Turning green

LEGENDARY superhero creator Stan Lee has died at the age of 95. I confess that decades ago, as a callow Evening Times reporter, more keen then on reporting murder and mayhem, I interviewed Stan in Glasgow. He was courteous and helpful, but regrettably I told my boss that Stan was just some guy who wrote a few comics, and the interview made only a few paragraphs. But I can tell you that his creation The Hulk was originally grey. Stan said that in Hulk's first publication it was hard for the printers to get the grey register standard through the print run, so Stan changed the Hulk to green and the rest is history. Sorry about the interview Stan.

Oh crepe

OUR tales of school trips abroad remind Norman Brown in Barassie: "I was on one such trip to Brittany years ago. On the last evening, we were having a small libation in our leader’s room when there was a knock on the door. A second year girl, worried that she might not have sufficient money to pay for a final treat at the hotel, asked if we knew how much it cost to have a crepe in the garden. Cue much coughing and spluttering from her teachers, much, I may say, to her bemusement."

Lit up

JUST to cheer us up, a reader emails: "I have recently been employed as a nightwatchman by a security firm owned by my ex-girlfriend. My wife is furious that I still carry a torch for her."

Turning red

SOMEHOW we stumbled into New Zealand accents and Ian Craig in Strathaven recalls: "Whilst serving in the Merchant Navy I was invited to dinner at the house of one of the stevedores in the port of Bluff. After a very nice roast lamb I was asked by the chap’s wife if I’d like a Treat Amata. After getting her to repeat the request I agreed, thinking some sort of pudding was on offer. I was therefore somewhat disappointed to be presented with a plum-sized red fruit. Up to that point I’d never even heard of a tamarillo or in New Zealand parlance a tree tomato."

Close shave

GLASGOW-BORN actor John Barrowman returns to the telly on Sunday on this year's Australian romp, I'm A Celebrity... Our memory is still seared by the sight of John, as a kilt-wearing Buttons in Cinderella at the SEC, climbing into the audience to retrieve a string of toilet rolls he had launched through the air. He climbed over the head of Alan Clements, then a boss at Scottish Television and hubby of presenter Kirsty Wark. Alan's shaven head disappeared under John's kilt much to everyone's amusement. Someone later asked John what it was like. "A bit scratchy" he said.

Face the music

A lawyer passes on an embarrassing moment he suffered in court. "I leaned forward to listen to a witness and the spooky tones of a Halloween tune echoed through the court. 'Whose phone is that?' snapped the judge. I didn't budge as the musical tie my kids bought me faded away in the silence as everyone else fumbled in pockets."

Any other embarrassing court moments?

Saucy

MORE on shopping as Chris Cairns looks at a jar he bought and reads "Once opened, consume within 15 days." Says Chris: "Just how much tartare sauce do these chaps think I can eat in a fortnight?"

Catty remark

THE Herald is quite rightly proud of being one of the few remaining broadsheet newspapers, and we mentioned a reader praising the paper's size as being just right for wrapping around a cake tin while baking. Many readers have now reminded us of other uses, now mainly redundant, such as drawing a coal fire and lining a budgie cage. And as Ronnie Fox in Wishaw says: "In my experience a copy of The Herald, neatly folded in four, makes a useful and absorbent liner for the cat litter tray. Just saying."

Happy to help Ronnie.