Talk of the Town: Oxfam mascot has goat it all for Grubb

But few subjects are as talented as his latest encounter.

After all, how many goats have you met that can stand on two legs and unwrap presents?

That’s what will happen today at the Omni Centre as Councillor George Grubb meets Oxfam mascot Archie the Goat, who stands eight feet tall.

He is here to recognise Edinburgh as the ninth most generous place in the UK when it came to donating to the charity.

And unlike his regular council meetings, Cllr Grubb will be hoping there will be no butting in.

Photo blog on red alert after lost shoe discovery

A NEW photo blog of Edinburgh’s streets has been launched and is well worth a look.

Real Edinburgh, at http://realedinburgh.wordpress.com, attempts to show all that is good – and not so good – about the city.

It celebrates some of Edinburgh’s fine architecture and slams some buildings, like the St James Centre, while also attempting to capture Edinburgh people’s daily lives.

One of the most amusing posts has to be “The Lost Shoe” – a close-up of one woman’s stiletto covered in red spatterings of something unpleasant.

The caption reads: “It does beg a few questions. As in, how was it lost? Did the person who lost it realise? How did it become detached from the wearer? Is that blood or chilli sauce on it?”

What’s it called, Marco?

MARCO Biagi must have swallowed a thesaurus ahead of a recent debate on architecture.

The Edinburgh Central MSP lightened up the usually uninspiring language of politics while urging the Scottish Government to protect Edinburgh’s skyline.

He said he didn’t want the city turning into “some soulless identikit North Atlantic modernist dystopia, reminiscent of a 1960s campus university used as a set for a low-budget sci-fi”.

He could have saved his breath and just said: “Cumbernauld.”

Let us Neil and pray

LOTHIANS Labour MSP Neil Findlay was the goalie in a charity football match between a Scottish Parliament team and a select from the Scottish clergy,

He reports he made some great saves in the first half but the parliament team still lost 3-1. Other players in the match – in aid of Revive MS Scotland – included Jim Murphy MP and Justin Currie, from Del Amitri, who played in the clergy team.