= new reply since forum marked as read
I still miss her.....
I LOVE the quotation by PBO re the Flat Earth Society!!
It took me a long time, though
I'm sorry for your loss.
Va-va-voom! 
The mark of excellence!
and my first two kittehs were tabbies (one gray, the other orange). I always thought the M stood for Mark, sort of like a cattle brand. 
The legend goes, Baby Jesus was upset in the manger. A gray tabby kitteh calmed him down, so Mary let him wear the M on his forehead.
There is, however, a breed of cat called the Egyptian Mau.
"Ailsa" is Scottish-- so am I, tho' I don't *live* there. If that makes any sense!
It's just extraordinarily beautiful.
But no, my only international foray has been to Toronto ("It's like Cleveland, only cleaner!"
, though I did live in Hawai'i for several years, hence the name. In fact, there is a Scottish presence in the islands dating back to the monarchy era, where, at one point, a Scot named Robert Wyllie was the kingdom's foreign minister, and another named James Campbell was a major landowner, who pledged fealty to Queen Lili'uokalani until the day he died, well after the overthrow in 1898. Also, scones are available at hole-in-the-wall coffee shops, not just Starbucks , and the Hamakua Coast. a rainy, misty section of Hawai'i (Big) Island north of Hilo is also known as "the Scottish Coast".
there may be 50 shades.
