Archive for the ‘whisky’ Category
My own little Burns Supper
Neeps and tatties allright, and a little paprika beside. If haggis can be found in Stockholm, it is expensive I think, so I’ll have “Smålands isterband” which is somewhat similar but milder.
Happy Burns Night!
I just found a Burns singer whom I like very much: Kev Thompson!
Happy Burns Night!
Tartan is popular all over the world. This tie from the sixties is made in Sweden. Cheers!
The hidden coalition?
A majority of Labour and Tories could agree on releasing Scotland. Labour would have a good chance to take control in Scotland, and Tories certainly could kick LibDem out and reign over the rest of the UK on their own. A toast to such a devilish deal!
Having finished “Waverley”
The story of a young English officer who by a series of coincidences gets into fighting against his army gives much to reflect upon, and many questions to ask. I doubt whether there has ever been a first novel by any author that has made such an impact on the very milieu where it was created. If you go by train to the centre of Edinburgh, you arrive at Waverley Station. Imagine there could be a Pickwick Station in London, or a Gare Quasimodo in Paris? Or a Red Room Station in Stockholm? It also seems that the growing enthusiasm for “the author of Waverley” who was at first anonymous, gave popularity to the then obsolete kilt as a Scottish national attire.
In this novel, there are more mentionings of whisky than of brandy, quite naturally since the great part of the plot is located in Scotland or among Scots.
Happy Burns Night!
There will not be much time for supper, because I have choir practice tonight. A toast at some pub afterwards will do!
The Pickwhisky Papers
Have you thought about this, how many great novels in English are about travelling? A recent example: preparing for the final battle against the Dark Lord, Harry Potter and his two best friends have to visit various places in Britain to find some mysterious necessary objects. For Charles Dickens, when he took over the concept of the Pickwick Club which was already conceived by others, the right thing to do seemed to get the whole show moving. And when you are on the move, you need refreshments.
In The Pickwick Papers, published around 1835, there are some fifty mentionings of brandy. Brandy is the category name of various liquors that are distilled from wine. Mr Pickwick and his friends and foes consume lots of this stuff at many places. There are also three mentionings of whisky, but mark well: no one of the active characters gets a single drop of it. It is only mentioned in some tales that are told by minor characters who occasionally show up.
It can be concluded that in England whisky was very little known, although precisely in those times the government was working hard to get a legislation of the whisky production which had been going on in Scotland for centuries.
Then what happened? In the second half of the 19th century the Phylloxera destroyed much of the vineyards in Europe, causing a shortage of wine. So whisky conquered England, and the world!
