Scotland with Sara
Liar's Poker, Scottish Suppers and Sweets, Sara Hickman, Dansby Swanson, Road Rise
Welcome to my 192nd newsletter. This issue includes ten highlights of our recent musical tour of Scotland, the book I finished reading during the tour, some fantastic foods we enjoyed, our singer/songwriter host, the Cubs’ slugger who is on quite a heater, and a hump in the road. I hope you like the picks and pics.
On Wednesday Barb and I returned from nearly a month in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. Our trip began with a ten-day tour of Scotland led by Raven Sinclaire with musical host Sara Hickman.
We enjoyed getting to know our 28 fellow travelers, Many of them were from Texas, which is not a state where euchre is played. Barb and I taught some of them how to play the game, and several caught on very quickly and played quite well.
The scenery, history, food, music, and camaraderie were delightful. The weather was cool and occasionally rainy, quite different from the ninety-degree temps we encountered on returning to Michigan.
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Fave Five 192: Scotland with Sara
Bonds—Boom and Bust (Liar’s Poker), Scottish Suppers and Sweets, Singer of Simply (Sara Hickman), Historic Heater (Dansby Swanson), and a Road Rise.
Fave Five List: The Tour’s Ten Terrific Things
Here are ten highlights of our Scottish music tour with Sara Hickman:
Saturday, June 6: Rosslyn Chapel
Sunday, June 7: Dunkeld Cathedral
Sunday, June 7: Perth - Private Concert by Anna Massie
Sunday, June 8: Perth Art Gallery
Sunday, June 8: Perth - Private Concert with Tim Edey
Tuesday, June 9: Isle of Skye - Private Concert with Deirdre Graham
Wednesday, June 10 Dunvegan Castle & Gardens
Thursday, June 11: Portree - The Lump (view from the Apothecary’s Tower)
Friday, June 12: Dryman - Private Concert with Sara Hickman
Saturday, June 13: Balmaha - Loch Lomond with storyteller David Hughes
Book Best Bet
I previously featured Moneyball and Flash Boys by the same author. This is his first book, published in 1989. My friend Bill Sterling had recommended it long ago, and I finally got around to reading it. It is well-written and entertaining, featuring financial follies and managerial mistakes that continue to be made right up to the present day.
From Amazon: The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker.
Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush.
Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years—a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.
The author recounts his experiences on the lucrative Wall Street bond market of the 1980s, where young traders made millions in a very short time, in a humorous account of greed and epic folly.
Restaurant Recommendations
Scottish Suppers and Sweets
Here are the meals and snacks I liked best during the tour.
Three Blind Mice Edinburgh
Chorizo Special Pizza
Taste Perthshire Perth
Fisherman’s Platter : Hot Smoked Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Prawn Marie Rose & Peppered Mackerel Fillet with cucumber & tomato salad, lemon mayonnaise & granary bread.
Paco’s Restaurant Perth
Hot slices of grilled sirlion steak served on a mixed salad
Broadford Hotel - Gabbro Bar Broadford
Fish and chips
Claymore Restaurant Harrapool
Grilled scallops on black pudding and chili sauce
The Bosville Hotel - Dulse & Brose Portree
Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank: The lamb is succulent and falls off the bone with ease, served with creamy mashed potatoes and rich gravy.
The Bakery Pitlochry
Almond Croissant
Cinnamon Bun
The Green Welly Stop Restaurant Tyndrum
Mars Cake: The legendary Mars Bar Crispy Cake is a staple favorite at The Green Welly Stop. It is a gooey, no-bake traybake made by melting Mars Bars with butter and golden syrup, tossing them with Rice Krispies, and topping them with a layer of milk chocolate.
Marvelous Musician
Sara, our musical tour host, was lively, friendly, and fun. She lives in Smithville, Texas and brought along her husband Lance Schriner and her daughters io Hickman and Lili Hickman.
