Oh, one more thing I was thinking about...

At the risk of beating this poor dead horse which is starting to smell queerly, I have been pondering Jock Scot's question about why we don't just "be American" instead of trying to "play at being a Scot".

The answer is very simple. We ARE being American. This is what Americans do. Our culture is not written in stone, and there is no such thing here as "it just isn't done". The culture is what we make it, and if some of us want to include pieces of our ancestry in it, then that's exactly what it will be. It is a perfectly American thing to do, and always has been. So rest assured, good sir, that by including Scottish elements in American culture, we are keeping American culture right on track where it's always been!