This Burns Me Up

As in Robbie Burns.  I just read that the haggis has been banned in the United States since 1971, all thanks to FDA squeamishness about the inclusion of sheep lung in the authentic recipe.

Haggis, of course, is a concoction of sheep's liver, heart and lung (commonly called "pluck") mixed with oatmeal, onion, suet and spices, soaked in stock and then stuffed into a sheep's stomach and boiled.   Don't turn your nose up at it until you've savored it yourself.  It's truly delicious.

Banned in the United States?  As one Scottish butcher from Vancouver put it during a CBC radio interview several years ago when the host said it made her squeamish, "do you eat hotdogs?"   Now there you're going to find some severely compromised products only they don't bother to list them on the package.



Meanwhile, in Scotland, support for sovereignty has fallen significantly.

Support for independence in Scotland is at its lowest since the country got a semi-autonomous government in 1999, the annual Scottish Social Attitudes survey has revealed.

Backing for independence fell to 23 per cent last year from 32 per cent in 2011.

The proportion of people thinking independence would give Scotland a stronger voice in the world fell to 42 per cent from 51 per cent.