READER Eric Simpson wonders how useful Prince William will be as an air ambulance helicopter pilot after he was interviewed for the press this week and stated that "a job like this really helps me to be grounded."

A SOUTH side reader tells us he was going home on the 4 bus a couple of weeks back when hard rockers AC/DC were playing at Hampden. A chap with thinning hair in a black leather jacket got on behind him in the city centre, sat down beside him and remarked: "I never thought the day would come when I'd be going to see AC/DC with my bus pass."

TALKING of gigs, American rapper 50 Cent is appearing at the Glasgow Hydro in November. We remember on a previous visit to Glasgow the rapper arrived at The Ubiquitous Chip in Ashton Lane where one of his many entourage declared they had to be careful where to seat him as "he doesn't like people looking at him".

Pub lore is that Jim the genial bar manager threw his arm around 50 Cent, guided him to a table and told him: "If you didn't want folk to look at you, you shouldn't have become a big star."

YES, soon be the Edinburgh Festival and its Fringe. Organisers of the Fringe summed it up on social media yesterday: "Downside: it's Monday. Upside: this time in three weeks you'll be drunk on a ferris wheel with a Canadian mime artist."

WESTMINSTER'S youngest MP Mhairi Black is rightly praised for her Maiden Speech the other day. One excitable chap on Twitter burbled yesterday: "Met Mhairi Black in The Garage last night. Probably no the best time to tell her how much of a hero a think she is when am absolutely smashed."

He added: "Actually spent about 10 minutes just telling her a loved her."

The Garage is of course the student club on Sauchiehall Street where almost all students in Glasgow have at least one drunken memory they would like to forget. We're pretty sure that Mhairi is the only serving MP who has been there, other than the ones that have gone in their cars to pick up their weans after a night out. How could you not like her?

THE bowling greens are busy in between the showers just now. Jim Morrison tells us of the intricacies of organising a bowling tie when he phoned his opponent at Inchinnan Bowling Club and was told by the chap: "I'm retired and can play any day next week." Good stuff, thinks Jim before the chap adds: "But I have the hospital on Monday, I'm babysitting Wednesday and Thursday, and we're going away to Rothesay on Friday for the weekend. So how does Tuesday suit you?" Pretty much sums up retired life.

WILLIAM Thomson in Denny tells us: "I was surprised that according to the headline in Herald Sport, Rangers are about to finalise a deal for Wigan Pier. Have things become so dystopian at Ibrox that they are going to open an Orwell theme park to generate extra revenue?

"Oh, no, wait. I have to put my glasses on – Wigan pair."

WE mentioned odd names and a retired minister tells us: "I was once introduced to a Northern Ireland Presbyterian Minister with the words, 'This is the Rev. Eddie Conn and his wife Maud.'"