Scottish perspective on news, sport, business, lifestyle, food and drink and more, from Scotland's national newspaper, The Scotsman.

Sir Walter Scott in his novel The Antiquary (1816) refers to Aiken Drum in a story told by an old beggar about the origins of what has been perceived by the protagonist as a Roman fort. The beggar tells him that it was actually built by him and others for "auld Aiken Drum's bridal" and that one of the masons cut the shape of a ladle into the stone as a joke on the bridegroom.

The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England.Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the government …

George Takei (/ t ə ˈ k eɪ /; Japanese: ジョージ・タケイ; born Hosato Takei (武井 穂郷), April 20, 1937) is an American actor, author and activist known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the fictional starship USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek and subsequent films.. Takei was born to Japanese American parents, with whom he lived in U.S.-run internment ...

Roderick E. Liddle [citation needed] (born 1 April 1960) is an English journalist and an associate editor of The Spectator.He was an editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. His published works include Too Beautiful for You (2003), Love Will Destroy Everything (2007), The Best of Liddle Britain (co-author, 2007) and the semi-autobiographical Selfish Whining Monkeys (2014).

Sir Sandford Fleming FRSC KCMG (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor.Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of …

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes.Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha or, in Spanish, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (changing in Part 2 to El ingenioso caballero don Quixote de la Mancha). A founding work of Western literature, it is often labelled as the first …

Purpose of signatures. Signatures on Wikipedia identify you as a user and your contributions to Wikipedia. They encourage civility, collaboration, and communication by identifying the author of a particular comment and the date and time at which it was made.Because of that, having an uncivil signature (especially one that makes any kind of personal attacks toward someone else) …

Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, and also potentially exposing the genitals.Mooning is used in the English-speaking world to express protest, scorn, disrespect, or for provocation, but mooning can be done for shock value, for fun, as a joke or as a form of …

Craic (/ k r æ k / KRAK) or crack is a term for news, gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland. It is often used with the definite article – the craic – as in the expression "What's the craic?" (meaning "How are you?" or "What's happening?"). The word has an unusual history; the Scots and English crack was borrowed into Irish as craic in ...