I just checked out the smilies for the first time in quite a while, and I found one that I hope to remember to always use. Thanks Paolo (I assume you found it).

I am a US Citizen and very proud of it, but I am also very proud of my Canadian heritage. And sooo....

I just love the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their uniforms.



your antonia xxx

I have a cousin who is a retired Mountie, and you are right: he was HOT in his day.

They have a ceremonial thing they do called the Musical Ride... absolutely beautiful! About 20 mounties in their red dress uniforms, mounted on black horses doing a precision riding thing to music, the band of course being more redcoat mounties.

It's a 'musical tattoo', not 'ride'. Don't ask me how it got this name. It relates back to the Celtic origins of many Canadians. While of Irish origin, I don't pay attention to these things and haven't seen one in 30 years. I recall it as something that really impressed older people when I was younger.

JeffEunuch,

A tattoo, in this connotation, indicates a display with music by the military or militia. The word itself indicates a drum beat: 'to beat a tattoo on the drum', by extension this got applied to the sound made as a tattooist created a design using hammers and gouges (before the days of the needle).

However, the entire display would be the 'tattoo', the Mounties would actually be performing a 'musical ride' in the tattoo. In the days when we had the Royal Military Tattoo in this country, the Mounties used to come over to perform. Very good it was, too.

LOL