Defences down

AMERICANS - we really do love them. Scottish band the Tannahill Weavers are on a tour of the States just now - Glasgow Highland Games in Kentucky next month - and were playing in Wisconsin the other night. Says band member Roy Gullane: "At the apres show 'meet'n'greet' I was informed by an older lady (ages wi' masel') that she had visited Edinburgh many years ago. 'Do they still have the castle?' she enquired. I was going to tell her it was now an Ikea, but didn't like to burst her bubble."

Tearful tale

SINGER Mica Paris is to star in a new production of the musical Fame at Glasgow's King's Theatre at the end of July. We remember when Mica had her first hit My One Temptation and was appearing at Glasgow's Tron Theatre. She later said: "I was 18 and just starting out. The Glasgow audiences were kind to me though. One guy, a big, burly, macho Scotsman, came backstage at the end of that Tron show in tears, he'd been so moved by the music. Drying his eyes, he politely asked for an autograph, but made me promise not to mention to anyone that he'd been, 'greetin' like a big wean'."

Shopped

GROWING old, continued. A reader in Bearsden tells us: "My husband was dead chuffed when he came back from doing the shopping. 'I guess I don't look as old as I am,' he said. 'The assistant in Asda didn't ask if I needed any help packing my shopping."

He's a keeper

BAD night for Liverpool in the European Championship final with their attacking style faltering after superstar Mo Salah went off injured. As a reader emails: "It looked as though Mo had a shoulder injury from carrying the rest of the team all season." And another declares: "Who would have thought that folk in Liverpool would have learned that getting Bale isn't always a good thing."

And we did feel sorry for Liverpool keeper Loris Karius having a nightmare of a match. A reader phones to ask innocently: "Did Karius catch his flight?"

Talking politics

WE were bringing to a close our stories about meeting someone famous, but we can squeeze in a mention from former Ayrshire Labour MP Brian Donohoe who says: "I once saw Robbie Coltrane on the Heathrow Express, and on attempting to engage in conversation said, 'How are you doing Robbie?' to be met by his reply of, 'Do I know you?' I replied that we had met at the Labour Party General Election launch where he had backed independence much to the disgust of Donald Dewar. It brought the conversation to an end."

Check it out

IT is terrible news for the staff, as we have mentioned, that M&S is planning to close 100 stores. But a reader does email us with perhaps the slightly bitter comment: "So 100 M&S stores to close. Does that mean 20 check-out assistants losing their jobs?"

Late call

ENJOYING the great weather over the weekend? We like the observation of Rachel Wheeley who says: "Walking early and hearing collared doves yelling to each other. A BBC sound-man once told me that the birds came to the UK ‘recently’. Their calls can’t be used in dramas set before 1950 or they get letters of complaint."

Grows on you

MUCH news coverage of the SNP's Growth Commission report which is optimistic on Scotland's future if it was independent. Some agree, some don't, but we merely pass on the comment of Brian McCulloch who asks: "Where can I read the Brexit Growth Report?"

Pic capt:

Doesn't say much for your burgers if even the ants are unhappy with them. A newspaper billboard in Dundee spotted by John Maidment.