...but I never knew that it had its own special feast day.

I was reading some of the posts about St. Andrew's Day and I thought that I'd relate this little conversation that I had with a fella a couple of weeks ago.

I went downtown on a Friday night to meet up with a few folks that I have the occasional cocktail with and I decided that it was definitely a night to wear the kilt and the Argyle Jacket. So the first stop on this pub crawl is The Italian Village and after I'm seated, one of the regulars says, "So...you must be celebrating The Feast Of The Haggis." And I say, "Well, I'm certainly no authority but I don't think that I've ever heard of The Feast Of The Haggis...do you mean St. Andrew's Day? That's coming up in a couple of weeks."

"No," quoth he, "I mean The Feast Of The Haggis."

"Perhaps you're thinking of Robert Burns Day...that's in January."

At this point the guy is starting to become a little exasperated.

"NO...I mean The Feast Of The Haggis...my wife is Scottish and we go to it every year."

Now I know that this fella must have it wrong and his missus is dragging him to a St. Andrew's Night or a Burns Supper but he really doesn't know or care what it is...I start looking around expecting to see Rod Serling introducing this increasingly weird encounter as my entre into the Twilight Zone.

But I can't resist a little fun...

"So do you wear your kilt when you attend this Feast Of The Haggis?"

"Oh, hell no...I'd never wear one of those things...I haven't got the legs for it."

"You should join in the spirit of the thing...I bet that your wife would really be proud of you if you went out and rented a formal kilt ensemble for the evening."

Turns out that the only thing about this event that this guy is on board for is the whisky and no amount of cajoling is going to convince him that he should be a sport and get kilted even though I'm sure that it would enhance his enjoyment of the whisky 100%.

So, to all of you in this, the beginning of what I hope will be a very warm and joyous Holiday Season, you have my wishes for, among other things, a very merry joyous and blessed FEAST OF THE HAGGIS (?)...and if there's a guy there who isn't wearing a kilt, you'll know it's that guy from the Italian Village in Chicago so you have my permission to give him the business.

Best

AA