The Scottish pub?

[frequent]

As an emigrant from Scotland, I was taken aback by the weird foreignness of the south of England. Some of the south’s strangeness took a while to register — for example, just how crowded it was down here, and how very much warmer: it was my third summer in the south before it dawned on me that this wasn’t another freak heatwave. Then there were all the very obvious, immediate differences — the banknotes all being issued by the same bank, the way everyone talked and nobody could understand a word I said and, above all, the pubs.

Back home, my local had been one of those scary-looking Scottish places — a flat-roofed concrete bunker with frosted-glass windows, a public house that was distinguishable from a public convenience only by the large, neon T for Tennent’s sign, whose bar staff would rarely indulge in any backchat or bantz that would come between their customers’ half-and-halfs or pints of eighty shilling.

But down in the south, pubs were different. They had sloping roofs. Some of them, especially in what passed for the countryside, were actively pretty. Then again, where was the silent respect for the serious business of getting the paying customer’s blood-alcohol level back up to normal toxicity? Down here, the bar staff were chattily friendly. Often led by that terrible English creation, the character landlord — smug, bluff and given to propping himself up on the wrong side of the counter to joke and jeer and tell you all about himself. Unbay. Fucking. Lievable.

From https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/my-grandmothers-perfect-pub-a-memoir-by-laura-thompson/

[pennyboy]

My serious drinking years were spent in Glasgow pubs the vast majority of which were filled with friendly staff and customers. My local was the ground floor of a tenement block but I have never been in a better pub, Perhaps this might be due to the fact that I like other people and enjoy being in company.

[scottish-guy]

Harry Ritchie, the author of the piece, hails from Kirkcaldy in Fife. There is a limited amount of background available online, but he appears to have left Scotland after studying at Edinburgh University

I'd therefore suggest that his experience of Scottish pubs must be rather limited - from the age of 18 to mid-twenties at most (even allowing for the possibility of him being a very slow learner indeed).

He has since become anglified and it's abundantly clear that whatever deficiencies there may be in his knowledge of Scottish pubs, he has certainly developed a full mastery of the art of the Scottish cringe.

His finest hour appears to be having written a book on English Grammar (what a page turner that must be) and he is now writing for the Spectator - edited by another anglified Scot-loathing emigree, Fraser Nelson - who once worked as a barman in Rosyth, near Kirkcaldy. What a co-incidence!.

All that's missing now is for them to enlist Fife's finest - one who has taken the deprecation of his homeland to a whole new level, to the extent that reportedly he could not even allow himself to utter the word "Scotland" when meeting foreign dignitaries - replacing the name of his birthplace with "North Britain". The biggest Uncle Tom that Fife and Kirkcaldy (to which his family moved when he was three) has ever produced.

You can figure his identity out for yourselves - but I'm left with the conclusion that there must have been something in the Kirkcaldy air which affected these people - perhaps the notorious smell which emanated from the Linoleum factories in times gone past? If so, it might explain why all three go around with their noses permanently in the air.

[arsenal]

I've always found the English and our ability to self deprecate one of our most endearing traits. I didn't find the piece remotely anti Scottish, just a guy writing warmly about his homeland. Perhaps the English have a swagger that allows us the confidence to laugh at ourselves. Bill Bryson's intro in his book Notes from a Small Island is perhaps the funniest thing I've ever read.

[frequent]

I've always found the English and our ability to self deprecate one of our most endearing traits. I didn't find the piece remotely anti Scottish, just a guy writing warmly about his homeland. Perhaps the English have a swagger that allows us the confidence to laugh at ourselves. Bill Bryson's intro in his book Notes from a Small Island is perhaps the funniest thing I've ever read.Bryson as an American is an exception. You have only to read what paborn or MFAS write about me to realise self-deprecation is utterly alien to them

Ricky Gervais got it right when he wrote a few years ago:
There’s a received wisdom in the U.K. that Americans don’t get irony. This is of course not true. But what is true is that they don’t use it all the time. It shows up in the smarter comedies but Americans don’t use it as much socially as Brits. We use it as liberally as prepositions in every day speech. We tease our friends. We use sarcasm as a shield and a weapon. We avoid sincerity until it’s absolutely necessary. We mercilessly take the piss out of people we like or dislike basically. And ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out.

This can sometimes be perceived as nasty if the recipients aren’t used to it. It isn’t. It’s play fighting. It’s almost a sign of affection if we like you, and ego bursting if we don’t. You just have to know which one it is.
http://time.com/3720218/difference-between-american-british-humour/

[scottish-guy]

Some might say that the English have much to be self-deprecating about.

But I wouldn't dream of it.

[paborn]

OK. One of my quick "peekless" observations.

First: article about Scotish pubs.
Then, Pennyboy makes a perfectly reasonable and unbiased comment.
Then, SG takes umbrage as he believes, probably falsely, that the homeland is under attack. He goes on and on about this.
Arsenal responds about a well known and much-appreciated trait of the English. One that Americans have come to appreciate from years and years of BBC borrowings by our public broadcasters. Unfortunately, he mentions an American author.
This, of course, sets the freak off. Hard to say where he went with it Bryson is such a celebrated humorist that the Freak may have only used it as a fulcrum to say something silly about me while defending, however obliquely, his perceived superiority.
So, how did I do? I would appreciate an observation from outside the mental ward whose drivel I don't read.

[arsenal]

Scottish Guy wrote.
"Some might say that the English have much to be self-deprecating about."

I can't imagine that anyone would say that.

[scottish-guy]

... I would appreciate an observation from outside the mental ward whose drivel I don't read.

That'll be the "drivel" which you never read yet know every detail of and can't resist commenting on - right?

You seem to be obsessed with Frequent allegedly claiming "superiority" over you - but here's the thing - anybody who didn't think there was any truth in such a claim would just let it go over their head.

But to actually invent the claim - when he has said no such thing - points to an inferiority complex.

The Doctor will see you now.

:drink:

[frequent]

That'll be the "drivel" which you never read yet know every detail of and can't resist commenting on - right? You seem to be obsessed with Frequent allegedly claiming "superiority" over you - but here's the thing - anybody who didn't think there was any truth in such a claim would just let it go over their head. But to actually invent the claim - when he has said no such thing - points to an inferiority complex. The Doctor will see you now.I think you'll find the poor love is referring to my post in this thread https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?20301-Karma/page3. More "peaking" I'm afraid

[scottish-guy]

But all you did was identify him (by omission) as one of the hoi polloi - and I think you were being generous.

Case dismissed.

[frequent]

But all you did was identify him (by omission) as one of the hoi polloi - and I think you were being generous.

Case dismissed.Evidently the truth hurts