BURNS Night at the weekend, and Gordon Casely recalls: "Sad to see the former Tory Minister Leon Brittan is no longer with us.

In 1985 at the CBI Scotland annual dinner in the dear old Albany Hotel in Glasgow, a piper led in the top table, and the CBI chairman handed Leon a dram to give to the piper.

"The then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry showed his grasp of Scotland's cultural tradition by beaming delightedly at the generously filled glass, raising it to the 140 diners, and downing the contents himself."

FROM Burns Night drink to Burns Night food, and Fife crime novelist Val McDermid is not a fan of the usually served cream and raspberry dish cranachan. She wrote on Twitter yesterday: "Scotland needs a new dessert that works for mass catering. I'm so sick of crappy cranachan. Never done well. Get on it Nicola Sturgeon please."

Within half-an-hour the First Minister had commented: "I'm on it! Chocolate mousse always works for me."

Says reader Foster Evans who spotted their exchange: "If only other major decisions could be dealt with so quickly and effectively,"

TALKING of Twitter, school pupil Ross McFarlane asked Scottish poet Jackie Kay: "I have an English Prelim on Monday and I will have to answer questions about your fantastic poems. Any tips?"

But Jackie warned him: "A friend of mine - a poet - went to night classes to get his A level English. On exam day his own poem came up and he failed!"

AND on the subject of schools, Ayrshire teacher Marjory Telfer tells us that when she asked for the definition of mahogony, one pupil said it was what you celebrate at New Year. Adds Marjory: "Well maybe hogmanay and mahogany sound the same when you have had one too many."

WE mentioned the Lost Glasgow Facebook page reminiscing about the old Kohinoor restaurant in Gibson Street, and Graham Reid, now living in Sydney, recalls: "I had my first ever curry there for a big family occasion in 1974. The more interesting part of the story is that you could bring your own wine (it was unlicensed at the time) but our wine never appeared. We then saw our rather nice French red being wolfed down by none other than STV newsreader Bill Tennent - he never even thanked us!"

READER Ian Marks spots a rather posh fire exit sign in the West Nile Street branch of Pâtisserie Valérie which states that "In the event of the fire alarm, please do not egress down these stairs." Says Ian: "It reminded me of my student days on pre-decimalisation Gilmorehill. During Charities Week, some linguistically-advantaged entrepreneurs set up a stand in George Square consisting of a frame and curtain and a sign saying 'This Way to the Egress 2/-'. Once relieved of their florins, curious punters were invited to step through the curtain. Not a few were heard to wonder where the egress was."

WE mentioned folk on Facebook listing seven unknown things about themselves and one young woman wrote: "My careers advisor told me I should seriously think about a career as a Page Three girl." Clearly career advisors are different from the ones in our day who simply handed you a leaflet about getting a job in a bank.

Any other unusual confessions?

IT'S all happening out in Greece just now where the locals have voted not to do what the money-men had told them to do. A reader spots some graffiti on a wall in Athens with the painted picture of a pretty young woman and in English the comment: "Dear Capitalism. It's not you - it's me" the classic way a woman lets a chap down gently.

Below is added: "Just kidding. It's you. It's over."