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#10623 11/26/00 02:53 PM
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>I have a feeling that Edinbuurgh had its soubriquet of "Auld Reekie" long before that - am I right, Jo? Maybe the inhabitants could afford bigger and better fires than the Londoners - or maybe it's because Edinburgh is a damned cold place!

Edinbuurgh or Edinbrrrrrgh? Actually the sun is shining on this lovely autumn day.

It looks like Burns used the term in the 1780s and there are plenty of references to Edinburgh's 10,000 chimneys. see http://members.home.net/iowascot/Scottish Bits/edinburgh.htm

To Miss Ferrier
Enclosing the Elegy on Sir J. H. Blair. (Burns - 1787)
Nae heathen name shall I prefix,
Frae Pindus or Parnassus;
Auld Reekie dings them a' to sticks,
For rhyme-inspiring lasses.

Jove's tunefu' dochters three times three
Made Homer deep their debtor;
But, gien the body half an e'e,
Nine Ferriers wad done better!

Last day my mind was in a bog,
Down George's Street I stoited;
A creeping cauld prosaic fog
My very sense doited.

Do what I dought to set her free,
My saul lay in the mire;
Ye turned a neuk-I saw your e'e-
She took the wing like fire!

The mournfu' sang I here enclose,
In gratitude I send you,
And pray, in rhyme as weel as prose,
A' gude things may attend you!

but I found an earlier reference:
As we know, Edinburgh people didn't actually walk down streets - they just went through the motions.

From: "An Edinburgh Day" (An extract from the long poem "Auld Reekie" by Robert Fergusson, 1750-74)
On stair wi' tub, or pat in hand
The barefoot housemaids looe to stand,
That antrin fock may ken how snell
Auld Reikie will at morning smell:
Then, with an inundation big as
The burn that 'neath the nore loch brig is,
They kindly shower Edina's Roses*,


#10624 11/26/00 08:21 PM
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enthusiast
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I think that Chicago is know as the Windy City, a title sometimes borrowed by Edinburgh.

...and also by Wellington NZ, I believe. Or is it just 'Windy Wellington'? Are you there, Capital Kiwi?


#10625 11/26/00 09:04 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Or is it just 'Windy Wellington'?

Absolutely, postively. Living as I do in a small provincial city of around 50, 000, Windy Wellington is my favourite among NZ's larger cities. It is still the cultural hub of the country, and has the feel of being a wonderfully cosmopolitan overgrown village. One hasn't truly lived until one has crossed Cook Strait at night in a gale - now that's entertainment, at least for those of us born with total immunity to motion sickness.


#10626 12/02/00 12:41 PM
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In reply to:

Max wrote, from Balmy Palmy,

Absolutely, postively. Living as I do in a small provincial city of around 50, 000, Windy Wellington is my favourite among NZ's larger cities. It is still the cultural hub of the country, and has the feel of being a wonderfully cosmopolitan overgrown village. One hasn't truly lived until one has crossed Cook Strait at night in a gale - now that's entertainment, at least for those of us born with total immunity to motion sickness.


Hmmm. You may be interested to know (if you didn't already) that Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies which are being made in NZ at some ridiculously large cost, referred to Wellington as "a village with skyscrapers".

Right now there are sixty kmh wind gusts battering my house. As the locals say, you can't beat Wellington on a good day. And you learn to appreciate them because they are few and far between!





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#10627 12/02/00 04:50 PM
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Max wrote, from Balmy Palmy,

Not bloody likely, chum! Palmerston has the wind of Wellington without the redeeming natural beauty - a flat, featureless blot on the landscape. I'm in Hastings, home of Wein, Weib, und Gesang, or at least in my home, my weib would would whine if I (ge)sang! BTW, thanks for the Jackson quote, confirms my view - formed largely through visits to my sister, who's lived in Whanganui a Tara for the last 16 years, most of them in Karori.



#10628 12/02/00 10:59 PM
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Max wrote: Not bloody likely, chum! Palmerston has the wind of Wellington without the redeeming natural beauty - a flat, featureless blot on the landscape

No arguments there ...

And, I'm in Hastings, home of Wein, Weib, und Gesang, or at least in my home, my weib would would whine if I (ge)sang!

Oh, that place hanging off the bottom of Napier on the map? Renowned as a last stop for intending alcoholics ... at least that why my uncle went there. He couldn't wait for the wine to mature, thought he better go to the source.

Sorry chum, I thought it was Balmy Palmy!



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#10629 12/07/00 10:45 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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[greenOh, that place hanging off the bottom of Napier

! ! ! ! ! !
I wonder what that revered General thinks of this!


#10630 12/07/00 07:47 PM
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I wonder what that revered General thinks of this!

I wonder what he would think of the fact that the city named after him doesn't want his statue. Apparently the current owners of the staue offered it to Napier City, who said, "no thanks."



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In reply to:

I should become an addict just in time for Christmas


Well here I am, a registered addict two weeks ahead of schedule. Presumably I need a bigger and bigger fix as time goes by and I continue the spiral down into hopeless degradation.

Bingley



Bingley
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continue the spiral...

I am never sure whether to offer congratulations - or commiserations!

But long may you continue to share your wisdom here, Mr B


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