Only so much
Religious devotion in the young is something to behold, even if it has its limits. Reader John Mulholland relates how his six-year-old daughter came home from school, made a den in her bedroom and declared she was going to observe Lent thus: “I’m going to sit here for the next 40 days and nights reading the Bible. But I’m not giving up crisps!”
Costa Dalkeith
Tommy McKay, news-singing editor of the Daily Reckless, took time out recently to see The Lovely Eggs, a two-piece psychedelic punk band from Lancaster, Englandshire. Tommy loved the Eggs but cracked up when singer-guitarist Holly Ross revealed that, as a child, she’d holidayed regularly in Dalkeith. The Midlothian town is a fine wee place, with its Tolbooth and its Morrisons, but rarely features in tourist brochures. Still better than nearby Edinburgh, right enough. Anyone else had an unusual holiday destination?
Unlikely convert
Ex-wrestler Mr T out of 1980s series, The A-Team, has taken Twitter by storm – with his enthusiasm for curling at the Winter Olympics. He writes: “I am really Pumped … I am watching events I never thought I would watch before, like curling. You heard me, curling Fool!” Sounds like a case of iced T.
On your head be it
There’s a daft day every day. Today, as you might imagine, is Chocolate Mint Day, with punters invited to “indulge” in the controversial comestibles. We just hope folk won’t throw the stuff at your head. This happened on the London Tube, courtesy of a drunk woman dispensing After Eights with deadly accuracy. The folk hit on the heid just sat there and did nothing, prompting a London paper to declare this “the most British thing that ever happened”. But was it the most Scottish? What would have happened had the incident occurred on the Glasgow Subway? Let us know if you’ve ever been hit by a sweetie.
Eating their words
Last week’s item about eating outside a supermarket being Al Tesco prompts Paisley man Alan Potter to ponder: “If the gentlemen eating his sandwich had taken it back to the office, might it then have been Al Desco?” Alan, if you have a coat, I would get it now, mate.
Art of annoyance
Audience reactions continued: Sue Forsyth recalls James Taylor at the SECC, where two inebriated ladies encouraged the performer with cries of “Get oan yersel!” and “Gonna gie us ‘Mexico!’” Eventually, one brave individual among the irritated crowd asked them to “have some respect for the artist”. The atmosphere turned icy. Then one of the soused duo drew herself up and responded: “Aye, son, I am an artist myself.” Sue invites readers to speculate what kind of artist the other audience members brought to mind.
Easier said
Embra reader Alan McAinsh recalls his lovely old gran’s attempt to explain something she thought simple: “It’s not rocket salad, you know.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here