Fly guy
Interesting story in The Herald about the young boy on Barra in the Western Isles who flies to Glasgow to train with Greenock Morton. Our correspondent hundreds of miles away on Shetland tells us that staff in the Lerwick office of the BBC were surprised to receive an email from a colleague in Glasgow asking if they could pop across to Barra to cover the story.
We reckon to get from Shetland to Barra would involve an eight-hour journey – by flying via Glasgow.
Says our Shetland man: "It makes a change from some folk in the Beeb who thought that Shetland was in a box floating off Aberdeen."
Back of the net
Our yarn about sports presenter Dougie Donnelly reminds Wilf O'Malley in Inverness of the time Dougie was interviewing Scottish badminton champion Billy Gilliland at the Sports Personality of the Year Awards. Says Wilf: "Dougie with microphone in hand said, 'Well Billy, are you disappointed when you walk down Sauchiehall Street and nobody recognises you?' "Not really' replied Billy. 'I live in London'."
A weight off
A west end reader tells us her pal was telling friends about how tough she was finding her new fitness regime. She told them: "My personal trainer asked me if I knew that I burned about 70 calories an hour while I was sleeping. I told him, 'Great. Wake me up in 2025'."
Horsing around
We asked for your GP stories, and Hugh Walsh in Dalry tells us: "I wasn't feeling well recently and my wife called the doctor who asked, 'How long have you had these symptoms?' I replied, 'About a week – I didn't want to bother you.' She said, 'People of your generation watched too many John Wayne films'."
Not that hot
The prestigious Wall Street Journal has named Dundee as one of the top ten "Hot destinations" for next year, partly because of the anticipated opening of the V&A Museum of Design. We think though that the new museum may still need a bit of selling locally. Writer Deedee Cuddihy was passing the impressive building on a bus when the boy behind her asked his mum: "What's that museum for?" His mum replied: "I really honestly dinna ken."
Sparks fly
Also next year, the National Library of Scotland is marking the centenary of the birth of renowned Scottish writer Muriel Spark. Muriel was still sharp-tongued in her eighties when she was interviewed by The Herald and remarked about fellow authors: "I do know lots of novels that should have been short stories." She also mentioned the snobbery of Brits who had moved out to Tuscany where she then lived. Remarked Muriel: "They buy a tiny cottage with a long avenue of trees leading up to it as if it's Blenheim Palace."
The teenage years
Bringing up teenagers continued. A Pollokshields reader tells us: "My teenage daughter flounced in and announced, 'I hate all my friends!'. So I told her, 'Did we not have a conversation about you being more positive about things?' and she replied, 'Well, I'm positive I hate all my friends'."
Horror story
Our story about the Brexit pumpkin is challenged by James Miller in Broomhill, Glasgow, who says: "An alternative could be, how to make an EU pumpkin. 1, Britain gives the EU a whole pumpkin. 2, EU says 'Merci' and reciprocates by giving us 3/4 of a pumpkin."
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