Manhattan skyline, February 2017
Another odd idiom – a Scots phrase wishing a long and healthy life, with a wish of long may your chimney smoke.
If you’d like to know more about the Scots language, Iona Fyfe explained it well on Michael Portillo’s coastal journey on BBC – click here.
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Copyright Debbie Smyth, 8 February 2022
Posted as part of Becky’s SquareOdds
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Travel with Intent 
I love your take here! Odd, regional sayings … 🤔
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Yes, I’ve found some good ones, but finding a matching image is a challenge
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Hmm, what about saving the planet?
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🙂
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I like that 😊
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A fantastic scots phrase, Debbie 😃
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Is it still used a lot – I saw birthday cards with the message, but haven’t heard it myself.
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It’s mostly used in the New Year as a traditional “hope you have a great year”. It’s mostly used by people who use Scots a lot in everyday conversation. It’s an odd one because, although the use of Scots in everyday language is on the increase, less houses have fires than before, so the phrase itself is not so relevant nowadays 🤔
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Thanks Jez – pleased to hear more are speaking it now. I hate to hear of languages being lost
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odd indeed as a smoky chimney is more likely to shorten your life! Fabulous square and idiom though 😀
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It comes from wishing you always have enough fuel to keep your fire going i.e. you are well enough to collect firewood or have sufficient funds to buy fuel 😃
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That makes sense! I feared it might be Hope you keep going even though you smoke so much.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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😂
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Could be a much used phrase as our fuel prices spiral!
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