PLAUDITS for The Scotsman’s Stephen Halliday. The sportswriter penned a column a while back, about a footballer from 100 years ago, and – according to his colleague, Alan Pattullo – a great wrong was righted when Bobby Walker was, the other day, inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
Wrote Halliday, in September, Walker’s absence from the roll of honour was “the equivalent of Benny Lynch being left out of the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame”.
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STAYING with Scottish football and its hall of fame, Hugh MacDonald, chief sports writer on The Herald, began his Saturday column by referencing it.
He kicked off: “Strange week. Drove an inebriated Press man home from the Scottish Hall of Fame dinner and all I got was a peck on the cheek. He had brought his budgie.
“We both had listened to Joe Jordan, a Scottish striker who had scored in three World Cup finals, telling how he had phoned the then national manager, Jock Stein, seeking assurances that leaving Manchester United would not affect his international chances. He was signing for AC Milan.
“O tempora! O mores! As we said in the Possil as they updated the fruit machine in the pub.”
No, we haven’t got a clue, either. But somehow it is still brilliant stuff (confession: we love Hugh MacDonald).
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THE violent scenes involving Celtic FC fans when they were in Amsterdam a fortnight ago, for a Champions League football match versus Ajax, were played out extensively across the Scottish media.
The consensus was that the Celtic fans were more victims rather than perpetrators.
But politicos will be intrigued by how a claim, in the Irish Post, that the Scottish media “seemed too ready to swallow what Dutch police were feeding them” could arrive at the following conclusion: “The way the Scottish media reported the violent events that occurred in Amsterdam before and after Celtic’s game with Ajax in the Champions League has left me wondering what an independent Scotland will be like.”
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MEANWHILE, a report that the Unite trade union is hoping to redevelop a property site in Glasgow into a hotel, handed the headline writers at The Herald with the opportunity to ask, Reds under the bed?
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AS ever, grateful to Ken Smith’s diary in The Herald, this time for: “Change at Radio Scotland where Iain Anderson’s late-night show has been extended to 1am. Iain himself got a bit mixed up when he announced on air that the show would be on until ‘1300 hours’. He later corrected himself and pointed out that if he was on until 1300 hours there would be no Good Morning Scotland, Call Kaye or Fred MacAulay. He didn’t expect the listener who emailed: ‘ Not a bad idea.'”
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AND thanks again, to the diary, for this: “Media trainer, Charles Fletcher, was helping a journalism student at Glasgow Clyde College’s radio station where he got an interviewee on line, and, before handing her over to the student presenter, asked the customary question all radio stations do to check sound levels: ‘What did you have for breakfast?’
“There was silence on the line, so Charles tried to encourage her: ‘You can just make something up if you haven’t eaten today,’ and eventually the girl blurted out: ‘Toast.’
“Satisfied, Charles handed her over to the presenter who began the interview: ‘Thanks for joining us today. Now, eating disorders and your personal experience.'”
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