Loved your hacking and hewing, John!

I wish I could adapt this to the annual lutfisk dinner at the Sons of Norway Lodge in Northridge - unfortunately, Norwegians are far too taciturn to put up with such frippery - and they prefer brighter lights at dinner - but, John, you were wonderful.

Frank

If you want a 20th century Burns then it's not MacDiarmid, the old Stalinist windbag, but Robert Garioch. I'm sure I've said this before, but Google the feller. I would have been at school with him if i had been twenty years older.

Hello, folks. Sorry I haven't been participating here more. I'm just back from a fishing trip to Panama and my internet access has been very limited for the last while. Anyway, I'm back now and in a bit of a flurry getting ready for this year's round of Burns Suppers.

Thanks for repostng this, Alex. All the best with your teaching and judging, Tim. Thanks for the compliments, Mary and Frank. John, my vote would go to Sorley MacLean, who wrote in Gaelic, but whose works stand out even in translation.

John

My wife's an Ayrshire lass, and I just played this at breakfast in her sister's home. It went over very well. Bravo, John.

I'm glad it went over well, David. We've just finished a repeat of that Burns Supper, which we organize as a charity fundraiser, and two others, where I do the the haggis addresses and an immortal memory. (After some humour and extracts from Burns, I finish with my own Immortal Memory poem.) After the Suppers, the tables are cleared and Joyce's band, Celtic Chaos, supplies music while her mother calls Scottish country dances.

John

Happy Burns Day, dear colleagues. I'm teaching Burns tomorrow to my high school kids, and we're starting out with the Immortal YouTube.

Good work, John. I have attended a number of the St. Andrew's Society of Baltimore events and wrote their Bicentennial history. I have never given the Address to the Haggis though and admire the passion and emotion you put into it, with the helpful hand gestures that enable a modern audience to better understand what is being said in the Scottish dialect. Enjoyed the video! Incidentally, the scene in the video could as easily be here in Baltimore and even some of the faces look the same but that must be sheer coincidence, I think!

Thanks, Chris. It sounds as though you are quite involved in these events too.

We completed our 10th annual fundraiser this year, again selling out the 160 tickets well in advance. We also participated in several other Burns Suppers, with some fearsome press coverage.

John

Hi John

That's a ferocious look on your face in that newspaper photograph and it's good to see you treating the puddin' in the proper way!

All the best

Chris