Reply #35: Why, thank you kindly..

[Joe Chi Minh]

for that welcome, Missy Zidzi... Now you see, you two have got me performing atrocious impersonations again. Preciate it! ('nother wonderful Americanism, though no less sincerely meant here).

I wish I could say I was crazy about the Scottish accent. Most accents tend to sound attractive when spoken by the opposite sex. I really grew up in London, but have lived here 24 years now - longer than anywhere else. It's nice enough until someone, maybe a very good friend says something to you, and you have to keep asking them to repeat it, and finally pretend you understood it. Bill Bryson had that experience when he stopped at a Glasgow pub.

I'm actually 1/4 Scottish, 1/2 Welsh and 57 varieties the other quarter, but I feel completely Scottish, and felt at home, virtually from the moment I first got off the train here. I sometimes wonder if everyone feels that way, as I once heard a Pakistani owner of a supermarket chain, say, "England belongs to the English, Wales belongs to the Welsh, but Scotland belongs to God". Unfortunately, as always happens when a people are misgoverned and economically oppressed (as applies throughout the UK), there are a growing number of racists who would take issue with that.

Wouldn't Cookkkayyyy just be an asset at the polls! I'm put in mind of Michael Moore's somewhat errrr.. robust encomium of Hilary, (the empress ). I believe when he was introduced to her he told her thought she was "....one hot, sh*t-kicking babe!" An eloquence all of its own.