Ok, this is going to take a bit of doing,
so hang on, and watch,
if you will,
a slightly out of practice literary comparatist work:
what do James Herriot and German National Unity Day have in common?
James Herriot, the creator of All Creatures Great And Small,
All Things Wise And Wonderful,
and the entire rest of the Charles Wesley- Ludwig (Louis) Spohr song-
actual title: All Things Bright And Beautiful
called himself James Herriot for Heriot Watt University in Edinburg,
Charles Wesley studied at Christ Church Oxford,
both of which are, at the moment, still in the UK.
And the composer of the actual music, Ludwig Spohr,
is a German.
Ha, gotcha.
Already linked in-
And since the entire world of German politics is momentarily in Gutenberg Land,
“all creatures great and small”….
And then, of course, there is the fact that,
according to Carl Amery,
the Scottish throne was once actually appropriated from the Kings of Bavaria.
(Bavaria is today still not totally a full-fledged member of the German Federation,
but, despite serious separatist attempts to free the “Free State of Bavaria”
from the clutches of… )
(fill in the blank yourself with anything seriously devastating and anti “Preiss”
ie Prussian,
ie Germans living north of the white sausage equator)
a certain kind of uneasy co-existence does exist,
except for the moments during the “Blecking”
a yearly Bavarian custom of gathering in a beer hall
to “humorously” attack politicians,
or Fastnacht, Fassenacht, or Carnival on the Rhine around Mardi Gras time,
when the locals take the hide off of all German politicians,
including the Bavarians,
and don’t neglect the Uk, including various Scottish interests, either.
And then, of course, there are the Scottish bagpipe bands,
like the Happy German Bagpipers, who just did a tour through Scotland,
or the Highland Cathedral bagpipe group of Oldenburg,
who play with, up to and including, Radio Symphony Orchestras.
And, of course, the piece de resistance,
the pride of Gutenberg City,
the best and loudest this side of Pitlochry,
(maybe I’m just a bit prejudiced)
the Moguntia Pipes And Drums.
And if that ain’t German Unity meets James Heriot,
I don’t know what is.
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Quahog on a Tightrope 