A Hogmanay Tribute to Scottish Comedy

Hogmanay, the Scots version of New Year's Eve, just can't be complete for me without a touch of Scottish comedy. Harking back to my teens, which I don't do with great frequency, there was always a Scottish comedy show on TV leading up to midnight and "the bells". I'd sit down in front of it with Mum, Dad, Big Sister, and Wee Brother ready for a rare, good laugh.

Comedians who at other times of year could only be seen live on stage would be showcased just for this special night. The hours to midnight would fly by and before I knew it I'd be supping a wee dram, non-alcoholic in my case, and munching on some shortbread while everyone clinked glasses, shouted "cheers", and wiped away the tears that come of remembering all the people whom we'd shared with in the past but had not made it through to the current celebration. We're a sentimental lot, the Scots!

Well, "A guid new year to ye when it comes" and enjoy these wee learnin' links when ye have the time.

• Hogmanay, it's a strange name. Check out the origins of Hogmanay.
• FAQs about Hogmanay and see where the Hogmanay action is at, Scotland side.
• I didn't know there was a Scottish Comedian of the Year award. Quite right too! Take a look and maybe try a wee link to a youtube performance.
• Rikki Fulton was the guy we all watched on Hogmanay. Apparently Scotch and Wry, the program in which he appeared as the Reverend I. M. Jolly, ran in the Hogmanay slot for 15 years. That explains why I actually remember it so well! And, no, he wasn't a bit jolly, which is the whole point!
  
• There are lots of other Scots comedians I could mention, but rather than have you here until midnight, I'll just say a quick word about Molly Weir. She's just a rare we favourite of mine. A bouncy we wuman, who wrote a trilogy which has me riveted every time I read it. Thank you Molly for the laughs and tears. Your words live on.
  

So, break out the shortbread and maybe a wee glass of ginger beer and toast yourself into 2009 at midnight tonight. "Here's to us, there's no-one like us!" Who knows what is ahead. Whatever it is, comedy and a good wee laugh will surely keep us going :-)

I'm taking a blogging break and I'll be back Monday, January 5th, 2009.

Dress like a Scots comedian with a costume from Amazon.com.

Alice by John Fullerton from Ballads of Bairnhood

I have a very special book - Ballads of Bairnhood, edited by Robert Ford. First published in 1894 and reprinted in 1913. It was passed to me from my mother's side of the family. Although the binding of my copy is a little worse for wear, almost all of the pages are fresh and clean. I can tell which poems were favorites with my ancestors, for those pages bear the marks of loving hands. Many of the poems relate to the loss of little ones, and many others are written in the Scots dialect and might make no sense to most of my readers. I've therefore chosen to share with you tonight, a poem that, while not one of my favorites, is enjoyable and hopefully understandable to any parent.

ALICE.

Where the sunshine lingers long,
Where the birds sing merry lays,
Where the brook the ferns among
Slowly steals, there Alice strays,
Culling here and there a flower
Blooming in the greenwood bower.

There is sunshine in her face
Brighter far than in the skies;
As I gaze, it's light I trace
Beaming in her deep blue eyes;
There's a song within her heart -
May that glad song ne'er depart.

Happy, free from grief and care;
O'er the meadows fair she roams,
Breathing fresher, purer air
Than to pent up city comes:
Seeing sights that pleasure bring -
Butterflies and birds a-wing.

John Fullerton

Brought to you in association with Amazon.com - lots of poetry and Scottish stuff.

Favorite Blogs

I've decided to celebrate my first three months of blogging (my first post was August 13th, 2008) by saying thank you to the special bloggers who's words I enjoy reading every day. Many of my bloggy friends are regular visitors to my little blog, but others are likely much too busy with their large readership to come over here. Nonetheless, I enjoy you and I want you to know that. This list of blogs is by no means a complete list of blogs I read regularly; I already have over 80 rss feeds in my Google Reader. Just because you don't see your name here doesn't mean I don't read you and appreciate you!

