Conference quark::mennotes-v1

    Spence, how short is your kilt?
    
    --bonnie

    <blush>
    Actually, I don't have one.  I once found a shop in Germany that
    had them but they were so expensive that I couldn't afford one.
    Well, really, the kilt wasn't so expensive, but with all of the
    stuff to make it complete, I couldn't justify the expense.  I wish
    now that I had gotten it because I can't find them in Colorado.
    At that time, the dollar was at an all time low.  Besides, I couldn't
    decide between the 'Fraser hunting' and the 'Fraser dress' tartans
    and I certainly couldn't afford both.                           
          
    Although I am of Scottish ancestry, I am a full blooded American.
    Knowing that I would be living in a country where a kilt would be
    looked upon in an unfavorable manner and I wouldn't get a lot of use
    out of it, I couldn't justify paying $100+ for one.     
                                                            
    I also wanted a bagpipe, but the one I wanted was $600+.
             
    One day, I plan to go to Scotland and get a kilt and a bagpipe.
    I already have a tour guide set up (Trapper John, fur those o ye
    wha ken Trap) but no date.  
    
    Anybody know of somewhere in (preferably) Colorado that sells kilts
    and 'pipes?  Now that I'm rich and famous.  I'd have Trapper send
    me one, but I don't know what size I'd wear (European<>American).
    I wear a size 30 American if anyone wants to convert it for me,
    Ian maybe.  If I could get ahold of the material (Fraser) then I
    could make my own.  I don't think I could wear it to work though.
    Especially for crawling around under disk drives. ;-)
    
    I hope this wasn't too big of a let down.  My previous mention of
    it was sort of 'tongue-in-cheek' and I was thinking about the one
    that I *almost* bought.  I'm surprised that anyone remembered.
                          
    Spence            

    Once upon a time, there was a scottish lad named Mac Intyre who went to
    his tailor to have a kilt made. He asked the tailor for Mac Intyre
    Tartan. But when the tailor showed him the material, he said :
    "That's not Mac Intyre tartan, that's Dunlop Tartan"
    to which the tailor replied :
    
    "Come on, lad, everyone knows that Dunlop have been Mac Intyres
    for years...."
    

    Here in Colorado, at Cheyenne Mountain High School, where the school
    is located on a mountainous mesa, very close to the sun in the summer
    time, the males made news doing the same thing.  The Superintendant
    threatened expulsion if the form of protest did not cease, the males
    weren't intimidated, the females liked the male leg show, the
    Superintendant gave in, the males won, then school was out for the
    summer.
    
    Sherman

    I went through the same thing at the parocial high school I attended.
    Initially it was an all girls school and in the winter we were allowed
    to wear certain color dress pants.  Then the school merge with a
    co-ed parocial school with a new headmaster and differant set of
    rules.  This headmaster forbid the girls to wear pants during the
    winter,  even though many of us had to transfer buses 2 and 3 times
    in the middle of winter. We were told we had to wear our black plaid
    skirts and blouses and the boys suit coat tie and jacket, no questions 
    asked.  Well, about 7 of my friends and I decided we did not feel
    this rule was appropriate for winter.  So one day we all planned
    to wear pants, suitcoats and ties.  When we arrived at school we were 
    told if we did not change into our skirts we were all expelled for the 
    day, well we all left.   And the next year they allowed girls to wear 
    pants during the winter!
                 
    

    When I bought my kilt in Edinburgh, it cost me 7 Pounds, or about $21.
    Obviously from the price and the exchange rate, this was a very long
    time ago.  As it happens, there's some MacIntyre on my mother's side
    and that's the tartan that I wanted.  When one shopkeeper proferred
    some wares of an obviously different hue, I protested that it did not
    look like the MacIntyre that I'd seen in another shop.  His explanation
    that these were the "old" colors made me suspicious.  How traditional
    could it be, I said, if they came out with a new version periodically.
    My host dragged me out of that shop before I made an even bigger fool
    of myself and patiently explained the difference between "dress",
    "hunting", and "ancient" as tartan adjectives. 
    

    Unfortunately, I have been unable to maintain my waistline to the
    original measurements and the kilt is turning into a McDonald's for
    moths.  Maybe my son will grow into it.  There's many a hot summer
    night I wish I had a lightweight denim kilt I could wear around the
    house.  I wonder if 'The Colonel' knows of such a thing as army surplus
    Highland Regiment tropical kit that would be suitable. 
    
    My understanding of the skhean dbuh was that in battle you knocked your
    opponent down with the claymore and then kneeling over their prostrate
    form you quickly drew the blade from your stocking top and slit their
    throat with it.  It would also be effective coming up from a kneeling
    position to plunge upward below the rib cage.
     

What is that? Is it the strains of 'The Four Yorkshiremen' from 'Monty Python 
Live'....?

Tarik.

(Sorry Ian, couldn't resist...:-))

    When I was in school, one of the men would usually wear a skirt
    when we were all hanging around the dorm.  He said it was a lot more
    comfortable.  He was one of the more hetero- men in the dorm, and
    his skirt didn't seem to entice or repel anyone...
    
    At NEFFA [contra/folk dancing festival] I ran into another man in
    a skirt.  Not only was it more comfortable (less hot) but it is
    much more fun to twirl in a skirt than in pants.
    
    I guess you don't have to be scottish...
    
    Lee

>    I guess you don't have to be scottish...
    
 	Or Arabic, or Greek or Turkish or Indian or Roman or .....

Richard.