The ways we measure things here in Canada are a bit of a mixture. We have eagerly embraced metric measures in some matters, but we still have obscure hold-outs – like “a dozen.” What’s that about? I even hear people sometimes talking about “a fortnight, or “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” even when some no longer know which is bigger – a pound or an ounce. But back to a dozen – it is still the primary measuring stick of eggs, doughnuts, beers, and retailers still talk about “cheaper by the dozen.” So this week on Routes & Branches & Beyond I have the dozenth episode of “Celtic Spring.”
There are Irish jam sessions, Scottish marmalade sessions, even a few Quebecois maple syrup sessions, pipes of all makes, soaring contra dances, and lots of bellows that wheeze and squeak, instruments that go plunk, and percussion that goes “diddley-duddley-doodley-thud.” From bands like Open House, Norouet, North Atlantic Drift, Old Blind Dogs, The Old Sod Band, Open the door for three, Liam O’Flynn, Northern Light, Gerry O’Connor, The O’Pears, Máirtín O’Connor, Old Salt Union, Chris Norman Ensemble, and Nua. Find a dozen friends and join us.
