Surfing through channels this evening, and hit the QVC shopping network. And was immediately entranced by the lovely, smooth, lilting Irish brogue of Tess, a woman hawking wares from a company in Ireland.

And the wife and I stayed there for the full two hours that she was on. To imagine a land where all the women say "hay-tch" for h.

No, we didn't buy anything. Just listened to that beautiful celtic tongue, from a woman's lips. Spent most of last St. Patrick's Day tuned to the QVC. Just for all the wonderful celtic women's voices.

My favorite radio show is The Thistle and Shamrock," on NPR. Yes, I enjoy the celtic music but, truth be known, I would listen anyway if all we had was Fiona Ritchie talking for an hour.

Fake Irish accents do not cut it. Especially not by Nicole Kidman.

But the real thing? Spent several hours riding a bus through the sagebrush of Montana as part of a sage grouse field tour group that included a female grad student from Dublin. No matter where she was on that bus, her voice cut through all the others to my ears. Even if I couldn't hear her words, I heard, no felt, the rhythm of her speech.

Irish or Scot, I am a sucker for women with true celtic accents. Even though I've never been to either country. And even though there was no one in my past who spoke the tongue.

Must be genetic.