John's Blog

So what's the deal with bagpipes, now? Do they frighten you or do you just hate the sound they make?

I just find them annoying, not frightening. They sound like an amplified version of fingers on a chalkboard to me. It may also relate to my perception of them as being a distant cousin of a canister vacuum cleaner, and I have issues with vacuum cleaners (or so my wife says).

But my worst bagpipe memory is from a few years ago when I was running in the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. There is a place on the course where you run past that sculpture that looks like a giant crawling out of a grave, which is just about where you hit the proverbial wall. Someone thought that having a group of people playing bagpipes would be inspirational. For others, perhaps, but for me it just sounded like the screeching of a tortured soul. It remains an ugly memory.