Fear unleashed
ANOTHER flight of fancy from reader Doug Maughan, who continues to recall his adventurous career as a pilot. Doug tells us that planes used to make brief refuelling stops on long journeys. On one occasion a blind man and his dog were in the cabin, which is entirely legal.
The captain decided to take the dog for a short walk while the aircraft was being refuelled. Which was kind of him. Though you can imagine the consternation amongst passengers with a window seat, who spied their pilot wearing dark glasses while walking round the aircraft clutching the harness of a guide dog…
Wondrous waistcoat
LINE of Duty, starring Greenock thespian Martin Compston, has been the smash hit of the TV season. National Museums Scotland were most impressed with Martin’s performance, and on social media they admit that they would rather like to display one of the iconic waistcoats he wore with such aplomb on the show.
And here was the Diary assuming that museums could only display ancient artifacts, such as brontosaurus bones. Or the original school blazer worn by wee Jimmy Krankie.
Place settings
GLOBE-TROTTING John Dunlop once gave a talk about Scotland to his grandson’s nursery class in New York State. Our reader asked the youngsters if any of their grandparents came from another country. One little hand shot into the air, and an eager voice yelled: “My Grandpa is from Minnesota!”
(PS: And, yes, of course all the children’s mums thought our correspondent was Irish.)
Dust screen
DO we live in a world of safety-swaddling, mollycoddling mums and dads, wonders Perth comedian Joe Heenan? “I gave my 10-year-old son a big row for not wearing his helmet when he was out riding his bike,” says Joe. “Then I remembered when I was his age I would spend all day with my mates playing in a disused, crumbling asbestos factory.”
Racy thought
PHILOSOPHICAL reader Joanna Brett says: “The moral of the Tortoise and the Hare is not ‘slow and steady wins the race’. It’s ‘big-eared carrot addict shouldn’t blow his lead by showing off’.”
Global game
THE chaotic scenes in Manchester at the weekend were unacceptable, believes reader Bob Jamieson, who adds: “The actions of a few hundred Man United fans ruined the match for the 700 million proper supporters in Asia.”
Food for thought
DAFT comment of the day is supplied by reader Rab Fulton. “I used to wonder if Elton John liked lettuce,” he says. “Then I realised he was a rocket man.”
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 here