Spik Doric : Lesson 36
Smore. Verb, transitive and intransitive. To smother or to choke. One syllable, rhyming with “pore”. Smore is one Doric word that has an obvious English correlation: smother. However, the Doric version applies only in specific cases. You don’t smore fruit with whipped cream. You don’t smore yourself with suntan lotion before heading for the beach. [...]
Toulmin winner for 2013
Six years ago, Graham Reid, a businessman in Aberdeen, decided to sponsor a competition in memory of his late father, John. John was a farm worker by trade, but a writer by instinct. His pen-name, David Toulmin, was familiar to many Scottish readers from the 1970s onwards. It seemed obvious to Graham that a writing [...]
Memories of Aberdeenshire in 1978
This entry in our occasional photo series looking back 30-40 years ago shows one celebrated North-east town on a Saturday afternoon. Can you guess which one? I don’t know about you, but the thing that strikes me about all these photographs from the 1970s is how little traffic there was. My notes show that the [...]
Spik Doric : Lesson 35
Spaver. Concrete noun or, occasionally, an adjective. A gentleman’s fly. Pronounced spay-verr, with emphasis on the first syllable. The gentleman’s fly is never a fly in Doric. It is the spaver. This applies whether it comprises zip, buttons or any other aperturial arrangement. A spaver which has been accidentally left undone after a visit to [...]
Outfoxing the advert scams
You might have noticed in the news the kerfuffle about an English “inventor” having sold bomb-detecting devices to a number of governments and airport-security services around the world, principally in the Middle East. It turned out that the devices had been based on golf-ball detectors from the US and, depending on whose advice you took, [...]
Humour, even in the saddest situation
EVEN in the depths of sorrow, there is always something to make you smile. After a recent interment, we went to the funeral tea or, as we say in North-east Scotland, “the biled ham”. I was chatting with various people when, to my side, I overheard a conversation between two elderly women. They were discussing [...]
Norman S. Harper (1928-2013)
Apologies for the break in service. My dad died suddenly on March 21. He was 84, but had been in otherwise fine health, so his death was a shock to all of us. We have been busy coping with the 101 things that need to be attended to at such times. Normal service will be [...]
-
We welcome your comments. All are moderated, so will not appear instantly.
We will process them as quickly and moderate as lightly as we can.
Comments may be edited. They will be rejected if they contain:• Profanity
• Offensive remarks
• Libellous text
• Personal remarks
• Commercial promoLet's keep it pleasant and friendly for all of us.
Thank you.Elaine
Webmaster. Strawberry Glen Web Services.
In the May, 2013, issue, Norman Harper gets a telling-off for ignoring an old North-east Scottish superstition.
