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FATHER OF THE CLICHÉ

3/31/2023

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​​AND THE WINNER IS…
Ah, Ha! At last, the Literary Police have rooted out the culprit. It is now time for the Father of the Cliché to take his punishment. William Shakespeare, please stand up and face judgment!
                                         
                                                              
“Most Influential Writer in the English Language”

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“TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE”
  
[Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3]
William Shakespeare (baptized 26 April,1564 – 23 April, 1616) was the English playwright, poet and actor who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.
​

Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, his career began in London as an actor. He was soon renowned as a significant playwright and poet as well, and his influence on the English language has extended far beyond that time period and straight into our modern age.

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Wm. Shakespeare’s Birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon
Now a private residence

Image Source: dreamstime.com/stock-photos-stratford-shakespeares-birthplace
Shakespeare, known as the “Bard of Avon” or just “The Bard”, wrote and/or collaborated on 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other works, some of uncertain authorship. All of these have been translated into nearly every language in the world. Most of his works were written between 1589 and 1613. 

Even after four hundred plus years, and the advent of some pretty great writers, he remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare has a special knack for bringing to the surface the inherent human weaknesses that drive most of his writings. The best of his tragedies exhibit these well. In addition to his impact on writing and the handling of content, his works contributed significantly to the standardization of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.

EVERYONE HAS A PAST
Everyone and everything has a past, including the English language.
Ever since the first remnants of spoken language appeared somewhere around 50,000 years ago, languages have diverged into various veins which have since evolved into the 6,500 languages we have today.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, English “really took off” in the 5th century when three Germanic tribes [the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes] crossed the North Sea and invaded Britain. Up until that point the inhabitants of Briton spoke dialects of the Celtic language. The invasions drove many of the Celts north to what is now Scotland, Wales, and Ireland where dialects of the Celtic language survived.

● Old English
Old English developed during the period between the 5th and the 11th centuries, beginning with the invasion of the Germanic tribes. Throughout the 8th to 10th centuries, England experienced invasions from Viking tribes, ending with the (French) Norman invasion of England in 1066.

The word England and English originated from the Old English word Engla-land, literally meaning “the land of the Angles” where they spoke Englisc.
Old English is largely unintelligible to speakers and readers of modern English. For Example: 
“Fæder ure şu şe eart on heofonum, si şin nama gehalgod” translates to ““Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”, the first line of the Lord’s prayer. shortform.com/blog/evolution-of-english-language/

Old English gradually supplanted the old Latin and Celtic influences in England. Interestingly, the latter linguistic traditions left few personal or place-names today have Latin or Celtic antecedents.

● Middle English
Norman French, not English, was the language of the ruling elite in England for centuries after the Norman Conquest. Largely left to its own devices, English developed organically during the Middle Ages. Although Middle English suffered from lack of standardization, it is when English developed many of its more recognizable features.

By the mid-14th century, English had reasserted itself as a language of government and law, 
due to the fact that the political links between England and France were severed over the course of the centuries. Moreover, there was a shift in the character of written English. Although Medieval English dialects could vary widely even across short distances, the language was becoming more standardized. That process was long and uneven, but the spoken language started to sound more like the present-day English language.

● Early Modern English
The changes in the English language during this period occurred from the 15th to mid-17th Century, and signified not only a change in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar itself but also the start of the English Renaissance.

The printing press, first introduced in England by William Caxton in 1476, allowed Early Modern English to become mainstream. The printing press was key to standardizing the English language through distribution of the English Bible
.
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“ALAS, POOR YORICK”
THE BARD ARRIVES
Onto this scene bursts one William Shakespeare. At the time William Shakespeare did most of his writings [1589 thru 1613], the English language was undergoing serious changes due to contact with other nations through war, colonization, and the likes. No dictionaries had yet been written and most documents were still written in Latin.

These changes were further cemented through Shakespeare and other emerging playwrights who found their ideas could not be expressed through the English language currently in circulation. Thus, the “adoption” of words or phrases from other languages were modified and added to the English language, creating a richer experience for all concerned.

The Bard is credited for having contributed 1,700 words to the English language because he was the first author to write them down. At least as many phrases, and probably more, originated in his works and expressed ideas in new ways.


