I'm quoted in an WSJ article about Brave

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 18th June 12, 04:30 AM

So a reported from the Wall Street Journal called me up on Friday to speak about the movie Brave. Not having seen the movie, I told her I could not comment on the use of tartan in the film at all. But she was just looking for a "tartan expert not affiliated with the film" to ask a few questions about the role of tartan and kilts in Scottish history and culture. We spoke for about 15 minutes, and from it I have one semi-accurate quote in an article this morning.

Check it out!

**Mael Coluim** · 18th June 12, 04:39 AM

It's not everyday, one gets quoted in the WSJ. Congratsulations, Matt!

**tulloch** · 18th June 12, 05:39 AM

Bravo! Well done.

**Father Bill** · 18th June 12, 05:42 AM

Well, one semi-accurate is about par for the course. Well done, Matt!

P.S.: What did you really say?

**Thomas H** · 18th June 12, 06:04 AM

They asked the right Guy. Awesome Job .

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 18th June 12, 06:09 AM

Well, the quote makes it sound as if I were saying tartans were not used in Scottish dress at all until the eighteenth century. What I actually said was that, while tartans had been woven and worn in Scotland for very many centuries, our modern notion of named tartans being worn to represent different clans, families, regiments, districts, etc., did not begin until the eighteenth century and was really codified in the nineteenth.

Of course the whole time I was talking, I knew in my mind that I was going to get one sentence at best. Not the first time I've been interviewed by a newspaper, so I knew it was par for the course.