I'm intrigued

I was looking up a historical figure (James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, a Scottish general who was hanged, beheaded, and quartered for supporting Charles I during the War of the Three Kingdoms in 1650)--Battlefield Band has a song called 'Montrose'. Going down that rabbit hole, I found a book by John Buchan [novelist and former Governor General of Canada] called Witch Wood, which sounded promising and put it in as an interlibrary loan request with the Lexington public library. Montrose only makes a small appearance in it, but the story sounded compelling, the story of a clergyman who discovers Scottish witchcraft/paganism being practised and suffers from ensuing politics in the 17th century. It'll probably come from the University of Kentucky, as their library has it. I have a UK library card, but for residents of Kentucky, they expire after a year, and mine is likely expired. The thing I'm most interested in is that in the over 300-page story, a lot of the dialogue is in Scots, which I am interested in, having a lot of Scottish ancestry.

I have been pretty busy lately

as I'm sure you can tell from my lack of posting. I've been staying up later but my evenings and the weekend have been pretty full of various errands, being with friends, or just trying to get some things accomplished, but I never got around to actually talking about them, I'm afraid. I actually missed a deadline for a job application with the Lexington Public Library the other day for a children's librarian at Northside yesterday because I was really tired late Sunday night when I got home, and I couldn't get myself out of bed early enough to work on it before work. So tonight, I got off work a little early (well, the original time I was supposed to work till, 4:30 pm), went to an appointment, and got out pretty quickly, by 5:35 (it was a 5:15 appointment, and I barely got to the car and there with just about three minutes to spare, so it worked out well). I was over in Beaumont for the appointment, and I needed to go to the credit union, and then I realised there is one in the area, so I didn't have to drive over to the university. Instead, I deposited a pay cheque at the credit union and then headed over to the Beaumont Branch of the Lexington Public Library to see what they may have. But I am a bit confused, as I see no new books at all, and I'm not sure where they keep them. I've found the regular books, the CDs, the 'Top Shelf' books, and the Holds, but no new books. I'll have to ask before I go. I'm sure it's glaringly obvious and I'm just not seeing it.

I am resisting the urge to go to another place down the street--Masala, the Indian restaurant I like very much. It's evening so I could order Peshwari naan (my favourite) and vegetable korma, which goes very well with it. But I have to admit, I do need to eat soon, and I am in the neighbourhood...perhaps I will at least check their dinner hours.

I think I'll download the recording from the game and maybe start on the notes--there was a lot of investigation this time, as we started a new adventure, this time a series of murders in Glasgow, Scotland. So I thought I should get an early start on the game notes.

Okay, I'll try to write later, but just in case, have a great evening.

I'm not sure of the truth of this, or where it was from, but I laughed quite a bit

YKWIA e-mailed it to me; he'd found it somewhere. I do love the Scots.

Hahahahahaha

I saw it at Forbes--Siri Fails to Understand Scottish Accent in Hilarious Video

Thanks to Bill Hart for sharing it on Facebook. Oh, and there is a generous use of the 'f' word should you be easily offended (or watching this at work, assuming you can get Facebook at work. Use headphones. Then invite the ones who will love this to see.)

Of course, there are Android applications that do this sort of thing, too, and I suspect, they, too, would find the accent an impediment. But still....

I truly do no understand

how any person can do this to another human being. And I am so glad that I do not.

Savagely beaten, tied to a lamppost and burned alive: Horrific fate of hotel manager who was murdered 'for being gay'

Later reports corrected the being tied to a lamppost, but unfortunately the manner of death is correct. I cannot fathom the kind of person who would do this to someone. Fortunately there are decent people in the world who turned out in support for his funeral.

Thousand mourners attend funeral of Stuart Walker

That's from a town of only 9,000 people. They have a suspect in custody, thankfully.

Thanks to Joe.My.God for the links. RIP Stuart Walker. May you find peace, and your murderer find justice.

Hahahahahahahah!