Where ever they came from, Shakespeare wrote down new words and phrases and was able to share them with the general public through the theater. They stuck and many became popular. Over the last four hundred years English speakers and writers have used them ad infinitum.

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GRAMERCY! THOU DOTH QUOTETH SHAKESPEARE
Without realizing it, you probably quote Shakespeare more often than you believe. English speakers can’t hold a conversation without a quote or two. Take a look at the abbreviated list of words and phrases that Shakespeare was first to conceive of, say, use in a particular form, use with his particular meaning, and so on. And the most important thing, he wrote them down and communicated them.


As well as inventing completely new words, he used existing words in inventive new ways. For example he was the first person to use 'friend' as a verb, as well as 'unfriended’ (Twelfth Night) and from 'gloom' he invented the word 'gloomy' (Titus Andronicus).
​

The following is an abbreviated list of words and phrases Shakespeare coined in this plays. They are in no particular order.

● all that glitters isn’t gold
● all the world’s a stage
● archvillian
● as good luck would have it
● assassination
● at one fell swoop
● a tower of strength

● a foregone conclusion
● a tongue in your head,
● a laughing stock
● a sorry sight
● a stony-hearted villain
● bloody-minded|
● a blinking idiot
● by jove
● barefaced
● be all and end all
● be that as it may
● b
edazzled
● been hoodwinked 
● been in a pickle
● belongings
,
● break the ice
● breathe one’s last
● brevity is the soul of wit
● but me no buts
● catch a cold
● cold-blooded
● cold comfort
● clothes make the man
● danced attendance
 on your lord and master
● disgraceful conduct
● dog will have his day

● dead as a doornail
● eyesore
● eaten out of house and home

● elbow room
● eventful
● fair play
●fancy-free
● flesh and blood
● flaming youth

● foregone conclusion
● for goodness sake
● fool you, for it is
● foul play
● frailty, thy name is woman
● give the devil his due
● good riddance
● gone in the twinkling of an eye

● green eyed monster
● had short shrift
● heart of gold
● heartsick
● hot-blooded
​
● housekeeping
● i
naudible
● in a pickle
● in stitches
● it smells to heaven
● it’s Greek to me
● it is all one to me

● it is high time
● knitted your brows
● lackluster
● laughed yourself into stitches
​
● leapfrog
● lie low
● live long day
● lived a fool’s paradise
●long-haired
● made a virtue of necessity
● manager

● method in his madness
● mind’s eye
● ministering angel
● more sinned against than sinning
● more in sorrow than in anger
● mum's the word
● naked truth
● neither a borrower nor a lender be
● neither here nor there

● o lord
● one fell swoop
● outrageous fortune
● pitched battle
● primrose path
● played fast and loose
● seen better days
● send me packing
● slept not one wink
● stood on ceremony

● strange bedfellows
● swagger
● the course of true love never did run smooth
● teeth set on edge
● that is the long and the short of it
● the devil incarnate

● the lady doth protest too much
● the milk of human kindness
● the game is up
● 
the truth will out
● the world’s your oyster
● to give the devil his due
● to budge an inch
● tongue-tied
● towering passion
● too much of a good thing
● till the crack of doom,
● tut, tut!
● uncomfortable
● vanished into thin air
● what the dickens
● wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve
● witching time of the night
● without rhyme or reason
● your wish is father to the thought
● 
There's method in my madness

● Wild-goose chase
Granted, the above is far from a complete list of clever phrases coined by the Bard. However, many of these phrases meet the definition of clichés, yet only nine of them appeared on a list of 681 clichés writers should never use. Stunned, I collapsed, but recovered sufficiently to type, “Maybe the Literary Police are wrong!” Mayhaps not all our clichés come from Shakespeare.
 
