Finally, a heroine for us! Meet Princess Merida, Pixar's curly, redheaded, feminist Princess. She has great hair, big blue eyes and wields a mean bow and arrow.



I already know what I will be for Halloween! It'll be difficult since I look nothing like her...

I can see the difference easily. No bow and arrow.

Where are the grey haired Prince dolls for peoples like me?

I don't see it.

Ah, but men get urbane and debonair. We women just get old.

I'm planning to be a scandal at the home when I get old. Gives me something to look forward to!

P.S. Stern, if you call it silver, it sounds very dashing.

Bwahaha. My.mama always looked forward to getting old enough to eat pie for breakfast. That was her main goal.

Pixar rocks and John Lassiter is a hero of mine.

So, yeah, really looking forward to this one. Especially considering that red hair will be in abundance throughout and I was raised with a love of all things Scottish since my father's family can trace it's roots back to the Ayrshire district, from whence my ancestors emigrated in the 17th century.

And there's a Doctor Who connection: the woman who voices Merida, Kelly Macdonald, was in an episode called "Tooth and Claw" where The Doctor and Rose went to Scotland, met Queen Victoria, and encountered a werewolf.

Most importantly, though, David Tennant got to speak, albeit briefly, with his natural Scottish accent.

Hey, I never pretended to be deep.

Uh they went out with the Hapsburg Empire.

One of my absolute favorite episodes, David in his natural Scottish, brilliant!

My friend and I went to Edinburgh, Stratford and London in 2008 and saw David in Hamlet and Love's Labours Lost. Hamlet, at the Royal Shakespeare Festival, with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart... and I still wasn't thrilled. Excellent production and performances, but Hamlet just doesn't do it for me. (See above comment re: lack of depth.)

However, Love's Labours Lost was fantastic and David spoke with his natural accent for that one, which made it even better.

Cool tav! I saw Alan Rickman in a play in Dublin recently. Sublime!

Edinburgh is one of my fave cities and I'm weirdly drawn to Oban.

The Sydney morning herald today had an article about how redheads are no longer considered second class citizens.

I don't have red hair but I have always found red-heads extremely beautiful and I am blessed to have a beautiful re-headed daughter-in-law who has been warned that she will be disinherited if she ever cuts it!

Does this count?

I married a blonde and divorced a red head.

Bwahaha. Was there a brunette stage as well?

Maru found my eighth grandfather today. Arrived Jamestown, VA 1652 from Scotland (where he was a soldier on the losing side), as an indentured servant (rather than going to prison, since he had a choice).

Not during the marriage.

Wow -- 1652! Any idea who he was indentured to, and what happened next?

My ninth grandfather arrived in VA in 1647, also to Jamestown.

Dry your eyes, there's Prince Diamond...

He ended up with some land, and a few generations later his descendants were in North Carolina, fought in the Revolution and attended the NC Constitutional Convention. Realist has another kin who signed the VA Declaration of Indepence. It can be seen in Richmond.

Hey! I spent a couple years as a redhead! During my SoCal sojurn as drug-addicted surf punk I discovered that salt water and sunshine turned my brown hair red. Yay working graveyard and spending my days on the beach!

I don't have any further info yet, though Maru and I have not had a chance to speak at length about it so she may have more info that I don't (or that she told me and I don't remember ). IIRC she's traced some of mine back to an earlier arrival than that. All I know for sure about this one is his military service for the Scots, his choice (due to his rank, Capt. or below) of prison or indentured servitude, him serving his 5 years at Jamestown, and ended up a landowner in VA. Two of my ancestors signed the VA Declaration... pretty cool stuff.

My earliest American ancestor got off the boat in 1908. My last direct ancestor by 1914.

We were unindentured dagos.

Heinlein said (paraphrased) that the human race is descended from monkeys -- except for redheads, who are descended from cats.