Author: Dorothy McLean
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May I introduce?
I had the most interesting conversation the other day after Mass with a younger-than-me man. He was sharing his experiences of dating younger-than-him women and how deeply shocked they are […]
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Save us a dance
Friday night is live jazz night for a select crowd of Edinburghers. Chronological Shorty George was running late, so I picked an empty table all on my own and stuck […]
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A Year of Social Dancing 2025
In 2025, Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party hosted seven dance parties and two ticketed dances, attended three outside dances and a ballroom dancing competition, and promoted umpteen dance lessons as well […]
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A Christmas Eve Dance
People of other languages must have their own memories of famous literary Christmas parties. This, I believe, is the most famous in the English-speaking world. It was envisioned by the […]
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‘Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day’
Three days until Christmas! To drum up the late Advent excitement, I decided to write a blogpost about that wonderful English carol ‘Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.’ However, as […]
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A Gaudete Sunday Waltzing Party
“We never know how many people we have until we’re in the room,” I told our fledgling waltzing instructors at After-Mass Tea. I encouraged them to do their best with […]
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Marian Anthem for Advent
Today we are having a Waltzing Party as part of our Gaudete Sunday celebrations. As we always end parties and dances with the seasonal anthem to Our Lady, this afternoon […]
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Edinburgh Church of Jazz
On most Friday nights, jazz-lovers assemble at the Edinburgh Church of Jazz, which is what I call the Edinburgh Jazz and Jive Club. The club was founded in 2000 by […]
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The Lord loved Andrew
For many years—over a century—the simple baldachin over the altar at St. Andrew’s Ravelston in Edinburgh bore the text “Dixit Andream Dominus in ordorem suavitatis.” I worked out that this […]
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Rules for Counter-Revolutionaries
Rules. Today we flinch at the word, assuming that rules limit our freedom in an onerous way. However, when we see a game that interests us, we want to know […]