OUR story about Americans reminds Kate Woods: "I was on the ferry from Gourock to Dunoon on a pouring wet winter's night when the American submarine base at the Holy Loch was still operating.
As we lined up on deck in the lashing sleet to get off the boat a wee wummin slipped beside a very tall American wearing a huge Stetson and said, 'D'you mind if I stand under your hat son?'"
THE death of writer and actor Colin Welland, who won an Oscar for penning Chariots of Fire, reminds us of his vivid description of Edinburgh during the Festival when he compared the city to "a stiff old maid in a massive stone skirt, in the folds of which her population live out their obedient, toe-the-line-lives." Goodness, he really wanted to curry favour with Glaswegians didn't he?
However reader John Henderson recalls: "I had to drive Colin Welland home to London after he spoke at a Labour Party rally - he was lifelong Labour - and he invited me in for a cup of tea before I made the drive back. After brewing up the tea and opening the Jaffa Cakes, he showed me his Oscar. It had pride of place in his study as a paperweight!"
THE Herald story that seven out of ten Scottish nurses are too heavy has given many people food for thought. As Ukip Argyle and Bute candidate Caroline Santos argued: "Our NHS is in crisis because of the SNP Government's poor running - not because of fat nurses not running!"
AUDIENCE questions continued. Says the Rev Eric Hudson in Westerton: "Each year when I was Minister of Westerton Parish Church we used to welcome the local Primary Six children over to the church for them to learn more about Church, my job, and of course the church furnishings. One year when I was answering the children's questions, one boy asked, 'What is that gold thing over there?' Not aware, as a good Presbyterian minister, of any religious icons in our kirk, I looked over, and was able to answer, 'That's a light switch'."
OUR contact in Motherwell phones to tell us: "Did you see the news that new Motherwell manager Matt McGhee is flying out to Barbados to discuss future strategy with club owner Les Hutchison who lives there.
"Can't help thinking that if Les lived up in Bellshill, Mark wouldn't be rushing as quickly to see him."
A SOUTH Side reader getting the bus into Glasgow yesterday heard a young person tell her pal: "I could be locked in a room with no tv, phone, or internet access and I'd probably still not do my homework."
DAVID Chadwick in Carluke muses: “Just heard on Radio Scotland that Chris Packham, TV Wildlife presenter, met his great hero, Peter Scott, the ornithologist, ‘when he was still alive’.”
IMPORTANT debate in the Scottish Parliament yesterday on the future of Trident. Or was it? As Tory MSP Murdo Fraser remarked: "Just left totally pointless Trident debate at Holyrood. Now time to do something useful to help my constituents." Ouch.
DAFT musing from a reader who tells us: "A 'Get Well Soon!' card is a nice way to add undue pressure to a work colleague's recovery from illness."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel