PRESENTER Iain Anderson on Radio Scotland is often told by listeners that they enjoy a busker in Glasgow's city centre called Bobby who is a bit of a singer.
The other night Iain got an email from Bobby himself who revealed: "Hi Iain, got a £4 tip from none other than Barry Manilow today as I knocked out T. Rex's Get It On in Buchanan Street. Surreal! He did say I had a great voice."
Manilow of course had been performing at the Hydro to rave reviews. Only the churlish would argue that the veteran singer would be drawn to song by a band named after a dinosaur.
Beam me up
ANDY Cumming tells us about the chap who worked in a Glasgow south-side taxi office, and always drank Jim Beam American whiskey in the pub afterwards. The taxi drivers nicknamed him The Despatcher on the Rye.
What's in a place name?
A SURVEY named Inverness as the happiest place in Scotland, but reader David Kirkwood claims a local told him that Inverness is actually an acronym for "It's Not Very Exciting, Right 'Nuff, Especially Saturdays, Sundays". Any more Scottish acronyms?
If it's all the same to you
TOUR guides continued. Says Kenneth Morin in Newton Mearns: "On a tour in China with other Brits and North Americans our tour guide told us that the seats we had on the coach were the ones we would have for the duration of the tour. She explained that this was so that she could recognise and get to know us as 'we all looked the same to her'."
Grave matters
AND John Aitken in Falkirk recalls: "While staying on Iona I was told about a guided tour of the old graveyard at St Oran's chapel and the guide stated that 'here is the grave of Macbeth and over there the grave of Macduff' only to be interrupted by an old lady who said, 'excuse me sonny - they were the other way round yesterday.'
"It was unknown for anyone to make the trip on two consecutive days."
Right-winging it
SO the right-wing party Ukip did well in the English local elections. A reader down south swears to us that a defeated Conservative councillor was heard to mutter: "Bloody Ukip coming round here, stealing our jobs."
1966 and all that
WE mentioned the worrying fact that Austria won the Eurovision song contest in 1966, the year England won the World Cup, and then won Eurovision again this year. Now a reader points out that Real Madrid's European Championship win at the weekend is also a repeat of 1966, and Athletico Madrid winning La Liga also replicated 1966. Others must have noticed, as England's odds of winning the trophy this year have dropped from 33/1 to 28/1. Gulp!
Incidentally, an English football fan phones to tell us: "Wouldn't it be funny if the next time Scotland qualifies for the World Cup finals it would be Qatar, a country that virtually bans alcohol." Yes, hilarious.
Prince put in his place
PRINCE Charles was in hot water for comparing President Putin of Russia to Hitler. Our royal correspondent tells us: "Prince Charles has apologised to the Russian ambassador. Apparently he got confused and thought he was in Canada representing Prince Philip rather than the Queen.
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