Remember how irked I was when slate called kenspeckle a pretentious $10 word? Well, I'm pleased to announce that kenspeckle's found a splendid second opinion from Stuart Kelly of Telegraph: "'Kenspeckle' is a lovely Scottish word, meaning conspicuous, prominent and familiar…"
Damn straight.
Somehow my new pal Stuart segues this opening into a writeup of his interview with Ian Rankin, the Scottish author who's as kenspeckle in Edinburgh for his Inspector Rebus detective series as J.K. Rowling is for, well, you know.
But rivaling this praise of my favorite word as the best thing about this interview is Stuart's primary evidence for Ian's notability: "Nearly every pub in Edinburgh has a picture of him launching the Rebus20 promotional beer…"
Ian Rankin pulling a pint of Rebus 20
That's right. The 20th anniversary of the Scottish Sherlock Holmes is being celebrated with promotional beer!
"What exactly is a 'promotional beer' anyway?" you may wonder. Well, according to this press release from the publisher of Inspector Rebus, Orion Books, it's the August 2007 seasonal ale (complete with a "mystery ingredient") from Caledonian Brewery, which happens to make Deuchars IPA, the favorite beer of both Inspector Rebus and his creator.
Only in the U.K., people. But really, there's nothing like a special beer to promote a successful, long-running pop-lit series. Is Hogwarts Hefeweizen next?
I can think of no better way to sell Scottish detective novels. The man's brilliant.