WE mentioned the reincarnation of Kestrel lager which will now, curiously enough, be brewed at the Tennent's brewery in Glasgow.
As Jim McDonald in Carluke recalls: "When Kestrel was originally sold by Scottish & Newcastle in the early 1980s it was launched as a competitor to Tennent's lager.
"I was working at Tennent's at the time. There was a rumour that so much unsold Kestrel was being returned to S&N it was nicknamed Homing Pigeon."
Oh so dour
OH dear. A survey by the Transform Cosmetic Group has dubbed Glasgow as the most miserable city in the UK. It reminds us of a website where someone asked the question: "What makes Scots so miserable?"
An obvious answer given was: "The weather" but perhaps more inspired was the suggestion: "Their neighbours."
Bin it
OUR tales of picking up dog poo after pets has provoked much discussion. Reader John Crawford gets off his chest: "When I worked for East Ayrshire Council we provided dog waste bins. If a bin was vandalised, we removed it. Despite this, people still left their little bags of dog poo where the bin used to be. Did they assume the council staff would still come round to empty a non-existent bin?"
A losing attitude
NAMES of lawyers continued. Craig Cathcart in Edinburgh says: "Years ago I was a student leader at the University of Glasgow, and our campaigning organisation was regularly challenged over the legality of our actions, such as hiring buses to go to an anti-apartheid demo in London which had little to do with higher education in Scotland.
"We sought legal advice from a local west end firm, but my hopes for the cause were not raised when we arrived at the Byres Road door of our solicitors, Lowe & Beaton. Mandela got out in the end, incidentally."
Interview technique
JOURNALIST Lorn Macintyre, who is speaking on Tuesday at the Scottish Writers' Centre in Glasgow, was reminiscing with us about his brother Kenny who was BBC Scotland's political correspondent before his untimely death. Lorn reminded us of when Kenny was refused an interview by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on a visit to Inverness.
Says Lorn: "Kenny hid in a broom cupboard and emerged, microphone in hand, as the Prime Minister progressed in stately fashion along the corridor. Instead of hand-bagging him, she greeted him, 'Ah, Kenny,' and gave him an interview."
Sell your soul
THE Edinburgh Fringe programme has just been released. We like the bragging of American comedian Lewis Schaffer, appearing at The Hive with a new show, who says: "My last four Fringe shows were 100% sell outs – if sell out means I've sold out as an artist."
Gilt-edged
DAFT gag for the weekend? A reader phones: "Did you hear about the guy who told his doctor he always feels as if his skin is covered in gold paint?
"'That's your gilt complex,' the doctor said."
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 hereComments are closed on this article