Little Jottings
Scots top the table for smiles
Published 27 August 2008
A FEW months ago in the E&L Stuart Tedham wrote a history of the silent films in Langholm.
Right guid apart from the herrin’
Published 13 August 2008
LAST week Hawick’s local paper had an article on this year’s Langholm Common Riding.
Drinkers go full steam to the bar
Published 6 August 2008
I’VE often wondered how the term “steamin” came to mean “drunk”. I certainly didn’t envisage finding out through visiting an art gallery in Edinburgh at the weekend.
Common Riding one of the best
Published 30 July 2008
STARTING off the jottings after the Common Riding of 1948 were these words: “Appropriately enough the first jotting should be a vote of thanks to the clerk of the weather for such a marvellous day.”
How would you like your jottings?
Published 23 July 2008
WHERE does he find them? This was the question echoing round the British Legion clubrooms last Friday night as everyone listened in disbelief as chairman Dave McVittie fired what seemed like a limitless fund of jokes at his audience.
Credit crunch? Go on, rub it in
Published 9 July 2008
SEVERAL times I have been asked who is giving the MacDiarmid lecture next month.
Old letters reveal slave trade shame
Published 2 July 2008
LETTERS, which have been in the possession of a Langholm family for more than 200 years, are now providing a unique insight into part of Scotland’s history and even wider British history.AS WE embark on the month that culminates in our Common Riding, thoughts are already turning towards Langholm’s great day.
Literary Linda
Published 25 June 2008
IN The Scotsman on Saturday there appeared a photo of a writer familiar to Langholm teachers and schoolchildren.
Gavin’s top tips at The Scotsman
Published 4 June 2008
EACH Wednesday The Scotsman newspaper publishes a ‘Recommends’ supplement which it claims “gives the reader an insight into the best, the weirdest and the most wonderful of places – from hidden shopping gems to the best place to get a fish supper”.
Is English on the menu, please?
Published 28 May 2008
NEXT time I’m in Edinburgh I must pay a visit to a certain Indian restaurant, if only to view the menu offered in Scots.
Seeking oot the latest authors
Published 21 May 2008
HOW I wish I’d been studying English at school today instead of almost 60 years ago.
Native bluebells are under threat
Published 14 May 2008
“WHERE have all the flowers gone?” sings American folk legend Joan Baez on one of my 60s albums.
When thoughts turn to home
Published 9 May 2008
COMING off Whita at the weekend, I made a diversion to see the state of play of the tadpole population at the Copshaw Road quarry.
Scots language returns to class
Published 8 May 2008
WHEN I was in the Academy the other day, I was delighted to see that the English department had been encouraging the pupils to use the Scots language.
Pipe down for the bureaucrats!
Published 30 April 2008
HAS bureaucracy gone mad? Will EU legislation dumb down the skirl of our Scottish bagpipes?
Can’t we have a Tartan Day too?
Published 16 April 2008
TARTAN Day has been and gone – not that you’d have noticed it.
Dispute goes on
Published 9 April 2008
LANGHOLM is very much to the fore in the current issue (April/May) of DGB Life, the magazine for Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders.
Stone plotters drank the kitty
Published 26 March 2008
AS I drove up through the Borders towards Edinburgh one day last week, I couldn’t help but notice how devoid of litter the verges of the A7 were all through the region.
Our class acts are a jet-setting lot
Published 19 March 2008
I’VE commented before on the class acts we’ve been privileged to see and hear at our own Buccleuch Centre, performers who are appreciated by a nationwide audience.
Result even better with a Border team
Published 12 March 2008
I WASN’T going to watch the Scotland v England rugby international on TV on Saturday. I thought I couldn’t put myself through the agony of another ignominious defeat.
