BIG political news yesterday was of course Chancellor George Osborne.

But as Ian Tomney in Glasgow observes: "The Chancellor's Autumn Statement – what hope do we have when he can't even get the season right?"

Train of thought

WE drop the curtain on our Glasgow Odeon stories with Andrew Adamson in Airdrie recalling seeing Star Wars as a student in the 1970s. Says Andrew: "Sitting as the opening scenes rolled and the huge spaceship passed overhead, the whole auditorium rumbled and I could feel my seat vibrate. I was very impressed with this new 'sensurround' effect.

"It was years later that I realised it was the rumble of a train entering Queen Street Station low level."

Simply red

AND Donald Cowan on Arran remembers his father laid the red carpet that covered the aisles of the soon-to-be demolished Odeon. "For many years thereafter," says Donald, "we had memories of the cinema when we walked over the red carpet in our lobby."

All change?

BILL Thompson in Lenzie was in the Marks and Spencer store in Sauchiehall Street when he read a sign on the wall stating "Cash machine available in womenswear." He thought to himself: "That's very chic" and wondered how often they changed its outfit.

Fit to drop

YES, it will soon be that time of year when folk join health clubs after splurging out at Christmas. A member of a posh health club in Glasgow tells us a new exercise class recently started at the club. One member dubbed it The Euthanasia Society, as every week there were fewer folk attending it.

Stretching a point

GROWING old has frequently been discussed in the Diary. Donald Grant in Paisley comments: "Talking with friends recently we got round to what we did first thing in the morning before opening our eyes. "An indication to our age may be that one said the first thing he did was to stretch out his arms – and sigh with relief when his hands didn't touch wood."

Without a prayer

TEXAN country singer Kinky Friedman returns for a gig in Glasgow in April. Mike Ritchie, who heard the humorous Kinky at his last Glasgow concert, tells us Kinky told the audience of a Texas oil baron who was praying for divine intervention as the oil was drying up and his 10 Cadillacs were off the road. Praying beside him was a Mexican farm worker, desperate for money as his wife was pregnant and he had just lost his job. Annoyed at the interference, the Texan took $100 out his pocket, handed it to the Mexican, and told him not to bother God with all that rubbish.

New warning

TECHNOLOGY, it seems, is changing some age-old messages. A reader hears a harassed shopper in Glasgow's Buchanan Street tell her recalcitrant young daughter: "Ah'm gonnae text Santa and tell him you've no' been behavin' yourself."