Job Discussion Forums

[Cardinal Synn]

I come form a teeny tiny country called Scotland, though some might pronounce it Scatlind. I have noticed how prolific Scottish place names and surnames are around the world.
I'd be interested to hear from you nonScottish teachers out there who have Scots names. Our ancestors must have got around a bit. It's weird to me that some huge non Scottish multiglobal - interuniversal mega franchises such as McDonalds, have Scottish names. I know why, obviously, but why should such a teeny country have had such a big effect on the world? I'm not still talking about McDonalds. Things like Auld Lang Syne (not pronounced Zyne BTW) being the song to sing at New Year, all over the English speaking world and beyond. Loads of American presidents have had Scottish surnames. Is there any other country of comparable size and population that has made as major a contribution to shaping the world as my teeny Scotland? I'm talking about RADAR, TV, Halloween, penicillin, Anaesthetic, US Navy, Golf, Telephone, Whisky (if it's Irish it has an "e" in it), Refrigerators, The Steam Engine, Telegraph, Sociology, Breech loading rifle, Sherlock Holmes, Jekyl and Hyde, Peter Pan, Long John Silver, Adhesive Postage Stamps, even the Buik car and the Bank of England, all from Scots. There are loads more too, like the Fax Machine and the first cloned mammal (argghh) but I'll stop there. OK I won't - over half of the signers of the American Declaration Of Independance were of recent Scottish decent.Famous Scots-Americans include soldiers Robert E. Lee, John Paul Jones (US Navy), �Stonewall� Jackson, and Douglas MacArthur. To these names add explorers and inventors George Rogers Clark, Sam Houston, James Bowie, Samuel Morse, Robert Fulton, and Cyrus McCormick. American literature was enriched by Herman Melville, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allen Poe. Then there were those nature dudes John Muir and David Douglas.
And they still call us English...

[ntropy]

The Scots only damn well built the Canadian infrastructure and did most of the exploring once ships couldn't go further inland.

Should we praise or blame them for this?

[justcolleen]

[Josh Lyman]

It's most probably because their prolific alchohol use, rubbed off on many a buxom lass. Due to the Scotsmans overwhelming machismo, the fruit of said buxom lass' loins were many a heavily bearded son brought forth to carry on the traditition. So, in short I think the answer is evolution.

[justcolleen]

I fell compelled to note the OP did not mention, anywhere at all, that Scotland antied up the sexiest accent....

Colleen

[Cardinal Synn]

Why shank you Mish Moneypenny ( Sean's accent is pretty shekshy)
Oh I know about the Canada stuff too, not to mention Australia and New Zealand and loads of other colonial sh*t that we maybe shouldn't be so proud of but we just blame the English for the crap stuff. Scots played a big part in the Opium wars for example, which was a pretty nasty thing to do to that little country called China. Again, we keep quiet about that and blame the English. We also brought you tartan or plaid as some know it ( well not "we" as such but Scottish people) and it seems to have caught on as the global school girl skirt pattern of choice. Though, strangely, mostly in non English speaking countries. I suppose you could say we sent our sheep farmers to Canada, our Adventures, inventors and business men to America (US) and our criminals to Australia.

[benno]

[Cardinal Synn]

Yes you would whip our a rses at football (soccer), but then we'd probably both whip the USA at football (soccer)too!

[Atlas]

The jury is still out as to whether the modern world is a good thing for the human race...

But assuming for the moment it is, the Scots (and Irish and English) came to Kentucky USA to help develop the coal mining operations there, because they'd had experience in the old country. But more importantly they brought the distillery with them! That's why Kentucky bourbon is unsurpassed in the world. By the way, the best one is Maker's Mark. Haven't found it in Shanghai yet!



Ok now you've done it, I'm officially homesick!

[sigmoid]

What about Paul McCartney?

[Sadken]

[Boy Wonder]

I would like to personally thank Scotland for the following.....

Russ Abott's (crap 80's comedian) Jimmy character.
Porridge.. cordon bleu breakfast nourishment.
Kenny Dalgleish...gods footballer
Red hair and blotchy noses ...combined.a beautiful sight
Isla St Clair..70's game show hostess
Claire Grogan...80's pop starlet
Big Country...big in the 80's
Whiskey...big in the bars
Scottie Dogs...small but well formed
The bloke off Star Trek called Scottie..a nice guy
The sight of British men in skirts..something to laugh at.
Robbie Coltrane...peerless in Cracker
Dmb..big on the eslcafe
My ex-girlfriend from the Borders...circa 1997-99
Lots of fir trees..i like green
Sean Connery(but preferred Roger Moore)
Graeme Souness and his short fuse
Dundee cos it makes Colchester look like paradise!
Thistle..purple,prickly and pert
All the outraged poll tax protesters who started the ball rolling in 1990.
Alan Wells...manly 1980 olympic champ in the 100m
Taggart..gritty bad tempered police detective
Robert Carlisle..always turns in a good performance
Dee Hepburn..the vampish schoolgirl from Gregorys Girl.
The Flying Scotsman...what a train.
Fried mars bars
White legs and too many freckles...for making the rest of all look ultra healthy.

Scotland I salute you.

[dmb]

Robert Burns, Walter Scot, Irving Welsh and many more contemporary writers.( And Haggis)

[ShapeSphere]

Let's not forget the Krankies.

An extremely unfunny comedy double act from Scotland. They were actually in real life a married couple, but she dressed up as a school boy for their 'comedy' routines. Am I alone in thinking this is rather sinister and totally weird. Or is that normal behaviour in Scotland?



Thank you Scotland for the Krankies.

[Cardinal Synn]

Ah yesss, the Krankies.... but then again there is Billy Connely. Don't like him myself, but he is funny.
Anyway, I wasn't really talking about the modern stuff, I was waffling on about Scotland's contribution to the world in a historical sense. Stuff about white legs and laughing at men in skirts sounds like sour grapes really, and people saying they preferred Roger Moore to Sean Connery - you must be JOKING!
Lets face it, the Scots are just more popular around the planet than their southern neigbours