Things are really getting ugly in Scotland....

I think what strikes Americans first upon reading this is that the ocean seems very, very large. Over in Scotland the big scandal is cabbages and cauliflower. Over here it's executives bilking their company of $600 million, destroying the retirement funds of hundreds of employees and ruining the investments of thousands of shareholders. It's our involvement in an illegal and immoral war that is ruining the military, causing death and injury to countless thousands, threatening the economy and causing scorn and hatred in the rest of the world.

None of this justifies the humiliation that the employees of the Bank of Scotland suffered, of course. It was more than just a stupid idea, as they have now discovered.

John O'Groats

In the past week I've seen two separate references to a place called John O'Groats, which was unknown to me, and since the name has a ring to it, I had to look it up. Turns out it's argueably the northernmost point of Britain's four corners. Anyone looking to make the long trek to prove a point goes from Land's End, the southernmost part of England, to John O'Groats, in Scotland.

I was hoping to find out who this John fella was and if he really did eat a lot of oatmeal, but reality didn't quite live up to my imagination. John O'Groats was named after a Dutchman, Jan de Groot, who came to the area in 1476 and operated a ferry to the Orkney islands.

The nearby Stacks of Duncansby look cool.

You can see puffins there. I would go just for that!

More info here, here and here.