RAP star Eminem was appearing at Bellahouston Park this week, bringing out Glasgow's wannabe tough guys.

A former colleague tells us he saw two mates meeting at the Subway station to go to the concert with one telling the other: "You're supposed to be a street gangsta. Get rid of the brolly."

No tonic?

RON Grosset was leaving Opera Bohemia's Edinburgh Fringe production of the Russian opera Eugene Onegin - it's on in Glasgow this Saturday - when amongst the delighted audience shuffling to the exit he heard a voice exclaim: "Enjoyed that - but not what I expected. I thought it was called Eugene One Gin".

Left out

AS ithers see us. Foster Evans sends us a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times where writer Mona Charen visited the Edinburgh Fringe and reported: "The Fringe is a festival of performances, and just based on the descriptions available, many of the offerings were repellent.

"This is not to single out the Scots. The leftist tripe and cultural waste they're enjoying is available in every western capital. The difference is that the relentless leftism goes almost entirely unrebutted there."

We like the reader who added the comment on the newspaper's website: "I bet you are absolutely no fun at parties."

Copycat dogs

ON a cheerier note, Evelyn Hogarth in Glasgow was delighted last week when her daughter gave birth to her second son and called him Sonny - a brother for Bo. So imagine her surprise when President Obama, just days later, bought a second puppy to be a friend to his first dog Bo, and called him Sunny.

It sounds quite a coincidence - unless the President was bugging her phone calls of course, and liked the name.

Love byte

A PARTICK reader says she received an email from a girlfriend who had finally decided to try an internet dating company and was now going steady with the chap she met within days of joining. Our reader thought it was rather witty that her friend wrote: "So you could say it was love at first site."

Crisis management

TALKING about clever wordplay, Leo Kearse and Darren Walsh deliver an hour of improvised punning battles in the Fringe show Atella the Pun at the Three Sisters. Give us an example, we asked Leo, and he told us: "My girlfriend was taking ages to get ready. I shouted up the stairs: 'What's taking so long?' She shouted back: 'Make-up crisis!' So I shouted 'Scotland's invaded Iran!'"

Brought to book?

FOR some reason, the story about the Rangers player accused of betting on football matches - it's not allowed for players - reminds a reader: "Did you hear about the arsonist who was not allowed to play for the prison football team? They were worried he might throw some matches."

Blanket coverage

GROWING old, continued. A chap at his Glasgow golf club heard a fellow member declare: "I'm now at the stage where the phrase 'good in bed' means I don't snore or hog all the covers."

Bitter sweet ...

JOB interviews continue to be tricky things for young folk after leaving school or university. A reader heard one young girl on the bus tell her pal: "Then they asked me what my weaknesses are. I told them 'Aeros and Yum-yums' but now I'm thinking that's not the answer they were looking for."