O Scotia!…
After a six-month, £100-125,000 process, the Scottish government has settled on a new slogan for their country; henceforth, travellers arriving at Scottish airports will be greeted by signs reading “Welcome to Scotland.” (It is also rendered “Failte gu Alba” for monoglot Gaels in transit.) More, here and here.
Lest one think that vacation-marketing has taken precedence over more important items, one might note that The Scottish Executive has spent £2.5 million on a campaign to teach Scots how to wash their hands. In addition to giving 14 health boards funding to employ “hand-washing coordinators” at salaries of £50,000 a year, the Executive has produced a guide to the ten stages of hand-washing… Stage 8, for example, involves “rotational rubbing, backwards and forwards, with clasped fingers of right hand in left palm, and vice versa.” More here.
Out, out, damned spot!
As we cinch our kilts, we might recall that it was on this date in 1805– 18 months after they’d set out from St. Louis, that Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their 28 expedition members reached the (Pacific) coast of Oregon.
Great joy in camp we are in View of the Ocian this great Pacific Ocean which we been so long anxious to see. And the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey shoes may be heard distinctly.
– The Journal of William Clark (who was mistaken: they were at the coast, but actually seeing the Columbia River estuary, not the Pacific)
