As a teacher of the English language, and one of Scottish ancestry, I must say that I actually like Burns--but I do enjoy the general Scottishness of the event. I should say that I like Burns' poetry rather... I find him as a man to be pretty base--but I'm a moralist prude I suppose. (I was disappointed when he was dubbed the "greatest Scot of all time".)


People obsess far too much about the bawdy works of Burns, INMHO. Burns was most deserving of that title, at least in my viewpoint, because of the very fact that he is celebrated the world over some 250 years after his death, and for the fact that Burns was so important in collecting the folk songs and music of Scotland at a time when it was quite unfashionable to be "Scottish".

In that regard, he is very similar to fellow folklorists such as Alan Lomax, Vance Randolph and Hamish Henderson, and deserving of the honour. Even his collection of the bawdy stuff, The Merry Muses of Caledonia, is important in that regard -- and besides, it's just darn fun to read at a gents-only Burns Supper.

Of course, being a Pisskie, I do not have the Calvinist hang-ups that James has. Just kidding, James! :mrgreen:

T.