Thank you to Linda G Hill for this week’s SoCS word – toss. Apparently we can use it any way we like. Challenge accepted!
Being the wee Scottish lassie that I am, of course I know all about that wonderful sport that features in every Highland Games gathering, tossing the caber. A caber is a humongous tapered pole of solid larch wood, about 19ft 6 in (5.95m) tall, weighing in at a hefty 12.5 stone (175lb or 79kg). The aim of the game is to toss it so that it turns end over end, landing precisely at the 12 o’clock position… as you do.
Wikipedia has a few interesting facts on scoring but zilch to say on the origin of the sport. Why on God’s green earth did anyone decide that tossing a telegraph pole end over end counted as a sport? And while I’m on the subject, why is tossing a poor defenceless Haggis a sport? Who invented Haggis Hurling, as it is known? I mean, I can understand sports like pole vaulting and javelin … crossing rivers and spearing one’s dinner. But caber and haggis? Nope. I’ve got nothing. I won’t lose sleep, tossing and turning while wondering in the oddity of Highland Games.
cathdean.com 