ONE of the many successes of the Games has been the entertainment zone at Glasgow Green, though the need to have bags checked by security does lead to queues.
One family of tourists were queueing the other day when the wee boy in the party told his mother that he could put his head through the metal fence they were standing beside. Immediately the wee Glasgow wummin in front of them turned round and chided him: "Don't you dare. Your mammy disnae need that on a day like this." Suitably chastened, the wee lad behaved himself.
Capital offence
GREAT to see so many visitors in the city. An English couple at the Games were taking a taxi back to their hotel when the driver asked them: "So what do you think of Glasgow?" As their only other visit to Scotland had been to the Edinburgh Festival, when the streets were also full of happy tourists, they told him, 'It's just like Edinburgh'."
"Better not say that too loudly," he cautioned them.
Waved off
THE athletics are finally under starter's orders at Hampden, but booing was heard in the stadium on the first night. Had the crowds turned ugly towards an English competitor? No, it was simply that the crowd was doing a Mexican wave and they were booing a small section where the folk weren't taking part.
They soon got the message and the wave continued on its journey to much cheering.
Wealthy minds
GLASGOW businesses have been warned not to use the Commonwealth Games in their advertising unless they have paid a fee, so some have become a bit creative. The great Pot Still pub in the city centre had a board outside yesterday which declared: "Common in. There is a wealth of whisky and beer." The words "Common" and "wealth" are in capitals twice the size of the rest of the chalked message.
Coffee up
SO what have the sports journalists been up to during the Games? A Clyde-sider, the title for the volunteers at the Games, was on duty at the dignitaries' lounge at Ibrox for the rugby sevens when a journalist tried to slip in to get a free cup of coffee. When the Clydesider gently told him he did not have the right accreditation, the journalist said he was only getting the coffee for venerable rugby commentator Bill McLaren.
Fortunately the Clydesider was a rugby fan and knew that Bill was no longer with us - so coffee denied.
Pitch battle
TALKING of the rugby, Garry McNulty tells us: "Waiting in the Subway queue after the rugby at Ibrox, I heard a rugby fan declare: 'Between the opening ceremony at Parkhead and the rugby sevens at Ibrox, how long will it be before we see great entertainment like that again at both these stadiums?'"
Need a hand?
VOLUNTEERS in the city have giant foam hands to help point folk in the right direction. Charlie Neill in Pollokshields swears he heard one official describe them as the "physical representation of a digital directional equipment item".
Status symbol
WE mentioned the BBC captioning the south side park as Bella Houston. Inevitably it encourages readers to remind us of the classic - very old, that is - tale of the woman at Glasgow Queen Street station asking at the ticket office: "Maryhill, single." So the chap behind her put his cash down and said: "Alex Smith. Married."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article