[color=#000000:post_uid0]I was looking at the Stornoway Gazette website when I cam accross this article. I know I (unfortunately) don't actually live there any more, but I'm still more than slightly heartened to hear that there might soon be a lot less of the little buggers.

Also of interest is this - it gives you a pretty good idea of what the Hebrides is like.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]Also of interest is this - it gives you a pretty good idea of what the Hebrides is like.[/quote:post_uid0]

They banned the maypole?

Most of what I know about the Hebrides is that the name was stolen for a concert band suite that turned out to be a ripoff of Holst suite (1st in F or 2nd in Eb or vice versa).

And that most people in my high school band class couldn't pronounce "Hebrides" properly.

Why anyone would want to live on a rainy, windswept pile of rocks in the middle of the ocean is beyond me. Silly Norse had to go and start a trend.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Maypole?? Don't be daft. Though knowing the Free Chruch they'd want that banned too if people started doing it.[/color:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0="Sa'ar Chasm"][color=#000000:post_uid0]Most of what I know about the Hebrides is that the name was stolen for a concert band suite that turned out to be a ripoff of Holst suite (1st in F or 2nd in Eb or vice versa).[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]Well, there's Mendelssohn's [i:post_uid0]Fingal's Cave[/i:post_uid0] overture, which is also known as [i:post_uid0]The Hebrides[/i:post_uid0], but that predates Holst by quite a few years.

PHJ, I couldn't get your article links to work (MSN called it a "technical problem" with the publisher, but they're always trying to put the blame on someone else. :eyeroll: ) I'll try again later.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]It's not just you. I can't get the site up now either.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]What about midges? Are they like our West Nile-carrying mosquitos?[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Neek-breek, neek-breek.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]:O

AHHHHH! Neekerbreekers![/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Snh. Snh. Snh. :sniggers loudly:

:lol:[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]It's kinda sad that I get that. I've been reading my copy of the [i:post_uid0]Tolkien Bestiary[/i:post_uid0] waaay to much recently.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]^ Haven't read that, but the Neekerbreekers (name coined by Sam Gamgee) are encountered in [i:post_uid0]FotR[/i:post_uid0] (the book) by Aragorn and the hobbits in the Midgewater Marshes on the trip from Bree to Rivendell.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Reliable sources tell me that the "What do they eat when they can't get hobbit?" line shows up in the deleted scenes on the DVD.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Absolutely barking, howling mad, the lot of you. ;)[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]And so ... ? :p[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]...it begins.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Naaah. It's been going on for a long time, now. ;)

PHJ, was just looking at the thread title again. H&I? Assuming the H is for Hebrides, would the I be Iona?[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Actually it stands for Highlands & Islands. It covers the Scottish Highlands (obvoiusly), the Inner and Outer Hebrides, and (I think, but I'm not 100% sure) the Shetlands and the Orkneys.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]That [i:post_uid0]would[/i:post_uid0] make more sense. "Highlands & Islands" did in fact occur to me a bit later, but for whatever reason, Iona was what popped into my head first.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]My first thought probably would have been Harris and Islay, which shows how random my brain can be.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Islay got into the process, too, which might have made a [i:post_uid0]little[/i:post_uid0] more sense than Iona, but not much.[/color:post_uid0]