TALKING posh continued.
Linda Owens in Kirkintilloch recalls: "Back in the 1950s, when door-to-door salesmen were commonplace, my English mum opened the door to a man who said, 'Dae ye want a wundae cleaner?' Thinking the Glasgow gentleman was trying to sell her a vacuum cleaner made by a firm called Wonder, she replied, 'No thank you, we have a Goblin', which was a brand of cylinder vacuum. She observed his startled look and hasty departure. Took her ages to work out that he was a window cleaner. She never saw him again."
The long way home
WE mentioned growing concerns about elderly drivers, and a Dunblane reader tells us about his father-in-law who got lost between Ayr and Dunblane, and ended up in Bishopbriggs, eventually arriving home hours late. When his family questioned him on how he ended up in Bishopbriggs, he blamed the taxi he was following. "But why did you follow the taxi?" asked his family.
"Because I reckoned he would know where he was going," came the indignant reply.
All to pot
OUR story recalling Paul McCartney's Dunoon court appearance on a cannabis charge reminds Kate Woods that although the story was front page news in national papers, the local Dunoon Standard had it buried among the list of petty crimes under "Court Reports". Says Kate: "McCartney, described in the report as a musician, was apparently not personally known to Willie Ingles, the editor/owner of the Standard at that time, nor was he local, and therefore did not rate any special coverage."
No quarter given
BOUNCY, chirpy radio announcers - you either love them or hate them. Paul Cortopassi tells us of a radio interview where the person being questioned was asked at the end "Do you like 10cc?" so that the presenter could segue smoothly into the next piece of music. "I'm more of a quarter-gill man myself" was the classic reply.
Any other favourite radio moments?
Day dream
THE National Collective, artists in favour of independence, have put up a £1000 prize for the best poster of the Yes campaign. A reader nominates a placard seen at a National Collective rally in Glasgow which changed one of the most famous political sayings to "Aye, Have A Dream". Any other eye-catching ones from either side?
Weather wise
WE have mentioned St Mirren a few times recently, which prompts Jack Halley to tell us of his favourite headline from the Saturday sports editions in Glasgow - the pink one or the green one, he's not sure - about a rare St Mirren win at Ibrox on a day of miserable rain. The headline was "Smirren Reign at Ibrox".
You're only young once
AS we begin to wind up our under-age drinking tales, Jim Torbett in Troon says: "I visited a pub in Kilmarnock, where the owner said he had not seen me before. I told him I had not been in for some 50 years as his grandfather had barred me for wearing my school blazer."
Plane speaking
MOVES by MSPs to have Prestwick Airport renamed Robert Burns Airport remind Stephen Murray in Erskine of being at Munich Airport where his German driver proudly told him it was actually Franz Josef Strauss Airport, named after the German politician. Says Stephen: "He went on to say it was the only airport named after a person. I said I thought this was a really good idea, and that they should name all big airports after people - JFK for instance. The rest of the journey passed in silence."
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 hereComments are closed on this article