APRIL Fools’ jokes everywhere, including a round-up in The Guardian, in The Drum, on the front page of The Herald, etc, etc.
Oh, and in allmediascotland.com. Did you spot it?
But we have an inkling that this newspaper billboard – spotted outside a newsagent’s in Dundee last Tuesday – was penned in all seriousness: ‘Drunken police chase driver in court’.
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THE internet might make it possible for anyone in the world to listen to Edinburg-based Radio Forth presenter, Grant Stott.
But his voice was being heard in plain old analogue broadcasting in none other than Perth, Australia, last week.
He last week was lending his support to local station, 92.9, which was running a competition, giving away a trip to Edinburgh.
Maybe next time, he hopes, 92.9 will ask him to present the links in person, as opposed to simply recording them here in Scotland and pinging them down a line.
Tune in, here.
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Begins Ian Stewart, editor of The Scotsman, among the tributes to the late Margo MacDonald: “Many people have a favourite Margo story. I have two.”
And his first – in the immediate wake of his appointment as editor of sister title, the Edinburgh Evening News, is as follows: “In my first week in the job, I attended a charity Burns supper that Margo had organised.
“As I sat among the hundreds of guests at the black-tie do, Margo addressed the room. To my surprise and alarm, she mentioned me and the paper in very glowing terms as a sponsor (although Margo was absolutely the driving force). She then asked me to stand up for a round of applause.
“It was nice – but a little out of the ordinary. It took me weeks to realise why she had done it. She knew I was present, felt she should talk to me, but had no idea of what I looked like. This was her very direct and pragmatic way of finding out. Wily, and typical of her.”
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THANKS to The Herald diary, for this. It’s Russell Leadbetter who’s penning it this week, its usual custodian, Ken Smith, obviously taking a well-deserved break: “Life isn’t always easy for rock and pop music writers.
“Our esteemed colleague Jonathan Geddes set up a telephone interview with a member of a well-known 1970s rock band. He did his homework, researching the group’s history, before ringing the hotel in Miami where the rock star could be contacted.
“Unfortunately, the interview never happened. The musician failed to realise that he’d left his phone off the hook, which meant that all Jonathan got for his transatlantic efforts was the engaged signal.”
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