{"id":4408,"date":"2009-04-06T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T11:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2009-04-03T08:38:07","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T13:38:07","slug":"happy-tartan-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4408","title":{"rendered":"Happy Tartan Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that most wonderful time of the year, Tartan Day!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/wwp.greenwichmeantime.com\/time-zone\/europe\/uk\/images\/scotland-flag.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today, Scots-Americans will stream through downtown Saint Paul and Minneapolis, clutching ill-concealed liquor bottles\u00a0and blaring on noisemakers. Politicians and media people will prepend &#8220;Mac-&#8221; to their names and recite Keats and Burns before crowds of cheering onlookers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oldgloryprints.com\/scots_flower.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Large, unruly parades led by bagpipe bands will step through slicks of vomit (tinted blue, from the blue-dyed stout and single-malt whiskey that&#8217;ll be lubricating the good times) amid hordes of tartan or blue-and-white clad, kilt-bedecked\u00a0revelers, wending their way to both City Halls, where the crowds will paint their faces a merry Saint Andrew&#8217;s Blue and moon the government, bellowing &#8220;Ye canna take our FREEDOM!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wickpipeband.org\/images\/oldbandpictures\/Wickcent.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The questions they should ask themselves is, without Scots-Americans, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tartanday.org\/tartandaydc\/index.htm\">would there even <em>be <\/em>an America<\/a>\u00a0as we know it?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>From the framers of the Declaration of Independence to the first man on the moon, Scottish-Americans have contributed mightily to the fields of the arts, science, politics, law, and more. Today, over eleven million Americans claim Scottish and Scotch-Irish roots &#8212; making them the eighth largest ethnic group in the United States. These are the people and the accomplishments that are honored on National Tartan Day, April 6th.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So put some Black Watch and Big Country on your IPod (you <em>do <\/em>have some Black Watch, right?\u00a0 Or the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders?\u00a0 The Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards?\u00a0 Oh, for crying out loud, even the amalgamated Bands of the Highland Division? C&#8217;mon, people) and celebrate!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.visitourscotland.co.uk\/scottish-tours\/scottish-tours.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Tartan Day, 2009.\u00a0 Rejoice!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that most wonderful time of the year, Tartan Day! Today, Scots-Americans will stream through downtown Saint Paul and Minneapolis, clutching ill-concealed liquor bottles\u00a0and blaring on noisemakers. Politicians and media people will prepend &#8220;Mac-&#8221; to their names and recite Keats and Burns before crowds of cheering onlookers. Large, unruly parades led by bagpipe bands will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}