I'd just gotten my morning coffee from the lovely Selena, when a fellow tapped me on the shoulder and told me that he really liked my kilt, and inquired what the tartan was. I told him that it was, in fact, the California State tartan, and that it was derived from the Muir tartan.

There stand I, in my California tartan box pleat kilt, with cream hose, black oxfords, a casual faded denim shirt, black belt and sporran...and this fellow congratulates me on how excellent I look, how he'd seen me around the last few days and how I wore the kilt well. He really went out of his way to be complimentary and friendly. I had to pause and think: yesterday I had on a different kilt, but with black boots and green socks pushed down....

He then goes on to tell me that he's from Scotland (I knew that from the accent) and that his fiancee was just finishing her PhD and was giving her final talk tomorrow, so he was having his mum ship his kilt and rig over so he could wear it to her talk and to the family dinner afterwards.

It was a nice start to the day, and proof once again that not everybody, including a whole lot of Scotsmen, worry over- much about the so-called "rules" of what's done and what's not done.