Wha's Like Us? (Say It in Scots!)

Product Information

There are a few that always get a good response, although people here in the US usually ask for translation for the first:

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots. To see if there’s anything they didn’t invent, he looks up Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in Edinburgh by Scottish publishers and writers in 1768. Of course, you can't blame Burns for the Scottish psychology, but you can accuse him of inconsistency on the national question. Burns was highly ambivalent about Scottish independence, despite his condemnation of the "parcel of rogues... bought and sold for English gold" who extinguished the Scottish Parliament under the Treaty of Union in 1707. Hard by, in the fields called the Leith Links, the citizens of Edinburgh divert themselves at a game called golf, in which they use a curious kind of bat, tipt with horn, and small elastic balls of leather, stuffed with feathers, rather less than tennis balls, but of a much harder consistence. This they strike with such force and dexterity from one hole to another, that they will fly to an incredible distance. Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together in their shirts, and following the balls with the utmost eagerness."With ellipsis of the verb to be before a noun (Fif. 1 1930; em.Sc.(a), wm.Sc. 1957). Obs. in Eng. since c.1460. Cf. There. Gsw. 1902 J. J. Bell Wee Macgregor i.:

May you go forth with the splendor of fire, with the speed of lightning, with the swiftness of wind; The doctors might use ultrasound, first used in Glasgow by Professor Ian Donald, to help locate the bullet. If he ends up in a coma he will be diagnosed on the Glasgow Coma scale first devised in Scotland’s largest city. He will also need an electrocardiogram (ECG) first used on a human by Alexander Muirhead of East Saltoun, Scotland. Touch his head, and he will bargain and argue with you to the last; Touch his heart, and he falls upon your breast."And the meaning of phrases such as: "Here's tae us! Fa's like us - damn few and they're aa deid!" have been confusing schoolchildren for years. Sc. 2000 Edinburgh Evening News 28 Sep 30:

O Thou who kindly dost provide For every creature's want! We bless Thee, God of Nature wide, For all thy goodness lent. And, if it please Thee, heavenly Guide, May never worse be sent; But, whether granted or denied, Lord bless us with content.

Tobias Smollet, writing about golf in 1771. Pictured is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews, Fife. Read more A compendium of knowledge gleaned from seemingly endless scholarly pursuits in the wild. (Or: Things I learned as a field biologist.)