Potter profit
GRANT McConnell’s 12-year-old son isn’t a great reader, but he was desperate to buy a Harry Potter book after being told copies were going for £30,000 plus. When the youngster discovered only first editions are worth that much, he switched back to computer games, his first and only love. “I told him the experience of reading is valuable in itself,” says Grant. “He just shrugged his shoulders and said that’s not the kind of value he can put in his piggy bank.”
Still rock solid
OUR tale about Lulu making a lulu of a mistake while on stage chatting to her audience reminds reader James McGovern of some rough and tumble repartee from rock’s ultimate survivor, Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones guitarist took to the stage in America some years back and shouted, “How ya doin? It’s great to be here in New York! In fact, the life I’ve lived, it’s great to be anywhere!”
Marketing mystery
THE Glasgow Hilton has launched a partnership with local rugby club the Glasgow Warriors. To celebrate this illustrious link-up between posh hotel and pummelling hellraisers, the Hilton commissioned a set of huge rugby goalposts, designed to look exactly like the ‘H’ from the Hilton logo. While shooting videos and photos directly in front of the 20-storey hotel, one Hilton employee overheard a passing woman mutter to her pal: “I wonder what the H stands for?” Bemused Glasgow populace: 1. Savvy marketing gurus: Nil.
Cracked concentration
A HERALD columnist’s confession that she struggles to finish books because the Internet broke her attention span is something Rhona Hill has also experienced. She recently bought a collection of haikus (teeny-tiny three-line poems, for the uninitiated). “After one line I found myself grumbling: ‘Get to the point!’” Rhona sighs. As long as she can still complete the Herald diary, that’s all that matters. We remain the only essential reading for any self-respecting literature addict.
Special powers
WITH the release of blockbuster movies, Joker and It, clowns have been getting bad press of late. Reader Iain Lindsay’s young daughter still loves the wacky pranksters. Spotting an inebriated fellow in Glasgow city centre with pale face and red, swollen nose, she excitedly said he looked like the clown at her recent birthday party, and wondered if he could perform magic tricks. Dad replied: “He certainly seems to have made the contents of that Special Brew can vanish in a trice.”
Jazzy Jock
ANOTHER example of a celebrity with a flimsy attachment to Scotland. Paul Boyle suggests we include that keyboard maestro of the Jazz Age, Duke Eglinton.
Food for thought
JOKE time. Colin Clarke tells us he was on a plane recently where the lunch choices were white-meat chicken or German sausage. Sadly Colin was seated in the last row to order. Which left him hoping for the breast, but preparing for the wurst.
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