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Question
i have heard of the first glass of scotch one might have during the day being called an "elbow glass" ie. when one props oneself up in bed on one elbow you take your first glass. I have also heard of two others but can not remember them. Any information on this???
Hi Russell
this is news to me, but I guess it depends on what area of the country it's meant to have been from. Having your first drink of the day in bed sounds pretty full-on to me. The only reference to anything akin to this I know is 'elbow bender', which is drinking in general, usually to extreme - it's where 'going on a bender' comes from I think. I've heard of loads of words to describe advanced states of inebriation - while people here say the Inuit have dozens of words for snow, we seem to have dozens for being drunk and also for mud/dirt and the process of being mucky, the two things perhaps having some direct correlation ...
Sorry not to be of more help - if I do find something out, I'll add it to this answer page!
best wishes
Kaye
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Kaye McAlpine
Expertise
Lifecycle (birth, marriage, death) customs in Scotland, Early Modern Scottish social customs, modern Scottish social customs, Border March laws and procedures, criminal processes and judicial execution practices, social history in Early Modern Scotland, ephemera printing in Scotland. While I have some knowledge of the clan system and function of the clan society (Highland and Lowland), I am not a an expert in clan genealogy. Having traced back my own family over a couple of centuries, and traced others due to academic research, I do know how the system works, however. This doesn't mean that I'm a genealogist. Please note that I do not speak Gaelic.
Experience
Research Fellow (University of Edinburgh).
Contributer to various books and journals on ballads, including Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, The Ballad and History and The Harris Repertoire.
Freelance tutor in outreach courses from Edinburgh University on Scottish Culture and Tradition, including lifecycle customs, broadsheet ballads in Scotland, the traditional ballad and history.
Freelance writer, guest presenter on Ch4 History Hunters programme, contributor to BBC Radio Scotland's 'Songlines' series on 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow'.
Currently co-director of a media production company
Publications
Books:
Forthcoming: The Gallows and The Stake
Published: Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, vol. 10, chapter on The Traditional and the Border Ballad; The Harris Repertoire (2000, Scottish Text Society, co-editor), The Ballad in History (chapter on Border ballads). Journals include Folklore, The Review of Scottish Culture,Sottish Studies, and The Scottish Literary Journal
Education/Credentials
Ph D, M. Phil, BA (hons)
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