Judge John Hodgman on Bagpipe School

Amanda writes: My husband, Alan, grew up playing the bagpipes. Every summer he’d go to Nova Scotia for a week at the Gaelic College, learning piping, weaving and dancing. I’d like to visit this place with him. But he wants to go only if we and our four children attend a week of the same classes he took.

I was tempted to sentence your family to bagpipe college because a) it sounds funny, and b) you knew whom you were marrying. But visiting the Colaisde na Gàidhlig website, I discovered that one traditional Gaelic art your husband did not learn there is basic internet research. The weeklong programs for adults and youths do not overlap. So you are spared. But it looks like a really lovely place. Spend a day or two. Watch Alan play his pipes in a Céilidh. That should burn a delightful and embarrassing scar onto your children’s brains — which is the point of family vacations, after all.