A doll and a jacket

CHRISTMAS present time, and a south-side reader tells us his daughter has started a job in the buy-and-collect department of an upmarket Glasgow store. Says the reader: “A politely spoken couple, from a posh Glasgow suburb, came in to pick up a pink Barbie for their daughter. My daughter gushed with delight and told the couple how she used to cut off the hair of her many Barbies and sometimes even decapitated them, much to the concern of her parents.
“The bemused couple then quietly advised my daughter they were in fact in to collect a pink Barbour jacket. Oops.”

Price of online shopping

TALKING of presents, those of you who like to buy online will agree with Aaron Fullerton’s sentiments when he advises: “Before you buy that nice jacket online, ask yourself, ‘Am I willing to delete one extra email every day for the rest of my life?’”

Who is vintage?

GROWING old continued. Glasgow-born Dr Who actor Peter Capaldi told the Radio Times this week: “I’ve got belts older than the actors I’m working with now.”

Acting with menace

ACTOR Peter Vaughan, who played the sinister prisoner Grouty in Ronnie Barker’s Porridge, has died.

A little-known fact is that he attended Celtic’s European Cup final against Feyenoord in Milan in 1970. A Celtic fan once wrote on a fans’ message-board: “In the San Siro we were sitting beside three Dutch supporters who kept letting off they horrible aerosol klaxon horns. My Da was beelin’. Then Peter Vaughan sat beside us wearing a beige mohair coat, and believe it or not a Celtic scarf. The three Dutchmen pressed the klaxons again, and he stood up, (huge man by the way) and said in his gangster- type voice, ‘Do that again and you’ll be blowing them out your backsides’.”

The past in black and white

OUR story about old Govan reminds Angus Mathieson: “A friend told me when she came across some very old photos of her late mother, her four-year-old daughter began to cry. When asked if she was missing her gran, she replied she was, but was more sad that there were no colours when her gran was a wee girl.”

It’s scripture

READER Phyllis Strachan in Milton of Campsie was watching University Challenge the other night involving Jesus College, Cambridge, when quizmaster Jeremy Paxman asked: “These questions are on the Old Testament, Jesus” and she thought there was a bit of a family advantage there.

Warrant wake-up call

LEVENMOUTH Police was channelling pop group Wham on social media this week when it suggested to folk with outstanding warrants: “Last Christmas, we gave you the cells, the very next day was a court holiday. 
This year, to save you from tears, hand yourself in early.”

In his pre-cups

WE mentioned office Christmas parties, and a Partick reader sends us the dubious advice: “Avoid drinking too much at your office Christmas party by drinking too much before the office party.” Not to be recommended, folks.

Stopped in our tracks

OUR debate about what was the great thing before sliced bread reminds reader Alec Ross: “Stephen Fry once asked, when hearing that the first London Underground station was completed in 1863, ‘Where did the 
train go to?’”