THE Herald ran a story yesterday about youth worker Katie Carmichael having a watercolour, which she painted at the kitchen table, being chosen as the official poster of this year's Ryder Cup. Her dad Duncan in Selkirk reveals: "As a very proud dad my first reaction was to phone her and say, 'At least all that time spent not cleaning the kitchen has finally paid off'."

"There is no chance of getting a big heid in our family," says Katie.

A dog's life

A GLASGOW reader tells us she was moving office and had to clear out her desk, which is why she staggered off her train home with a large black bin bag in each hand, full of her office bits and pieces. Her mood wasn't helped when she walked past the local pub and a smoker outside remarked: "Good Lord missus. What size of dug do you have?"

Reason to be cross

YES, we will have to move on from the referendum. Before we do, a vignette from a polling station supplied by Ayrshire Labour MP Brian Donohoe who tells us that two constituents turned up in one of the more challenging areas of Ayrshire with a pit bull terrier, so they took turns to go into vote. She went first, shouted "Freedom", came back out to take her turn with the dog and told her partner to go in and vote, and not make a mess of it.

He came out after 20 minutes and told her: "Ah couldnae make up ma mind so pit a tick at Yes and No." Adds Brian: "She then set the dug on him."

New battle

AND in the tiny Lanarkshire village of Quarter, a reader wondered what would happen at the house that was festooned with Yes banners in the run-up to referendum day. They were taken down afterwards very quickly but the couple have now got over it. The house now has posters up stating "Catalonia is not part of Spain".

West Lothian question

THE West Lothian Question about Scots MPs voting on English legislation has returned, so we asked for your own West Lothian Questions. Matt Vallance, and you have to know your West Lothian towns, and your grammar, for this one, asks: "What made anyone think we would ever bother spelling Borrowstouness out in full?"

Face facts

WE mentioned the humour of Alex Salmond now that he is standing down as First Minister, and a reader reminds us of an interview a younger Alex Salmond gave to a student newspaper who asked him about Labour's Jack Straw's observation that you can't read someone's face if they are wearing a face veil. Alex replied that Jack frequently saw Tony Blair's face, so how did he not see he was lying about the Iraq war?

Arresting read

AWARD-WINNING author Hilary Mantel is in a bit of a stushie over her latest book, with a member of the House of Lords calling for a police investigation into her short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. As Justin Horton told us: "I am also disgusted to learn that Frederick Forsyth has written a book fantasising about an assassination attempt on the late President of France."

On the phone

THE TV show Friends is now 20 years old. A reader explains to us: "If they tried to film it now, it would simply be six friends texting each other and never actually meeting up."