility as some other historian claiming that the stories of New World civilizations prior to the arrival of the Europeans are imaginary.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree Delay, Trevor-Roper's article is not about genetic makeup of the Scots but rather the constructed nature of the Scottish national myth, itself, like many national myths a consensual shared interpretation, stemming from Romantic thought.
Once Scotland was part of the union there was a need to give Scotland an agreed history as a unitary state, which prior to that it seldom was. So, one arose, as much a figment of the English Romantic imagination as the Scots, and some things were discarded, some amplified and others... well, just invented. Like the kilt.
Not from some deliberate plot, but simply because, (I believe), people find these things comforting to believe and necessary if they are to function as a "nation".

What Trevor-Roper is talking about is the state and it's culture, not the genetic makeup of the inhabitants, which is another kettle of fish (contrary to what Hitler thought), nor even whether they were "civilised". So calm down Delay, by all means criticise the eminent historian Hugh Trevor-Roper on what he actually said, (providing proof/sources) but not on some entirely different point.

Well, he (Trevor-Roper, "respected historian") authenticated the Hitler Diaries, so it must be true.

/Not the first time the sassenach has revised history.
/Not the last.

seamas:/Not the first time the sassenach has revised history
Well, in this case he is more trying to point out that the agreed history which we've all bought into, is itself "revised" from a rather messier reality. Largely by sassenachs, yes.

TMBGfreak: There are some that actually believe that every 100 years Chicago raises out of the waters of Lake Michigan in all it's white, fire-prone glory and one can actually visit it.

/Obscure?
//It's from memory, it's syntax is in the spirit of the original

Time and again, the Chicago-is-real theory simply does not stand up to scrutiny. There are no man-eating vines on the wall of Wrigley Field. No Al Capone. No John Wayne Gacy. These are stories invented to frighten children.

/no one else got it?
//love that book

When I saw the headline, I thought the Brigadoon reference was going to be too obscure.....

Damn, look how long this cat is:



What's he got, extra vertebrae or something? WOW!

roryman: TheBlackrose: I came for the Castlevania reference and was not disappointed.

/What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets! But enough talk! Have at you!

apparently SotN was a milwaukee-only phenomenon

My stack of Castlevania games (including orig. SoTN and PSP re-release) in LouKY begs to differ :)

BTW, have you seen the abominaton that is the "re-translated" dialouge in the PSP SoTN?

Richter: All I'm here for is you. To hell with your heresy! You're nothing but a blight on mankind.
Dracula: Ha! Mankind, a cesspit of hatred and lies. Fight for them then, and die for their sins!

How will we ever introduce the next generation to this prime art?

Intro

(The original PS1 version is available on PSN, thankfully)

"I believe that the whole history of Scotland has been coloured by myth; and that myth, in Scotland, is never driven out by reality or reason, but lingers on until another myth has been discovered, or elaborated, to replace it," - Hugh Trevor-Roper ( Kilts invented by English...)

As if that didn't show his bias enough, his title is Lord Dacre of Glanton which just happens to be on the Scottish-English border.

rocinante721: Kinda like "Palestine"

/ducks

FAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

/but I like the ducking part. A smartass is always appreciated here. You may touch my boobie for your daring, but be advised that it has been handled by a Palestinian recently.

You belong in my belly!

/got nothing

Nimue: As if that didn't show his bias enough, his title is Lord Dacre of Glanton which just happens to be on the Scottish-English border.

Oh then the stupid tosser probably has a grudge against my family from way back when (though we were in Cumberland and Glanton is in Northumberland). Clan Armstrong, a clan of border thieves and rogueish characters.

/my clan motto is one of the best!
//Invictus Maneo - I remain unvanquished.