I've always been a cider guy, when the choice was otherwise beer. Among my apparent abnormalities is a lack of whatever gene causes people to like beer ( or coffee or baseball ) Have to drink something in a pub, so ... cider. In the US it hasn't really caught on ( at least among the Bud Lite crowd ) but a few brands are available in stores ( I have to rely on carry out as I pretty much never voluntarily walk into a bar - even now when they are non-smoking ) Alcohol in general was never the bullet with my name on it ( though growing up in the 60s that really wasn't a problem <g> )

BTW re Scottish nationalists : I once ran into one in Inverness who convinced me the Stone of Scone in the Coronation Throne is a fake. Made a pretty convincing argument that a whole bunch of monks whose soul purpose was to protect the Stone and knew Edward was coming weren't likely to leave it lying around to be filched. Probably just replaced it with something they dug out of the privy.

When I asked this guy about "Bank of Scotland" bank notes he said "Aye, we took their bloody queen - but we kept our own banks!"



>>>>>>Opportunists! :)
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>>>>>>The hope is that someday it will be "The British Union". :)
>>>>>
>>>>>Doubtful, what with the Scottish Nationalists wanting to secede, and now the bloody Cornish, we'll be lucky if we can still fly the Union Jack, and not just the cross of St George!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>lol. Next thing you know the Welsh and Northern Irish will want to go it alone.
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>>>Well the Welsh do have their own Assembly now (not like the Scottish parliament) and their Plaid Cymru party has fought for independance for years. Jeez the British Empire will have shrunk if they and NI go, with the Jocks.
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>>>At least there's no Welsh componenet to the flag to lose. Funny that the Cornish don't consider themselves English although it's within the borders. They were orginally Celts like the Welsh and they have their own lingo.
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>>And scrumpy !
>
>Nothing beats my favourite Breton cider - Menez Brug. Comes in a stoppered bottle cos fizzy. Both dry and sweet at the same time, each mouthful quenches your thirst but, just as you swallow it, it leaves you thirsty for more. Remarkable. When you let it go flat (if you can resist not finishing the bottle) it tastes like a west country scrumpy. You can't lose!
>
>BTW, I don't know if its the case in the US but over here we've had an invasion of Irish cider - Magners. The Irish!? Nevere famous fore owt but Guinness and whiskey, drinks-wise. A few years ago it was their creamy bitters, like Kilkenney, Caffreys and Beamish. They've had some clever TV advertising, plugging the spring and summer nature of cider, and I've noticed at certain pubs, esp. during the day, all hands drinking it, or this other organic cider. I read that cider has overtaken beer as the take-home tipple of choice for the English (this gas even been tagged "The Magners Effect")