GillyC

Just realised that it's St Andrews Day today for all you Scots diaspora!
This means that you can all have a wee dram this evening of your best Macallan, or Bells if you would prefer - or even Crown Royal if there's nothing else in the cupboard

St Andrew Fast Facts:

The saint we share with spinsters and singers

• St Andrew was a fisherman in Capernaum, Israel. He became an apostle of Christ and was crucified in 60AD.

• The cross on which he was bound (not nailed) was x-shaped - hence the x-shaped cross on Scotland's flag.

• Around the eighth century, the Church conceived of patron saints as a way of easing converts to the notion of a single god. Saintly relics held in Rome were dispersed.

• Tradition has it that in 733 a monk was warned in a dream to take St Andrew's bones to the ends of the earth. He landed in what would later be called St Andrews, Fife, with a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap, and some fingers of the saint.

• St Andrew's Day is popular among Scots abroad. This year the Royal Gurkha Rifles will entertain Scots in Kuala Lumpur, whisky will be shared at the Renaissance Hotel in Moscow and there will be skiing plus haggis in Aspen, Colorado.

• St Andrew is also patron saint of Greece, Russia, Amalfi in Italy, fishermen, gout, singers, spinsters and sore throats.

• In Russia, St Andrew's Day was popular before the 1917 revolution and is mentioned in Dr Zhivago. It was banned as a religious holiday but parties with borsch and vodka are making a comeback.

Biiiiink

The Scotsman has opened its archive for 7 days free searching, in honour of St Andrews Day if any Scots Canadians are interested...

http://archive.scotsman.com/

Every edition from 1817-1950 is fully browsable and searchable. Or they would be if their server could handle it Off to try again...

GillyC

Have a wee dram while you're waiting!

Cheers!

Biiiiink

Finally got in today (they've modified the search to "by decade" rather than the entire archive) - and discover my gt-grandfather was big in the temperance movement! I'll abstain in his honour but cheers to you indeed!

GlosMaple

Thanks for that Biiiink............a great xmas gift for my 80 year old Scottish born father-in-law............a paper from his Birthdate .............great!!!......With the obligatory bottle of pure malt of course !!!!