[Sca-cooks] scottish foodstuffs

[Philip & Susan Troy]

johnna holloway wrote:

> Wrong Johnson.. 'Lanie.
> Actually  that remark was something
> that Boswell attributed to the great Dr. Johnson.
> Johnson gives it in his dictionary as:
> OATS. n.s. [a_en, Saxon.] A grain, which
> in England is generally given to horses,
> but in Scotland supports the people.
> see: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/johnson/entries.html
> for more on Johnson.


Yes, and it is popularly supposed (not sure of the original source of this) that Boswell later replied with something like, "Doubtless it is this to which we can attribute the quality of English horses and Scottish men." The closest I can actually find in the writings of Boswell, though, is something to the effect that he, Boswell, had been quick to point out that, although an Englishman, Johnson had grown up eating oats as a major staple in his home town, "hoping to vex him", presumably in retaliation for his crack about Scotland.


Are there _any_ pleasant, kind, British authors of the old school
(except for Wodehouse and perhaps George Orwell, who may not be of the
old school)? I've just been reading about Dickens' scathing remarks
regarding America written after his five-month tour, which, it turns
out, issue from a man who grew up in a slum much worse than the Five
Points in New York (which he had decried as a sort of Hell On Earth),
largely out of anger because, due to American copyright laws of the
time, he felt he wasn't getting enough royalties from American sales. Of
course, I told my wife about this and she said, "Oh, didn't you know?
Yes, Dickens was a first-class S.O.B."

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98