OUR mention of entertainer and Rangers fan Andy Cameron being made an MBE in the New Year's Honours list reminds a reader of being at a sportsman's dinner where Andy was conducting the auction.
After selling a signed Rangers top for a sizeable price - we can assume this was a few years ago - Andy then had to auction a signed Celtic top. Andy had whispered to guest speaker Mark Hately, the former Rangers striker who was sitting next to him, that he was worried that the Celtic top wouldn't make as much money, and could Mark get the bidding going. So when Andy asked for a bid, Mark duly obliged and shouted out "A hundred pounds." Andy then turned to Mark and declared: "The Celtic top's sold to Mark Hately for a hundred pounds" and took no more bids, to everyone's amusement.
TALKING of Celtic, we like the back-handed compliment when SNP minister Humza Yousaf asked his followers on Twitter who they thought was the person of the year in Scotland. Someone replied: "Celtic manager Ronnie Delia - for making the Scottish Premiership more interesting this season." Ouch.
MEANWHILE former MSP Colin Fox, convener of the Scottish Socialist Party, was so worried that he might get a mention in the Honours' List, as he is now Scotland's longest serving party leader, that he wrote to the Queen in advance telling her not to bother. As he wrote in his letter: "Please Your Majesty, put the 'gong' you were going to give me back in its cupboard ready for the next establishment lackey on your list who so yearns for it.
"I remain, your reluctant 'subject' Colin Fox".
So we don't think we'll see his name in the list any time soon then,
WE'VE not mentioned nicknames for a while, but a reader was impressed by a group of students from Glasgow Uni which included a German lad that everyone called "Einstein". Our reader later learned that it was not because the chap was especially bright - it was simply because he got drunk even after just one pint.
ANY New Year resolutions, or general wishes for the New Year? A reader tells us about a friend who asked at a New Year party: "If you could make one wish tonight and have it come true, would you wish for world peace and an end to hunger or a really great hat?" This was considered by the crowd until someone answered: "Within a week we'd have wars again, followed by hunger - but a good hat is forever."
WE wrote about our favourite correction of the year in which a magazine apologised for saying a photographer needed "five years" to get on the dancefloor when it should have been "five beers". A reader passes on a correction in a London newspaper which will be of interest to members of the Tartan Army who like to sing a certain song from the Sound of Music at every Scotland game. The newspaper stated that it had incorrectly said the female of the red deer is a doe when it is in fact a hind. However a minister then wrote to the newspaper: "Following your correction that the female of the red deer is a hind not a doe, could I please ask for assurance that a ray remains a drop of golden sun, and that 'me' is still an acceptable name to call myself?"
HOW is the New Year hangover. Amanda, who lives in Kent, writes: "Worst thing about the festive season being over is that it suddenly becomes unacceptable again to have Baileys on your cornflakes."
THE BBC reported that Police Scotland were investigating complaints that former Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins had been racist when making objectionable comments on the social media site Twitter about the Scottish Ebola victim. As one Twitter user, not a fan of Katie, commented: "I see 'Katie Hopkins' and 'Ebola' are trending. I know what you're thinking, and the answer is, sadly not."
A DAFT gag to begin the year? A reader tells us: "I can't believe I got sacked from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off."
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