On June 19, 2008, Sara performed a house concert in our home. I first heard her song “Salvador” on Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music, a compilation released by Windham Hill Records in 1989 to introduce listeners to a new crop of young singer-songwriters. Sara, Lance, io, and Lili stayed with us that night after a wonderful show.
From Wikipedia: Sara was born on March 1, 1963in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Both of her parents were artists, with her mother working as a fiber artist and her father as a painter. She grew up in Houston, Texas, where she attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as a vocal major. In 1986, she graduated from North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) with a BA in painting. She moved to Dallas in 1987, where she became a recording artist and musical entertainer. In 1995, she moved to Austin, Texas, where she now lives.
Sara is an avid supporter of numerous charities and organizations benefiting children, women, and health. She helps these organizations by creating awareness, donating her time and, often, contributing portions of the proceeds from her record sales. She has been awarded the Humana “Women Helping Women” award for her generous work with such organizations as Safe Place, Habitat for Humanity, House the Homeless, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Race for the Cure, and many other animal and human rights organizations. She was also made an honorary member of the National Association of Music Therapy because of her work in that area.
In the early 2000s, she was the National Ambassador for Half Price Books, helping to promote literacy throughout the United States by visiting hospitals and schools where she performed for and read to children. She was also Honorary Chair of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, and was invited to be Honorary Chair for the Austin Race for the Cure. The Texas State Commission on the Arts appointed her the Official Texas State Musician for 2010.
Simply
Mad World
We Are Other’s Angels
Austin City Limits
My Playlist
Sports Star
Dansby has driven in 26 runs over his past 10 games. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a player who had recently been benched for poor hitting.
Making sense of Dansby Swanson’s wild ride of a Cubs season: ‘We never have baseball figured out’
Amid a season of high highs and low lows, Swanson is hitting .210 with 16 home runs and 57 RBIs for a team on pace to win 92 games again heading into the Fourth of July weekend. Statcast also places him in the 94th percentile or higher in terms of fielding range, fielding run value and base-running value.
June 16: Marc Silverman, an ESPN 1000 host in Chicago, ran a Stathead search that highlighted Swanson’s .176 batting average as the worst of any position player with at least 265 plate appearances in the Cubs’ modern era. “There are two players who hit worse in the 1800s,” Silverman wrote on X. “The Cubs continue to let him play.”
Swanson goes 0-for-2 that evening as his batting average drops to .175, tied for worst among all eligible players in the game. Only a handful of everyday players have a worse wRC+ than Swanson’s 68.
June 24: In a doubleheader sweep of the New York Mets in Queens, Swanson goes 5-for-9 with two home runs and a triple. With 11 RBIs in the two games, Swanson passed names such as Billy Williams (nine) and Ron Santo (10) on the Cubs’ list for most RBIs in a doubleheader. Only Mark Whiten and Nate Colbert (both with 13) had more in a doubleheader in major-league history.
“His work behind the scenes has been so consistent and persistent,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “That still doesn’t guarantee results. But, man, does it feel good when those come through. To see someone like that have a historic stretch of games here has been a lot of fun to watch.”
Tuesday: An eye-popping graphic on the Marquee Sports Network broadcast showed that Swanson ranks fifth in National League history in career home runs as a shortstop. With 180, he trailed only Ernie Banks (277), Jimmy Rollins (227), Barry Larkin (194) and Troy Tulowitzki (187).
Wednesday: Swanson landed on another list of boldface names. Since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920, only five players have accumulated 26-plus in a 10-game span, according to research by MLB.com’s Sarah Langs: Swanson, Joe DiMaggio (1939), Jimmie Foxx (1933), Lou Gehrig (1931 and 1930) and Mel Ott (1929). Counsell had no way to explain how hot Swanson had gone after being so cold. Swanson agreed it was tough to unpack. It took him a moment to process how historic his run has been.
3-HR, 8 RBI Game
Picture Pun
I can’t get over this.
