[Stargate] Sexy Kilt Contest

[Patrick Callahan]

stargate at lists.ansteorra.org



Thank You For All That Information, Took What I Admit Was A Joke Maybe Even And Poor Taste And Really Turned It On Its Ear, Making It A Teaching Moment. I Did Have Some Notion That The Scottish Wore Under Garments Of Some Type Under Their Kilts, I Will Do More Research. Patrick Callahan



Har de har har. :-P

Yes, it's the running joke about kilts... But seriously, not to dampen the joke but merely to throw some historical info out there for whoever isn't aware: kilts without anything under them is *way* out of our time period, as far as most historians can determine.

In our period, it was the norm for the Scottish to wear a woolen sort-of loin cloth, called "smalls" by the English (I don't know what they were called by the Scottish, but hopefully someone else here can provide that info), under whatever you were wearing... including a kilt.

Yeah, yeah... someone, somewhere, sometime, was bound to have gone naked under their kilt for some reason or another. There are always exceptions. But that's not what we try to re-create *for the most part* in our activities. Saying "oh, someone must have fried a potato somewhere, somewhen" is not a justification for entering french fries in a period cooking contest. Even though they'd probably be welcome at a casual feast. :-)

Anyway... back on track... "kilts without underwear" is known as "going regimental" BECAUSE during the English occupation of India (1800's, quite a bit out of our period) there was a widespread problem with chafing and rashes due to the heat combined with the (typically) woolen underwear the men wore. With regret but without hesitation, the regimental commander ordered that his men would temporarily go without underwear until they could figure out a better solution for dealing with the heat.

Nowadays, you can go to just about any Renaissance Festival in the world and see what are supposed to be Scotsmen wearing kilts and joking about "going regimental"... during the Renaissance... riiiiiiiight. Not.

So... now you know. No reason to stop making the joke (it's funny), just wearing my curmudgeon hat long enough to want to put out some fact to go with the fun. (Channeling Cadfan? *chuckles at the thought*)

Yours in service, absent but not gone,
Michael Silverhands