Given a hiding

A SIGNIFICANT day on Sunday when the 50th anniversary of the disbanding of that fine Scottish regiment, The Cameronians, will be marked at St Bride's Church in Douglas, South Lanarkshire. We always liked the story told on a First World War website by a Glasgow man of his grandfather in the Cameronians who was wounded in fighting in a French village, and crawled into the cellar of a house where a Madame Baudhin looked after him. She must have been a nice woman as the Germans didn't discover him in the house until two years later.

And the author of a book about the Christmas truce during the war when soldiers played football in No Man's Land said the Cameronians refused to take part. The writer in Kent said: "Basically, the Cameronians were a bunch of bloody-minded Glaswegians. Even though it was Christmas, they were pretty grumpy and saw no reason why they should play football with people who had been trying to kill them the day before.”

Picture this

WE asked for your encounters with famous folk, and a reader reminds us of the old Tartan Army trick when Scotland supporters at an away match spotting a minor celebrity would shout over: "Any chance of a photograph?" When said celeb said yes, a supporter would hand the bemused person their phone or camera and then the fans would stand in front of the celeb waiting for him to take their pic.

Over a barrel

THE things I do for this column ... attended the fifth birthday party this week of the Oran Mor Whisky Club which meets every second Tuesday to sample whiskies. Organiser Kenny Macdonald, who was explaining a fine selection of Highland whiskies from GlenDronach, north of Aberdeen, says the distillery is haunted by the ghost of a Spanish lady who was found in a sherry cask many years ago. Said Kenny: "Staff even claim she is partial to a whisky or two which explains whisky shrinkages. So, if I worked in a distillery, I guess I would invent a ghost as well."

Oh, and one of the members told me his old dad would ask for "two fingers" when you poured him a whisky and would put two fingers around the bottom of the glass he was holding. But as you poured, his fingers would slowly open up like scissors.

Hard to swallow

EXCUSES for being late, continued. A St Andrews reader tells us his dad told him of two brothers who went home from school for their lunch. One of them arrived back late and, when asked why by the teacher, said: "Please Sir, I got the wee spoon the day."

Floored

OUR story about toilet signs leads to reader Russell Smith asking: "Am I alone in thinking 'I don’t want to' every time I see a 'Wet Floor' sign in a toilet and just use the urinal as usual?"

Trumped again

AGAIN we seek clarification as Donald Trump shocks Western leaders by reneging on an agreement that ensured Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. Says a political contact: "As Trump pulls out of deal that everyone agrees was the best possible, with no plan for what to do next, the UK says you’d never catch us doing something so stupid."

Lording it

TALKING of Brexit, reader Larry Cheyne says: "Yesterday The Herald reported that the Government had suffered a defeat over one of its Brexit proposals. Among those who thwarted Mrs May were Baroness Liddell and Lord Alli. Ardent Brexiters who just glanced at the names will fear that German supermarkets have infiltrated the Lords to subvert their pet project."

Getting physical

TSK tsk. An Ayrshire reader tells us a fellow member in his golf club declared the other day: "Newton's lesser-known law of physics – For every male action, there is an equal and opposite female over-reaction."