Burns Night

Today is a national holiday in Scotland, a celebration of the life and works of Robert Burns, Scotland's Bard and notably the author of "Auld Lang Syne." Since Burns also wrote an ode to the *cough* noble haggis, there are many haggis-themed activities involved. Paramount is the actual consumption of the haggis, which many of the Americans in the building avoided. A bit of a nasty trick some locals play on dim-witted visitors is the "haggis hunt," akin to the Snipe hunt. As Roy the organist explained, you give the exchange students butterfly nets and whistles and send them into the woods in pursuit of the elusive haggis.

Right...

Being a haggis-shunning American myself, I joined some friends for an hour out at The Peartree. Strongbow doesn't qualify as a wee dram, per se, but it serves my purposes. Richmond Place had a Burns Night party for us, but we elected not to go - it's all well and good to serve haggis to unsuspecting foreigners, but when you don't provide the dram that makes you forget what you're eating, well...some things just aren't cool.