Oiy! Being a wee bit of Scot meself, I wholeheartedly agree with the line delivered by Mike Myers on SNL. Scots are amazing people. Many of you may have heard of the recent sensation sweeping Britain and the U.S. Her name is Susan Boyle and she belted out one amazing tune from Les Miserables on Britains Got Talent 2009. The reason everyone cares is because this 47-year-old church volunteer from West Lothian (that’s in Scotland folks) was prematurely judged based on her looks. People were laughing at her. But then they heard her voice and were touched by her gift.

There are Susan Boyles out there everywhere and the moral of this story, boys and girls, is don’t judge people based on their looks. Gotcha. Point taken. But this is not what I’m here to talk about. What I really want to talk about are the great Scottish people. My Brit friend in grad school correctly stated that a Scot could read the telephone book and still sound lovely. Oooh yeah, my thoughts exactly. On that note, I’d like to share a little story from my adventure in Scotland so you too can know just how awesome these people are.

One day during an early summer trip in 2000, my Mom and I were doing laundry on the Isle of Skye at the laundry mat / mini-mart / gas station which was located conveniently next to one of the two pubs on the island. There was a cold spell there and while all my long pants were being washed, we went into the pub. One of the three patrons in this little pub—not including the Collie who went straight for the side of the bar to get fed and was obviously a regular there—staggered over to us and as nice as can be started up a friendly conversation that went like so.

Drunken Scotsman: So…where are yuh all flrrum?
Dawn: We’re from the United States.
Drunken Scotsman: Aye, yuh flrrum Amerrricuh. Yuh wearrrin shorts an it’s fooockhen flrrreeezen out.

We proceeded to discuss all sorts of things such as Jerry Springer (the show that happened to be on the big screen TV on one of the three channels available on the island) and how he was the owner of the other pub in town and it was his day off. Gosh I love the Scots. And don’t get me started on Mel in that kilt. So to close, if you ever hear anyone refer to Scots as Scotch, just repeat the words of Mike Myers.

“Actually, scotch is a drink; Scots are a people. But we’re both great-tasting!”

Advertisement