Via Bill. I do believe the bald guy says something quite rude at one point (well, I'm not sure...it could be 'cow' and not what I thought I heard, but even so, it's fast, and in a Scottish accent, so it's likely to go by quite quickly without offence.) :)

I love Scottish accents, and I have a knack for understanding them (as long as they aren't super fast). But...I remember reading somewhere that there all these call centres in Scotland (kind of like ours are in India) because even though the English couldn't fathom what they were saying, a Scottish brogue made them calmer about whatever problem they called about.

Putting a face on history

Face of Stirling Castle warrior reconstructed

A reconstruction has revealed the face of a medieval knight whose skeleton was discovered at Stirling Castle.

Experts are now attempting to discover the identity of the warrior, who is likely to have been killed in the 13th or 14th Century.

The skeleton is one of 10 excavated from the site of a lost royal chapel at the castle. The skeleton of a woman was found near the knight.

Face of a Medieval Knight revealed

Last year Historic Scotland released details about this individual, noting that while he was only in his mid-20s he appears to have suffered several serious wounds in earlier fights. He may have been living for some time with a large arrowhead in his chest. Bone re-growth around a dent in the front of the skull suggest he had recovered from a severe blow, possibly from an axe. The fatal wound, however, occurred when something, possibly a sword, sliced through his nose and jaw.

New evidence about this man, and a woman who was found buried nearby, will be revealed on the BBC program History Cold Case. A team led by Professor Sue Black, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist from Dundee University, wanted to find out how, why and when the man and woman met their violent ends. The programme website promises to show how the "forensic trail leads to a unique and extraordinary 600 year old document and the team is shocked to discover the skeleton's likely identity."

It is unknown if the man was Scottish, English, or French, as Stirling Castle changed hands back and forth. They hope to find out, though, and the information they already have is quite interesting:

A bit bigger than the normal shrimp

Fisherman took unexploded mine home to Shandwick

A village was evacuated after a fisherman netted an unexploded wartime mine and took it home with him.

Prawn fisherman Andrew Innes, 54, said the live part of the mine had been in his garden shed since he pulled it from the Cromarty Firth last Thursday.

Police were alerted after noon on Tuesday, and cordoned off Mr Innes's home in Shandwick.

Twenty nearby homes were evacuated before a Royal Navy bomb disposal team made the device safe.

Mr Innes recovered the unexploded mine from the waters of the Cromarty Firth, which was a major base for the Royal Navy during the two world wars.

The fisherman took the device back to port at Cromarty, dismantled it and then took the live part back home with him.

He said: "I didn't know there was anything dangerous about it at all. I have seen them before and it didn't look dangerous."

It's amazing he didn't blow himself to Kingdom Come.

:D

The singer is Bryan Bowers.

Another fun ad

'The home of the bagpipe and penicillin. We've been inhibiting the enemy for generations.' (It's from Scotland Development International, trying to get businesses to come to Scotland.) I saw it on the news feeds from Wired.

As someone with a lot of Scottish ancestors, who loves the bagpipe but is unfortunately allergic to penicillin, I was amused, especially with the graphic with the injection needles integrated with the pipes. :)

Now I have 'Scotland the Brave' in my head...and you should, too:


And in proper Hippo/Dog fashion:

Two of my favourite Scottish songs

'The Dear Green Place' by Battlefield Band


(The 'Dear Green Place' is another name for Glasgow, by the way.)

'Donald McGillavry' by Silly Wizard

Bibliotherapy in Scotland

Patients sent to the library for help with mental health

Doctors in East Lothian are prescribing books for patients with depression both as monotherapy and in conjunction with antidepressants or talk therapy. Librarians in the participating libraries have been trained especially to help those with depression, including confidentiality issues. Books are prescribed from an approved list of over 600. This follows an earlier trial programme.

That sounds wonderful. The only disorder I've ever heard of anyone specifically asking patients not be given books for is for eating disorders--something about how information on eating disorders can become a 'how to' manual for those seeking to control their food intake(not an order for me personally, just an anecdote from a colleague, and also I've heard the same from someone with an eating disorder that even the mentions in the media can exacerbate the problem). I guess there you really have to balance education with 'do no harm'. But for most disorders--and certainly for depression--I think bibliotherapy is wonderful. I'd like to see more studies done on the efficacy and what methods work best.