How many cliché phrases can you pick out of the list? No insult intended to the list of clichés I used, but c’mon. How can the phrases “Clothes make the man,” “In one fell swoop,” or “Strange bedfellows” not be cliché?
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An Elizabethan play                                                                Elizabethan Theater - Image Credit: Artist J. Beaven:
Image Source: pinterest.com/pin/17310779793801123/      Image Source: bookpalace.com/acatalog/info_BeavenTheatreLL.html
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“SOME HAVE GREATNESS THRUST UPON 'EM."
To put things in context, remember that in Elizabethan England the live stage was the mass entertainment of the people. That’s important for two reasons. First, because these plays were considered by the more elite population as low-brow and rather crude, sort of like mud-wrestling, and definitely not considered high art. Yet Shakespeare wrote for those who were educated and those who were not. The educated would understand his subtle jokes about politics, the court, and the double entendre of the more common words with sexual meanings. The “groundlings” appreciated the more vulgar jokes.
And indeed, Shakespeare’s uncensored plays were rife with “sexual language full of innuendo and rudeness” and the commoners loved it. rsc.org.uk/shakespeare/language/slang-and-sexual-language
​

Second, theater was the only source of public entertainment of this sort, and to keep the customers coming, the playhouses needed a lot of playwrights and new material all the time. The playwrights had plenty of competition. Not being “high art”, plays were disposable. Scripts belonged to the play houses which had little motivation to make copies for someone to flitch. Often playwrights collaborated on scripts for the theater and might not get credit for their work.As early as 1598 Shakespeare was lauded by others for his work and his reputation as a playwright and poet grew. Even His greatest contemporary rival, Ben Johnson, praised his comedies but took issue with his tragedies. While he received a large amount of praise, Shakespeare was certainly not revered in his lifetime, and others claimed he “wanted art”, meaning he lacked skill.

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                   Image Source: historyanswers.co.uk/shakespeares-first-folio

Because of the publication of Shakespeare’s “First Folio” ‒ a collection of his plays‒ published seven years after his death (1623), the Bard had a huge advantage over his peers whose works have largely been lost to posterity.
 
“BEWARE OF JEALOUSY: IT IS THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER”
“Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed.

All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

JUST SAYIN’ !
□

Sources:
https://www.thoughtco.com/list-of-phrases-shakespeare-invented-2985087#:~:text=The%20Most%20Popular%20Shakespearean%20Phrases%20A%20laughing%20stock,Merry%20Wives%20of%20Windsor%29%20A%20sorry%20sight
https://www.bardweb.net/content/ac/shakes-peers.html#:~:text=The%20publication%20of%20the%20First%20Folio%20in%201623,a%20genre%20and%20Shakespeare%27s%20relation%20to%20his%20peers.
https://www.oxfordinternationalenglish.com/a-brief-history-of-the-english-language/
https://www.thoughtco.com/events-history-of-the-english-language-1692746
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-shakespeare-quotes-2833137
https://www.languagetrainers.com/blog/shakespeare-still-has-it-10-words-he-invented-which-we-still-use-today/#:~:text
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-phrases/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
https://englishliterature.education/william-shakespeare/#:~:text
https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare/language
https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare/language/slang-and-sexual-language
https://theshakespearean.com/educational-resources/lesson-plans/the-language-of-shakespeare/#:~:text
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-the-english-language-is-shakespeares-language/
https://www.teck-translations.com/how-shakespeare-changed-the-english-language/
https://www.shortform.com/blog/evolution-of-english-language/
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-stratford-shakespeares-birthplace-image1890493
https://writers.com/how-to-avoid-cliches-in-writing#:~:text=
https://www.bardweb.net/content/ac/shakes-peers.html#:~:text=
https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/life-and-times/critical-reputation/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/947.William_Shakespeare
https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/medieval-renaissance/2-million-copy-of-shakespeares-first-folio-discovered/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/10-of-shakespeare-s-most-famous-quotes/ar-AA15spbK#:~:text=What%20are%20Shakespeare%E2%80%99s%20most%20fa

​
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GRANNY MYTHBUSTER is “MAD FOR PLAID”

3/3/2023

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   Anderson (m)        Bruce of Kinnaird (a)     Campbell Dress (a)    Campbell Dress (m)         Gordon Dress (a)          Gordon  Dress (m)          Macdiamid

​  Updated 03/03/2023
/ Originally posted 2018​
MAD FOR PLAID
March is the month designated month to celebrate the textile pattern “plaid”. Primarily associated with Scottish culture, Tartan — or plaid, as it is called in North America — is a particular twill weaving pattern of multicolored and crisscrossing horizontal and vertical bands, i.e. two sets of stripes at right angles. An individual tartan - with its color palette and stripe widths - is called a “sett”. 

