Talk of the Town: That wasn't a beret good put-down

THE comedy insults were flying among the quick-witted Leithers at Thursday's meeting of the full council.

When Steve Cardownie tried to put down Gordon Munro by branding him a Che Guevara lookalike, Munro - who was known in days gone by to sport a beret - retorted that he was rather flattered by the remark, as the revolutionary was a good-looking man.

That was not the end of it. "My response was that at least I don't look like Benito Mussolini," Munro tells us: "He didn't quite hear it, but Dierdre Brock did, and she laughed."

Don't worry Steve, we doubt if even Mussolini could make the trams run on time.

Everyone knows you can't put a cut-price on culture

EDINBURGH might be the home to the world's biggest arts festival - not to mention Scotland's National Gallery, an International Film Festival and a slew of theatres and music venues - but it seems that just isn't enough to be considered the UK's most cultured city.

A new survey has instead handed that accolade not to London, or even Liverpool - the European City of Culture in 2008 - but to Manchester. In fairness, Manchester does have a growing festival of its own which is beginning to be one of the challengers to the fringe audience.

Perhaps a more understandable reason for the award is that the survey was carried out by website www.myvouchercodes.co.uk and based on the number of cultural-related discounts and voucher codes used in each city.

As any committed patron of the International Festival will attest, culture generally doesn't come with a discount.

Driving away motorists

TEN out of ten to Roseburn Primary School for getting the message across in humorous fashion that motorists idling outside the playground are unwelcome and liable to restrict the vision of youngsters exiting the gates.

States a banner draped along the railings of the school: "Show you care - park elsewhere!"

Filthy student hovels

EVERYONE knows students aren't the most hygenic bunch, and neither are their living quarters.

Now, a new study has sent their reputation plunging further still.

Research by Vileda has found there are more germs on the average kitchen floor of a student house than there are on pub toilet seats.

Alan Edmondson, who helped with the work, said: "Over a whole kitchen floor of average size this would equate to roughly six million bacteria."