I have, on occasion, observed persons with harshly censorious reactions to the bagpipes. While I find bagpipes delightful, mine is a minority opinion; the British Crown defined the pipes as a "weapon of war," after all. But I had not realized this fear and loathing extended into interstellar space.
...At least it wasn't an accordion, ey?
(Which reminds me....)
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
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My former boss admitted to me one day that he could play the accordion. He also told the the definition of a gentleman: a man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.
I have to try to find that magazine. That cover art is wall paper for sure!
When you mentioned "accordion" right after "interstellar space" I had a flash of an alien race's first glimpse of Earthbound humanity being Weird Al Yankovic.
Dave: worthy of being framed -- possibly for a capital offense.
Rick: Possibly Weird Al is Earthbound humanity's first glimpse of an alien species.
Check these guys out. They did a really rocking Amazing Grace that featured the USMC silent drill team. Banjos and bagpipes, does it really get any better?
http://robertsgunshop.blogspot.com/2012/06/fast-becoming-favorite.html
http://robertsgunshop.blogspot.com/2012_04_29_archive.html
I was thinking about the "teach me to tell jokes/accordion lessons" scene in My Favorite Year, actually...
One of the more amusing vignettes of Renaissance history is of the papal legate to Scotland--later himself to be Pope Pius the II or whatever it was--wandering into a room in which King James IV was practicing on the bagpipes, which led the legate to decide that either he or the king had gone mad.
Still, bagpipers had to have very strong nerves, considering that they normally piped in front of their unit as it advanced into battle, even up to and including WWI days.
I like bagpipes, but I have to admit that poorly played pipes can sterilize frogs at 50 yards.
When I worked in a NOC in St. Louis, there was a guy who practiced bagpipes in the parking lot on his lunch break. That was the only decent thing about my two scheduled 12 hour shifts each week (normally I worked nights).
Actually, at least one piper went ashore at Normandy, leading his unit, w/his commander next to him throughout the first day. And didn't Heinlien's Mobile Infantry have pipers in the Regimental Band? JohninMd(help?)
You could always go the "Annoy everyone" route and learn to play the Musette, which is a bagpipe AND an accordion.
http://www.nugentpatterns.com/gallery/html%20for%20gallery/Gallery%2025.html
My sister stopped playing the accordion when she developed enough that certain delicate parts got pinched when she played.
The Wicked Tinkers. Bagpipes, drums, and didgeridoo
It works. I'll get off work at noon on Sunday of the Northwest Highland Festival, drive 30 miles, and pay $20 admission for the two of us to catch two of their half hour sets.
I almost always get a chuckle out of the "westerns" when the hero whips out a git box and starts strummng.
The pipes and the Stummik Steinway have two things in common that fiddles, git-boxes, banjers, and other noisemakers lack.
First, they are darn near impossible to really break. Second, they don't flap and scare your horse.
Those things are important when you are expected to ride thirty miles to a square dance with the music for the soiree in your saddle bag. Or in the back of your Cowboy Cadillac.
It makes the ladies mad when they have to dance to hand clapping and mouth music.
Stranger
I almost always get a chuckle out of the "westerns" when the hero whips out a git box and starts strummng.
The pipes and the Stummik Steinway have two things in common that fiddles, git-boxes, banjers, and other noisemakers lack.
First, they are darn near impossible to really break. Second, they don't flap and scare your horse.
Those things are important when you are expected to ride thirty miles to a square dance with the music for the soiree in your saddle bag. Or in the back of your Cowboy Cadillac.
It makes the ladies mad when they have to dance to hand clapping and mouth music.
Stranger
Pity the man who hears the pipes but does nay come from Scotland..
Some years... uh, *decades*, back, there was a Usenet discussion over whether any cavalry or otherwise Mounted forces had a unit piper, and if so, whether he rode.
THe response back was:
"Traditionally, bagpipes are considered an *infantry* weapon..."
You know that short, silent pause before the screaming and gnashing of teeth? It's entirely possible to replicate it using only ASCII text.
When I was 13 or so my mother and I visited Scotland. There was a bagpiper on the street corner. That happened to be directly underneath our hotel window. He was not particularly good, but he made up for his shortcomings in tenacity.
I still say he should have been arrested for terrorism. I haven't been able to countenance the pipes since, which is a minor problem given Stingray loves 'em.
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