Monday, October 18, 2021

Heh

 


These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

- Alfred Hitchcock


16 comments:

  1. When I was a child I read a book called "1066 and all that". A history of the British isles. One chapter about the Irish and the Scottish mentioned that bagpipes were invented by the Irish and given to the Scots as a joke. The Scots didn't get the joke.

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  2. Lovely piper! I can't figure out who's tartan that is, though.
    I've Scots ancestry and have been to several Highland Games, especially the Illinois St. Andrew Society. You've no idea how thrilling it is to hear over 300 massed pipers and drummers play Amazing Grace. It's sent shivers through me and brought tears to my eyes every time.
    And Germans in two world wars had the crap scared out of them by the sound of the pipes, because they knew then that "The Ladies fomm Hell" were coming to kill them.

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    1. You mean..."Laddies from Hell".....correct?

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    2. Nope. Because many of the Scots regiments wore kilts, and were fearsome in battle, the Germans called them "Die Damen aus der Hölle" - Ladies from Hell.

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  3. I remember waiting for the bus downtown one evening and some guy two blocks away was playing the pipes. I thought somebody was trying to pick up a cat with a pair of pliers.

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  4. D'ya know why pipers stroll when they play, laddie?
    To get away from the sound.

    I actually love pipe and drum music and hope the wee lass arranges for a piper at my passing.

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  5. They say they don't wear anything under the kilts.....hmmm.

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    1. "What is worn under the kilt?"
      "Nothing is worn. Everything is in perfect working order."

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  6. Loved the pipes in "Braveheart". Otherwise, nope.

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  7. I think love for the pipes is a genetic thing. I’m mostly Scots-Irish and grew up in East Tennessee where bagpipes are not common. The first time I ever heard the pipes live was when was in the Army. It sent shivers down my spine and engendered a feeling that I can only describe as “wanting to pick up something pointy and hit someone English.”

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    1. A Welshman, a Scot and an Englishman were captured in battle. Sentenced to death by firing squad they were granted one last wish. The Welshman wanted to hear a male voice choir. The Scotsman wanted to hear massed pipes skirling. Hearing this the Englishman asked to be shot first.

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  8. We traveled to Nova Scotia and while there heard a concert at the Gaelic College of Music. Aye, it was grand!

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  9. How do you get two pipers to play the same song?
    Kill one.

    Clans McClelland and McLaughlin here.

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  10. I have trouble hearing the bagpipes over how beautiful she is.

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    1. If it's a 'she'....rather than a pretty young man...then....does she feel a breeze, as well?

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    2. Well, they named her skirt after what happened to the first man that tried to check.

      "Bagpipes: If this is what we think of as 'music', wait until we get close enough to show you what we think of as 'battle'..." - every Scots warrior for the last 800 years

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