Man Test

Many years ago upon returning from beautiful Ireland (sadly, they never were able to visit Scotland), my parents presented me with a gift from their trip. Not Belleek china. Not a piece of Irish knitwear. Something quite different and completely fascinating the likes of which I had never seen. With a twinkle in her eye Mother handed me a slightly irregular object about 9 inches long by 5 inches wide. The object was dense and dark, heavy but not too heavy, compressed. Obviously organic in nature, smooth but rough around the edges, odorless, clean. Puzzling. What the heck is this? I was baffled and then it came to me. OMG it's peat! I instantly loved it and my parents for carrying it all the way home.

The block was carefully wrapped in tissue paper and packed away (yes, in tissue paper - go ahead and make fun of me my Hebridean friends, it's a strange notion to be sure) and I completely forgot about it. About 8 or 9 years ago I happily re-discovered my little block of peat and placed in on a small china platter (alongside various rocks and minerals I had collected over the years) on my bookshelf in a place of prominence. (Crazy American, have you lost your mind woman - it's to be burnt not displayed!)

One day I got the inspiration to use the peat, but not in the traditional way. I would never ever burn my peat no more than I would purposefully break a piece of fine china. Instead, it serves as my "man test". When a man would come to call so to speak, I would hand him the peat and ask him what it was. It's a game I found immensely amusing. Nary a one figured it out. Nary a one is around today. :)