This pattern, a fall and winter wardrobe staple, is found today all over the world. 
Although it is claimed by some that plaids originated as a way to distinguish Scottish clans in battle, when I traveled in Scotland, a guide explained that Clan plaids were really the product of the 19th century mercantile industry. An advertising ploy!

What a buzz kill!

I assumed the "Clan Plaid" story is what most people believe, so I put on my Granny  Mythbuster disguise to find out. Digging up the origins of traditions and languages is never short and sweet. And, as a general principle, never believe what a tour guide tells you.


IT IS WHAT IT IS…MAYBE
If you look up the words tartan and plaid on merriam-webster.com/dictionary/, these are the definitions you will get.

● “tartan (n)
1.= a plaid textile design of Scottish origin consisting of stripes of varying width and color usually patterned to designate a distinctive clan.
2a.) = a twilled woolen fabric with tartan design
2b.  = a fabric with tartan design
2c.  = a garment of tartan design.”


● “plaid (n)
1.  = a rectangular length of tartan worn over the left shoulder as part of the Scottish national costume.
2 a. = a twilled woolen fabric with a tartan pattern
2 b. = a fabric with a pattern of tartan or an imitation of tartan.
3a.  = TARTAN sense 1  [Don't ask me. I have no idea what this means] 
3b.  = a pattern of unevenly spaced repeated stripes crossing at right angles.”

In other words, a Tartan is a pattern and a Plaid is a piece (usually large) of tartan cloth. 
​
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IF YOU ARE SCOTTISH…

“Plaid” Means "A Blanket"
In North America we often – mistakenly-- use the term plaid to mean tartan. The word plaid -- derived from the Scottish Gaelic word plaide, which means blanket – is a tartan cloth worn over the shoulder as a kilt accessory or a plain blanket such as one would put on a bed.

◄  Soldiers from a Highland Regiment circa 1744.
Image Credit: image scanned from “Clans and Tartans,
Collins Pocket Reference”
Image Source: commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47104132

The earliest written use of the word plaid is a 1510 entry in the account of the diocese of Dunkeld, referring to an expense of two shilling for dying four ells of “pladis”. An "ell" was a length of 37.2 inches.

According to Danny Lewis, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/, the word “Plaid only replaced tartan once the patterns became popular with British and American textile manufacturers who would recreate fabrics that looked like tartans, but without centuries of symbolic meaning embedded in their clothing.”

“Tartan” Means A Pattern
The word tartan means a woven fabric made of crisscrossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colors; alternating bands pre-dyed threads woven with warp and weft at right angles to each other. This creates a distinctive pattern of squares called a sett.
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       Diagram of weaving a tartan plaid
        Source of Images: 
bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=Gotc0Gfp&id

In North American we not only use the word plaid to mean the pattern -- instead of tartan -- , but the term no longer applies only to woven cloth.

EARLIEST ORIGINS OF TARTAN WEAVE
Even though evidence of the Celtic tartan dates back to the 3th century, the oldest example of a tartan fabric goes back at least 3,000 years. It was found buried with the remains of “Cherchen Man,” a 6 foot tall mummy of Caucasian descent found in Turkestan in the western Chinese desert. The man was found buried wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings, the earliest example of tartan ever discovered.
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Source of Images: eternalcivilizations.blogspot.com/2019/cherchen-man
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According to the textile historian E. J. W. Barber, the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe, which is linked with ancient Celtic populations and flourished between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, produced tartan-like textiles. Other finds have been made in Europe and Northwestern China.

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Cherchen Man/ Ur-David -- mummy found in Cherchen, located in current Xinjiang region of China. The mummy is a member of the group known as Tarim mummies.
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                                                                                         Image Source: economist.com/china/2012/fast-and-loose  
​​SCOTTISH TARTANS
The earliest documented tartan in Britain, known as the "Falkirk" tartan, dates from the 3rd century AD. It was uncovered at Falkirk, Scotland, near the Roman-built Antonine Wall. The fragment of tartan cloth was stuffed into an earthenware pot containing almost 2,000 Roman silver coins. It is now in the National Museum of Scotland
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Remains of the only original Falkirk tartan – Image Credit: Fickr-
Image Source: oldest.org/culture/tartans/
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Registered “recreation” of the Falkirk tartan - Image Source:​tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails
So this pattern of weaving has existed in Scotland since the third century, and I assume it was used, along with others, through the centuries. The original goat-like sheep of ancient Scotland provided the fibers from which wool fabrics were made. The sheep were black, brown, or white. Thus, the early tartans were made of combinations of these colors.

