AMID the frenzied avalanche of tweets about the death of Margaret Thatcher yesterday, we noticed this one from a young person in South Ayrshire.
"Don't even know anything about this Margaret Thatcher," she tweeted shortly after news was announced, "but don't really care my dads buzzing and taking us all out for dinner!"
Then there was this one: "My Scottish mate has told me his local off-licence has nearly been emptied by celebratory people. Not a coincidence I think."
Sweet suggestion
A RARE Diary exclusive. We hear from California that Apple are about to launch an exciting new range of confectionery.
The name? i-Candy, of course.
Hair-raising
LEAVE it to Rory Bremner to analyse the reasons behind the dark threats of armageddon radiating from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"To be fair to Kim Jong-un," he said, "if I was given a haircut like that, I'd go nuclear."
Sticky situation
A CLOSE friend of the Diary muses about his childhood: "I lived in a very rough area. They used to cover me in chocolate sponge and cream, then stick a cherry on my head ... life sure was tough in the gateau."
The name game
THE suggestions about a new name for a post-independent Scotland have been filling the Diary inbox at a decent rate, for which we can only thank you.
Nina Baker says: "I don't have a witty new name for post-indie Scotland but shouldn't the capital be moved to Alexandria?"
Keith McClory suggests Tartenia, Salmondelia, or Whaslikustan.
"Given the state of our roads, with potholes and so on," says Russell Smith, "why not The Holeyland?"
More tomorrow.
Ruffled feathers
DIARY colleague and fashionista Carrie McAdam had her culinary sensibilities challenged while in Beijing with a trade mission of designers and textiles.
She got talking to a Scottish businessman who sealed a deal over a restaurant meal in the capital. The delicacies on the menu included pigeon's head.
"I'm not a vegetarian and I'll eat most things," said Carrie, "but I'd draw the line at pigeon's head."
In possibly related news, Carrie doesn't remember seeing a single pigeon during her time in Beijing. Now she knows why ...
Past their sell-by date
THE tireless Martin Morrison gets in touch to say he's fed up seeing old Italian stereotypes in movies – on the grounds, naturally, that they're pasta joke.
