Pulling the wool

IT was perhaps inevitable that when the BBC and newspapers down south got so excitable about the snow and the chaos it would bring, it would not turn out to be as bad as they forecasted. We liked the hint of Northern stoicism taken by Blackburn Police, north of Manchester, who commented on social media: "Current weather update: it's a bit nippy out - you might need a cardie."

Sinked in

GROWING old, continued. We are used to queues at ladies' toilets at concerts but not so much at gents' toilets. So perhaps it was an age thing when reader Michael Kelly of Bearsden was at the Johnny Cash Roadshow - yes we know he has died, it's a tribute band - at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall the other night, and there was a queue at the gents in the interval. Says Michael: "I was patiently waiting my turn, legs crossed, when suddenly there appeared a big ‘gentleman’ shouting, 'Am bursting - is there a sink in here?'

"Pushing past the queue he immediately made for a sink and proceeded to relieve himself. When finished he didn’t even wash his hands."

Still it could have been worse - at least he wasn't suffering from The Ring of Fire that Johnny Cash used to sing about.

Horsey crowd

OUR story about the evangelist Billy Graham in Glasgow reminds Gordon Casely: "Billy, when he alighted from the London train at St Enoch Station in 1955, was welcomed by the second-largest crowd then ever assembled to greet a great hero. Sadly, Dr Billy had been beaten to the tape just a year earlier by an even larger crowd welcoming Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger."

Colourful remark

WE turn to holiday site TripAdvisor where the Wallace Monument near Stirling gets hundreds of enthusiastic reviews, and one negative remark where a visitor from Oaxaca, Mexico states: "We decided not to pay the entrance fee and waited for our companions in the Keeper's Lodge. We were initially delighted to be provided with a charming coloring page featuring a kilt-clad bear, but from this point on, our visit took a severe turn for the worse.

"We were exceptionally disappointed by the monument's upkeep of their colored pencil supplies. Not only were the vast majority dull to the point of disfunction, they were utterly lacking in pigmentation. I would warn any future visitors against high expectations for the colored pencil offerings at this location."

Wallace Monument staff replied that they have now sharpened the pencils.

Read the label

ROBIN Gilmour in Milngavie was having a birthday lunch at the very plush Trump Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire when he noticed a fellow diner had a shop's bar-coded label sticking out from her jumper, but Robin's wife instructed him not to draw it to her attention. Says Robin: "The questions that came to my mind were - was the lady intentionally showing off her designer label, or was the jumper going back to the shop tomorrow?"

Taking off

AIRLINE Ryanair has announced it is halting most of its flights from Glasgow Airport. It reminds us of the reader flying to Glasgow with Ryanair who told us of the stewardess struggling to get travellers to take a copy of their duty free magazine. Eventually she told everyone: "Please take one. It's the only thing you get for free on a Ryanair flight."