Presumably, weaving skills were passed down from mother to daughter, and over time a particular design came to be associated with a specific district and possibly with an individual clan. Eventually, these local patterns became synonymous with the regional clans scattered throughout Scotland,

​At some point, weavers began to dye yarn, which resulted in new or at least brighter patterns. Even then, the dyes, which come from local and accessible plants and minerals, likely determined the colors and still identified the wearer of a tartan to the district.
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Image Credit and Source: By derivative work:
Celtus Scottish soldiers in service of Gustavus Adolphus,_1631.j
ttps://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5042497
SCOTTISH CLAN TARTANS - IT’S ALL POLITICS
Like everything, it’s all politics. Clan Tartans as we know them today are thought to originate in Scotland in 16th century. In 1703, Martin wrote A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, in which he noted that the tartans could be used to distinguish inhabitants of different regions. That was the beginning of a more formal recognition of a clan association with a particular tartan.

At that time, tartan designs were produced by local weavers for local tastes using the dye materials of the local area. The patterns and colors were the choice of the weaver and people picked and wore those based on personal preference.
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​​During the Scottish Rebellion of 1745, tartan was used in the uniforms of the leading Scottish military troop, The Royal Highland Regiment, or the Black Watch. The green and dark blue patterns became strongly associated with rebellion. However, depictions of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 show the monarchy’s forces battling against the clansmen, all wearing different tartans.

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    David Morier's An incident in the rebellion of 1745.                           Black Watch Tartan-ancient

After Scottish forces were defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the monarchy adopted the Dress Act of 1746, banning tartans (except for British military uniforms) for nearly a century. By the time the law was repealed, tartan kilts were no longer the ordinary dress of the highlands. The tartan kilt was, however, adopted as the symbolic national dress of Scotland, which revived interest in tartans and one’s Scottish heritage.

According to Wikipedia – who agrees with my tour guide in Scotland – the clan tartans date no earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. They are an invented tradition.


THE "BOTTOM" LINE
“The clashingly exuberant history of tartan’s history is a jumble of fact with outrageous fiction. Nearly everything you think you “know” about tartan was invented, then furiously believed until fact seemed pale and unsporting in comparison.”

According to Wikipedia – who agrees with my tour guide after all – the clan tartans date no earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. They are an invented tradition. Nonetheless, today the Tartans represent the pride the Scottish have in their ancestral warrior clans, family, and Gaelic culture … the pattern, the idea of tartans in the abstract.
It’s all about what it means!
And speaking of “bottoms”, the topic of “underwear beneath the kilt” -- so often a cause for humor -- is a relatively modern development. In the past men wore nothing. This is still true of several Scottish regiments, apart from some sentries and dancers, on whom the kilt might fly up. Most other people wear shorts or pants, according to personal taste."
http://www.kinnaird.net/tartan.htm


JUST SAYIN’
□
2023 Sources
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tartan
https://eternalcivilizations.blogspot.com/2019/01/cherchen-man-cherchen-man.html
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/539024649135050696/
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/history-tartan-falkirk-mod-1488081
https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=1146
https://www.oldest.org/culture/tartans/
https://www.ibtimes.com/what-do-scots-wear-under-their-kilts-lot-nothing-2428643
​


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Photos only
Scanned from  “Clans and Tartans, Collins Pocket Reference, George Way of Plean and Romilly Squire, Harper Collins, Glasgow 1995 ISBN 0-00-470810-5., Public Domain.”
https://www.pinterest.com/annbharrison/men-in-kilts/
http://www.theconomist.com/china/2012/fast-and-loose
​
2018 Sources: [Some no longer available]
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-plaid-180957342/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan
https://psmag.com/social-justice/that-plaid-tho
https://startupfashion.com/fashion-archives-history-plaid/
http://www.kinnaird.net/tartan.htm
http://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/tartan-pattern-book/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid
http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/chinacherchen.htm
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/plaid
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2015/10/plaid-tartan.html
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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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