Game for a laugh

MUCH debate on the new Scottish BBC channel and the new series of comedy Still Game. As one Celtic fan succinctly put it: "I've seen two absolutely horrific things today. 1, That Motherwell goal. 2, The new episode of Still Game."

But stand-up Stuart McPherson came to the BBC's defence by declaring on social media: "Seen some absolute whoppers on here swearing off the new channel for life because they didn’t enjoy the first five minutes. I wonder if there are any folk who never returned to Channel 4 because they didn’t enjoy the first five minutes of Countdown when it launched in 1982."

May or may not

STILL trying to make sense of the Brexit negotiations like the rest of the country. A reader tries to help by emailing us: "When asked what procrastinate means Theresa May said, 'Its a good question, and one that I am fully prepared to answer in more detail, in the coming days and weeks ahead'."

A bit armless

SAD to read that the number of restaurants in Scotland going bust is increasing due to overcapacity. It somehow reminds us of the young Glasgow chap going out with a girl he was trying to impress, and his mother gave him his dad's expensive coat to wear to the restaurant. All goes well until he collects the coat at the end to discover someone has taken his by mistake leaving him with a larger version of the same coat which leaves the sleeves completely covering his hands. He takes it home, hangs it up, and the next time his dad tries it on he shouts to his wife in puzzlement: ''Have I shrunk?'' And the young chap's mother, like all Scottish mothers rallying to their son's defence, tells her husband: ''Och, that coat was always too big for you.''

Grilled

AH, the arguments and choices of young children. As Barham Brummage recalls: "When my daughter was a toddler she was looked after by my sister-in-law while my wife and I went out to earn a crust. We were a bit perplexed when it was announced one day that said daughter preferred her auntie's toast made in an electric oven grill as opposed to our toast on a gas grill. This caused some consternation as to the properties of heat convection and other scientific possibilities. Eventually it turned out that she actually preferred the butter provided by auntie to the cheap spread offered by her parents."

Driving a bargain

GROWING old, continued. Says Russell Smith in Kilbirnie: "You know you’re growing old when you justify changing a perfectly good car for a new one, telling your nearest and dearest that it’s likely to be the last one you’ll buy."

Turfed out

THE Diary story about the Scots fans tearing up the turf at Wembley reminds David Russell: "A neighbour brought home a section of the hallowed turf and proudly installed it in his front lawn. Only problem being, he was a serving cop, and we lived in a terrace of police houses in the south of Edinburgh."

Thin blue line

THE Herald news story about few police officers coming forward to give evidence about the policing of the miners' strike in Scotland in the eighties reminds us of when the Queen's Baton for the Commonwealth Games had a successful tour through Ayrshire before coming to Glasgow for the games. Among the cheering crowds in New Cumnock was one local who, observing the entourage that went with the baton, commented: "We hivnae hud so many polis in the village since the miners' strike."

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1961: Now here’s something you don’t see every day

Brit award

NOT sure what to make of this, but reader Foster Evans phones to tells us: "Did you know that Britney Spears, whose famous songs were Hit Me Baby One More Time, and Womaniser, is an anagram of 'Presbyterians'?"