Forging family firm
ROBERT Jeffrey’s just published book on shipbuilding, Giants of the Clyde, tells of Murray Easton, the son of Yarrow’s chairman Bob Easton, being employed in the yard as a ship manager, and trying to avoid claims of nepotism.
He was installed in a Portacabin as his office, and shortly afterwards some of the yard workers put a sign over the door, recalling a favourite hit of the time. The sign stated “The House of the Rising Son”.

Stairway to heaven
OUR tales of the late Rev James Currie’s storytelling remind Brian Donohoe: “One of the best I heard my friend James tell was about getting into Heaven and having to climb the stairs to the Pearly Gates where there was a blackboard to write down your sins on Earth.
“A wee guy was going back down the stairs and when asked where he was going said, ‘I’m going for more chalk’.”

You’ll have had your teacakes
WE are always intrigued about the differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and learn a new one from the armed forces charity SSAFA, which is holding its Big Brew Up next month when folk hold tea parties to raise funds for service personnel families in need.
It has surveyed what people dunk in their tea, and in Edinburgh teacakes make the top 10. In Glasgow, nothing that posh makes the list. Instead the Glasgow list includes something not mentioned in Edinburgh – crisps.

Right lines
READER Brian Chrystal says: “I read in the paper that Iain Doherty, formerly of Transport Scotland, has criticised Network Rail’s track record. What other kind of record could a railway company have?”

Lost in the ether
WE’VE mentioned the pitfalls of internet dating before, and a Shawlands reader tells us her pal put on her profile she was a Catholic. Some chap replied, asking: “How long have you been addicted to cats?”

Maggie might not like it
THAT great Trongate music pub Maggie May’s has been relaunched after a £400,000 refurbishment by new owners Stephen White and Oli Norman. A fan of Rod Stewart, who wrote the song Maggie May, told us: “If I ever bump into Rod I’m going to tell him that ‘The morning sun when it’s in your face, really shows your age’ is not a great chat-up line.”

Too smart
SCHOOL’S almost finished for the year and it cannot come quick enough for a Glasgow primary teacher who tells us: “Among the arithmetic question I set my class was, ‘It is 5.45pm and you are meeting someone at 6.15pm, how long do you have to wait?’ One of the pupils wrote, ‘Not long’.”

Age-old problem
A READER heard a chap in the pub declare: “When I was a kid, I thought 50 was really really old. And now I’m 50 I’ve discovered I was right.”

Air today, gone tomorrow
I TRY to look busy, but a colleague still feels the need to come over and interrupt me. When I finally ask him what’s happening, he tells me: “The wife has left me because I told her she was a rubbish pilot. I can’t believe she took off like that.”