• Janet at Adventures in the 32-Aker Wood is very supportive of other bloggers. She is a regular visitor not only to my blog, but to a long list of blogs. I enjoy her mix of humorous stories and thoughtful commentary at her blog and I'm always thankful to receive a comment from her.
• LindaB over at Occasional Scotland reminds me of the beauty and humor of my first home country with her not-so-occasional photographs. Thanks LindaB for making my day a little brighter with some not-so-gloomy views of Scotland!
• I have to say that Peak Oil Hausfrau is not a laugh a minute. Her job is to remind me that we need to care for the Earth for the sake of ourselves and future generations. Life could change; we all need to think some about being prepared. I am more prepared from reading her posts and from keeping up with her adventures in solar cooking and her regular thoughtful postings.
• I've long admired, well OK for 3 months, both Michelle at Scribbit and Julie at Homeschooling Ideas. Each of them was very gracious and supportive toward me with my early blogging questions and I enjoy keeping up with what they have to say.
• Tonia at Study in Brown conveys her graciousness and love through her blog. She has recently committed to following her heart to meet the homeschooling needs of her family. Tonia, you have my admiration.
• Holly at Unschool Days seems to have a wonderful pace of life, following her daughter as she explores the world. I enjoy sharing your adventures and your journey Holly.
• Little Window Shoppe does a wonderful job of showcasing small businesses. I love the graphic they made up to present my book business. Emily the Editor is gracious to work with and asks nothing in return while offering much. I'm not much of a shopper, but I must say that two of today's posts have really caught my attention. Fingers crossed that I win the free limited edition blog template!
• Last, but by no means least, Crunchy Chicken puts the mental in environmental. Crunchy has a good sense of humor, sets interesting challenges, and gets great discussions going. I may not be up to freezing my buns off, but I am inspired!
• Oops, I can't believe I forgot to mention my friend at Home Spun Juggling. JugglingPaynes, I voted for you in the Best Homeschool Blog Awards, though I'm not going to tell you in which category. Actually I've not finished voting yet, so I'd better get my skates on! I enjoy your art and your humor :-)
  

If I've chosen you as a favorite please feel free to take a copy of the above graphic and display it on your blog with a link back to this post or to my blog. However, this is totally optional.

Read my book reviews. In association with Amazon.com - home of the Kindle.

Start Here Obama - Abominable Math Textbook!

If the book I'm referring to has anything to do with it, no wonder America is far behind in producing engineers!

A couple of years back Handyman Hubby asked me to find a math textbook to provide an outline of what he should cover when tutoring one of our kids on math. He kinda needed the scope and sequence. One of my friends very kindly supplied a 5th grade math textbook she'd picked up at our local free textbook store. Now, don't get me wrong, a free textbook store is a wonderful idea. They probably even had a ton of math books to choose from - I don't know because I saved gas and didn't make the trip there.

Anyway, with said textbook in hand I began to read how to teach math to a 5th grader. Half a page into reading I had to stop and think. Here was a book that was teaching math using English. Something didn't seem quite right. Here's an extract from the first lesson: "There are billions and billions of stars in our galaxy. How big is one billion? Work with your partner to find out how many sheets of grid paper it would take to draw one billion stars." On that two page spread there are more words than there are numbers. Maybe it's not clear yet what I'm talking about.

Let's take a look at the inside of some math textbooks. Boy, are these hard to track down. I just spent over 30 minutes trying to find inside views of math textbooks from major American textbook publishers. McDougal Littell are kind enough to show some inside pages for the middle school math textbook. For comparison, you can take a look at some sample pages from from a UK math textbook publisher. Scroll down until you see Year 6 pages 49-53 or Year 6 page 21 and page 128. Personally I think the non-color approach is least distracting. However, maybe you'll get an idea what I'm talking about.

I don't know, maybe I lost you somewhere. It seems to me there is something fundamentally different between math teaching in America and what I experienced in Scotland. Is it any accident that Scotland has a tradition of producing good engineers while America is importing engineers from around the world? Maybe someone who actually knows about math can explain this for me!

BTW I'm proud to report that yesterday both my kids told me that they are enjoying math this year. I don't know if either will be an engineer, but at least they are using decent textbooks.