Uplifting encounter

LIKE a true Fringe performer Abigail Burdess battled through pneumonia to perform her comedy show, Abigail’s Party, at the Underbelly on Saturday night. Taking to the stage of the tiny venue, however, she was slightly taken aback to find herself looking straight at her local MP from Hampstead and Kilburn in London – Tulip Siddiq. “I did wonder whether to bring up my concerns with rubbish collections in my street”, says Abigail. “But I wasn’t sure if any of the Edinburgh folk in the audience would give a monkey’s about London problems”.

An arresting song

READER David Stubley reports seeing a billboard with the headline ‘Police rapped over Islamic terrorist’, and says: “Am I the only one who thinks that’s a strange subject for a song?”

Buckling up

NEWS of the death of the actor Robert Hardy reminded Norrie Christie of his own time as an extra in a BBC TV film, Between the Covers, in which Hardy took the lead role as a writer. Norrie was in a room with fellow extras when Hardy and the director walked in and cast their gaze over them. Pointing to Norrie, the director asked if he would stand up. He did so, thinking he was about to play a scene with Hardy, but the director simply asked “Are you wearing a belt?” Norrie said he was, and was asked if Hardy could borrow it. Afterwards, when Hardy returned the belt, Norrie asked if he would kindly sign it for him. With a smile he wrote: “Thanks for the supporting role. Robert Hardy”.

Just desserts

TAM Cowan, no less, spotting recent Diary items about German food, emails to say: “I got arrested in a cafe last December for eating a slice of traditional German Christmas cake. I was charged with handling Stollen goods”.

Long-term investment?

LAST Thursday we ran an item about tickets for a 1981 Glasgow concert by The Cure going on eBay for an eyewatering £222.95. Malcolm Boyd emails us a picture of two tickets for Neil Sedaka’s 1976 show at the Glasgow Apollo and makes the not unreasonable point: “Great concert - but how long do I need to keep the stubs?”

Shirt tales

ANDY Cameron’s mention of Cambridge Street’s Esquire shop stirs a memory in Graham Scott. “Apart from the Sinatra, Dean Martin and Billy Eckstine style collars in the window, there were regular letters, written on airmail paper and ‘signed’ by these and other supposed American entertainers”, he says. “Shopping there on a Saturday, especially, was dress-up day and among the customers would be the late Bill Ross, who had a singing voice and the style of Sinatra, as well as his own ‘clan’. They would arrive usually in a Triumph Herald, making sure the doors were securely locked before going into the store.

“The fact that it was a convertible model never seemed to dawn on them”.

Pointless

GRAHAM Richmond says a salesman friend once told him that you should never sell features - you should only sell the benefits. “It appears nobody has explained that to a certain well-known chocolate manufacturer. I’ve just opened one of their small chocolate bars, which proudly boasts that it has an ‘easy re-close pack’.

“Yup, that’s going to get a lot of use…”