"Stornoway" - from Dozy Bint of the Week

I was there once, propellor-jetted to the capital of Lewis and Harris, the island which I confused with Eriskay and South Uist, and was poking around looking for leftover bottles of whisky from Whisky Galore.

It was the birthplace of Alexander Mackenzie, the first white man to cross Canada in a sled, or by canoe (portage not included) or possibly on snow shoes which counts as pedibus calcantibus. I forget. But somehow he did it. Well, I think I can speak for Alexander Mackenzie's ghost and ghosts of many Christians past from before and after the Enclosures to say: Lewis and Harris are all about the dyes for the Harris tweed made from the moss and the machair. They are about a wee dram of The Macallan to keep the chill off. They are about salmon-fishing at a grand estate by the sea. They are not about hijabs and hadith and an unchangeable desert dogma cobbled together 1350 years ago to justify and promote conquest of others and used right up to today  -- and will be tomorrow , and the day after tomorrow-- for the same purpose.