Posted on 07/07/2007 1:37:47 PM PDT by Enchante
GLASGOW -- Last Saturday afternoon, baggage handler John Smeaton was standing in front of Glasgow Airport smoking a cigarette when a Jeep Cherokee burst into flames nearby. He watched its burning driver emerge. A police officer pursued the passenger.
What happened next has turned Mr. Smeaton, 31 years old, into an unlikely folk hero. When he saw the passenger hitting the officer, Mr. Smeaton ran over and kicked the assailant.
Mr. Smeaton has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN and other networks about his response to the attack in which two suspected terrorists attempted to ram into the airport's main terminal. (See the CNN interview.) In a Glaswegian accent that is at times impenetrable -- Australia's Channel 7 subtitled its interview with him -- Mr. Smeaton voiced a defiance that has turned him into a de facto spokesman for Glasgow's fighting spirit. His message to terrorists: "You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it," he says. "We'll just set aboot ye." (Translation: "In Glasgow, we'll just deck you.")
By the next evening, an admirer had created a Web site devoted to Mr. Smeaton -- nicknaming him Smeato. It includes links to his media interviews, purported details from his past (he once owned a ferret) and a plea for Britons to buy him a pint in the bar at the airport's Holiday Inn hotel. There is also a picture of Osama bin Laden with the caption: "You told me John Smeaton was off on Saturdays!"
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Close enough old sport! An earlier article had The Greatest Headline Of All Time: "I kicked him so hard in the balls that I tore a tendon!"
ROTFLMAO I just had beef goulash shoot out my nose, thinking about how hard that must have been. LOL :-) I don't know if it's the wine, or a late weekend evening, but that is a funny image.
You mean he won’t be having any more kids, or the ones he has will have two heads ;-)
Achmed replied, "NO! I told you, 'John Smeaton is always ready to go off on Saturdays'."
“Sam Johnson wouldve clobbered him one.”
Perhaps, though it is unlikely that Sam would have been stupid enough to make the crack about “oats for horses”.
Ping
And you say he’s a Rangers’ fan. H’way the lads.
English writing English is just sublime. Even their worst writers (Martin Amis, et al) can still turn a phrase.
[However, we Yanks would use "handsful", rather than "handfulls"]
I just LOVE a thick Scottish burr!!
The first time I ever heard of Cockney rhyming slang was when I read the Dick Francis novel, "Driving Force". Highly amusing, and requires thought to get to the meaning sometimes.
He was notoriously anti-Scot, but if he knew you he would always make an exception. Boswell, his autobiographer, was a Scotsman and a close friend, but he had to put up with a certain amount of anti-Caledonian sniping.
I guess the terrorists flambe' just didn't understand that you do not mess with a Keelie. They are hard, tough little men who don't need any encouragement to "get tore in!"
The poem is circulating on the internet anonymously, maybe the author will come forward.
I would translate “set aboot ye” not so much as “decking” somebody, as with a single punch, but more along the lines of administering a thorough beating with head butts (the usual opening gambit in a Glasgow free-for-all) kicks and punches until the recipient stops moving . . . .
Maybe the muzzie equivalent of one of those flaming paper bags bad boys leave on doorsteps?
Sam DID make the crack about oats — he was the man who made it originally. I believe it’s in his famous Dictionary, as the definition of OATS - “A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
He was notoriously anti-Scot, but if he knew you he would always make an exception. Boswell, his autobiographer, was a Scotsman and a close friend, but he had to put up with a certain amount of anti-Caledonian sniping.
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I thought better of him; not only making a stupid remark but going into print with it. Oh well, even Jove nods, e.g., David Hume, a non-stupid man by most accounts (and a Scot) had similarly stupid views about non-whites.
But I wouldn't do that. Hat's off to Rangers supporters today.
You have to understand, as far as Hume is concerned, that most people in England (and especially Scotland) had never even SEEN a non-white person. His remarks were purely theoretical, not personal.
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